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President’s week is upon us and
we are off to Washington DC and the AIA’s national
Leadership and Legislative conference. Images of
the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial
instill a sense of pride and dignity in our system
of government and those two great leaders. Less
familiar leaders are Orlando, Varanouskas, D’Amore,
Noskin, Mclean, Tancredi, Davidson and Sullivan.
These are former board members of your chapter whose
service and leadership helped them advanced to
become the recent presidents of the board of
directors. Some of these leaders have continued
to serve AIA at the state level. John Sullivan,
FAIA, (pp 1992) went on to become president of
AIANYS and has now volunteered to be AIANYS’s
champion for the AIA150 program. Dennis Noskin,
AIA is our Westchester/Mid Hudson AIA150 champion,
and Russ Davidson, AIA will be president of our
statewide chapter while we celebrate our
sesquicentennial in 2007. Your chapter works
because of the pride, dignity, time and commitment
of these leaders. Next time you see them- Thank
them.
You may have read my article
last fall facetiously titled, “Architect Saves the
Planet”. AIA 150 intends to give us all the tools
to literally Save our Communities. The celebration
of 150 years of AIA helping clients and communities
build a better world will include a series of
programs and events to improve the role of
architects in our communities to the benefit of all.
Grassroots is the name of our national lobbying
effort. One of the top issues for our national
agenda this year is the Small Business/Association
Health Insurance bill. The AIA supports legislation
to provide access and choice for members of trade
and professional associations to purchase health
care insurance for their employees. Such plans
(association health plans or AHPs) would allow AIA
members to purchase health insurance at advantageous
group rates and with an exclusion from certain state
mandates on the coverages that must be offered. The
House of Representatives passed H.R. 525 in 2005.
Its counterpart, S. 406, is pending in the Senate.
Call or email your Senators and Representatives and
ask them to co sponsor the bill if they haven’t
already done so.
Upcoming chapter events include an ADA update, a
green design presentation for residential projects
and our always popular Design and Technology
Exposition. If you have any vendors or consultants
you think should be there direct them to our website
or contact our chapter office.
Hope to see you soon at our next exciting event. |
