This is the time of year when members decide if paying their AIA dues is a good investment. Component offices across the nation are receiving letters from members seeking evidence that what we do actually touches them in some way.
Receiving these inquiries is both enlightening and sometimes painful. Enlightening in that it gives us pause to evaluate the effectiveness of our programs; painful because by questioning the value of AIA membership, there’s the implication (not always unspoken!) that despite all our efforts, what we do is not relevant. Yet that’s not been my own experience.
Early in my career, when I was working for the California licensing board, I witnessed the AIA’s influence in establishing accreditation standards, defining internship, and developing the uniform licensing examinations. Practicing in a seismically active state, the profession helped develop and administer a supplemental examination concerning lateral forces. It made a difference.
Leaving public service to join AIA California Council, my experiences in advocacy on behalf of the profession began in earnest. Routinely monitoring activities of regulatory agencies, we participated in and influenced public procurement, public contracts, project delivery, and the promulgation of the state building code.
All state AIA components struggle almost daily with government intervention into design and construction. Whether it’s successful legislative initiatives such as lien rights in the absence of construction; removing liability of architects for change orders not approved by the architect; interest payments on retained payments; uniformity of exemptions among the architects and engineers practice acts designed to mitigate unlicensed practice; acceptable indemnification clauses; design competitions, or a multitude of other signed or vetoed legislation that in one way or another impacted the practice of architecture. All these challenges are successfully responded to because and only because of the collective effort of AIA components, leaders, and members.
I remember how AIACC galvanized the entire nation of design and construction organizations and their members to defeat a precedent-setting California ballot initiative that would have precluded private sector architects from doing public work at the state and local levels. California is not an exception. There are countless other conversations and actions being taken by AIA components across the country to keep harmful initiatives from being promulgated or introduced in state legislatures, county boards of supervisors, or city councils.
If there is any glaring shortcoming, it’s that this good work is not being sufficiently discussed, documented, or communicated to the members. In large part that happens because we’re busy dealing with the next challenge and the next one immediately after that.
The positive impact or value-added of the AIA goes far beyond legislative issues. Following the earthquakes and firestorms that periodically ravage my state, national, state, and local AIA components have activated disaster assistance teams to Coalinga, California; the San Francisco Bay Area; greater Los Angeles; and San Diego. AIA teams have been dispatched to Armenia, Japan, and Mexico City. Architects can do this because the AIA provides a platform or forum for the spirit of community involvement that is one of the profession’s most enduring legacies.
We, who have been given the responsibility and privilege of leadership, have a choice: We can see our service as squandered opportunities; or we can see that our careers, which are the sum of contributions from thousands of people and hundreds of issues, have made a difference in the lives of our members. I think I’ll choose the latter.
I know I’m biased, but I prefer to think of the AIA as a creative and energizing collective of relationships designed to advance the practice of architecture and be of increasing service to society. I would like to look at my journey over the past 30 years as having made a difference.
Yes, at times we get wound up in the politics of the moment and the challenges of managing the infrastructure of member services and delivery. However, on a daily basis, we do things, one step at a time, that help members, firms, and the communities we serve. Having been given that privilege by the members is what keeps us going.
I know our passion for architects and architecture is such that we will continue to do these things. All architects will benefit whether they are members are not. For those who do contribute to the vitality of this wonderful profession through their membership, thank you.
No one would argue the AIA is perfect. Yet can any architect honestly say the profession would be better or our own lives richer without it?
Paul W. Welch, Jr., Hon. AIA, has served as Executive Vice President of the AIA California Council since 1981. He returned to his position at AIACC this spring after a year as the Interim VP/ CEO of the American Institute of Architects’ National Headquarters in Washington, DC. He may be reached at pwelch@aiacc.org. This article is from Paul’s blog, January 17, 2011.
Originally published 1st quarter 2011, in arcCA 11.1, “Valuing the AIA.”
