AIA Ohio Grassroots Planning Session

I spent the day with the AIA Ohio Board and the leadership of each of the local components in our state. Representing AIA Columbus, I was joined by Tim Hawk, our president-elect; Gwen Berlekamp, our executive director of two weeks; Chris Brim, our AIA Ohio delegate; and Steve Shinn, AIA Ohio treasurer. Karen or K.C. Harrison from the national component led the discussion of the national strategic plan and the environmental scan presentation, which examined trends that affect the profession. K.C. agreed to meet with our AIA Columbus Strategic Planning Task Force tomorrow morning.

What was interesting was the way each of the three break-out groups came to very similar conclusions. The common themes that we wanted AIA Ohio to tackle include sposoring seminars on leadership and media training, changing the bylaws to remove the prohibition against endorsing political candidates, taking on public relations on a statewide level, etc. The state component is being asked to take on issues and programs that many of the local components cannot. AIA Columbus has the staff and financial resources to do many things an unstaffed component cannot. Another concept we discussed was pairing a staffed component with an unstaffed component. Paul Hollenbeck, president-elect of AIA Ohio, quoted one of the speakers at national grassroots, Frances Hesselbein, who said; "The best way to manage change is to be the change."

After the planning session, we attended a reception in the statehouse rotunda hosted by our own Carole J. Olshavsky, FAIA, 2008 chancellor of the AIA College of Fellows. She held a meeting of the COF executive committee and we were privileged to network with them and Fellows from around the state. The venue for the event was very appropriate since Carole led the renovation of the statehouse while she was State Architect. Carole made the comment to her executive committee who came from Los Angelos, Chicago, and Minneaplis, that Columbus was also a destination city. This comment was met with a round of applause. See you soon.