The Government Advocacy Committee continues to meet monthly via Microsoft Teams conferences to discuss issues affecting the architecture profession across Wyoming and at the national level. The goals of the committee are to introduce, monitor, and influence legislative and regulatory issues and to educate and engage our AIA Wyoming members.

Our committee lost a member this year as Colleen Nelson, AIA, accepted a position on the Wyoming Board of Architects and Landscape Architects (WBALA). Because of this position, she now has a conflict of interest in this committee’s work. The committee is still operating without a formal chairperson, and Dale Buckingham (liaison to the Board) has been acting chairperson for the past couple of years.

This year, while many issues were discussed, only one item – a request from the Wyoming Board of Architects and Landscape Architects to make changes to the Practice Act – required in-depth focus of the committee to coordinate comments on the text of the proposed changes. As of the date of the AIA Wyoming Annual Fall Conference in Sheridan, the proposed text was voted to be acceptable by all of the members present for this vote.

The committee’s main focus typically is the Wyoming legislative session, which was a “budget” session in 2022. The “budget” sessions typically have fewer legislative items for the committee to follow and engage in. The upcoming 2023 Wyoming legislative session will be a “general” session. The committee is gearing up for support and tracking of the proposed Practice Act changes, as well as other items that may be presented before and during the session.