Traveling around the state of Wyoming recently, I am struck by the amount of activity in nearly every community. Each city and town in our great state has a busy season … Laramie when UW is in session, Cody and Jackson when the Parks are open, Cheyenne when the legislators are in town and Casper when they host high school tournaments. Yet, I find that there is much activity even in the “off-season.” Even in my hometown of Sheridan, the traffic on the streets and the construction activities are reminiscent of the boom days of the past. This is despite higher interest rates and cautious investors. As architects, we are in a great position to help guide the development and growth of our communities, counties and the state. AIA Wyoming is also growing to support our profession and the needs of our members, providing resources and training to respond to the increasing need for solid design solutions in Wyoming and beyond.
The award-winning publication you hold in your hand or read online is one of the resources AIA Wyoming provides to promote the great architects and architecture of our membership. Please take some time to read the details of the events and activities of our chapter in 2023. Compared to other AIA Chapters around the nation, we are small in number but tout a much higher rate of participation of our members. It is the active involvement of our members that gives our chapter the ability to have an impact in our communities and even at the national level.
In February, our Executive Director, Susan Menghini, and I attended the AIA Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C., and had the opportunity to meet the new leaders at the national level as well as many board members from other chapters from Hawaii to Virginia. The face-to-face conversations and seminars were valuable as I listened to many fellow architects express the same challenges and pressures that we face in Wyoming and how they are working through those issues. Topics such as engaging emerging professionals, the advent of AI in our profession and protecting the integrity and creativity of our profession were the fodder of most of our conversations. By the end of the conference, I was highly encouraged that our chapter is at the forefront of many of these issues and has already addressed or is addressing many issues that other chapters are just not diving into.
The AIA Conference on Architecture, held in San Francisco this year, was attended by our President-Elect, Mitch Blake, AIA. Please take some time to read Mitch’s article about the conference and AIA Wyoming’s involvement on pages 20-21. The conference in 2024 will be held in Washington, D.C. For those looking to attend the event in June, I encourage you to register early. Classes and tours fill up quickly.
Closer to home, we hosted a Spring Conference in Cody and an Annual Fall Conference and Design and Honor Awards Program in Casper in 2023. Both conferences were well attended and provided a broad spectrum of topics for continuing education for our membership. Details and photos of the conferences are included on pages 26-29. Congratulations to our 2023 Design and Honor Award winners.
For those who need a refresher, AIA Wyoming works at the grassroots level of our profession through four committees (products of our Strategic Plan) whose names define their activities: Membership Development, Education and Resources, Public Awareness and Government Advocacy. Over the past couple of years, our Government Advocacy committee has been working with the Wyoming Board of Architects and Landscape Architects (WBALA) on legislation known as the “Practice Act Amendments” to provide increased opportunities for emerging professionals to gain licensure in our state, which does not have a School of Architecture. With the help of our committee and several key AIA Wyoming members, including State Senator Stephan Pappas, AIA Emeritus, the legislation passed. Currently, AIA Wyoming has a task force in place to work with the WBALA on rulemaking. This is good news for our state, and when the new rules are in place, we should see greater retention of young architects in Wyoming.
As I look back over 2023 and my first year as Chapter President, I am truly grateful for the opportunity to work alongside amazing people who genuinely believe that, as design professionals, we make an everyday difference in our respective communities and state. Yes, we often compete against each other for projects, but we do our best in community with each other, sharing ideas and encouraging one another. So, for AIA members reading this, I admonish you not to be an island out there trying to make it on your own. AIA Wyoming is here to support you and your profession as we continue to move into exciting times in the design and construction industries.
I am looking forward to the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead of us!
