Happy 2020! I hope that your year is off to a great start!
I’m very excited about serving as your AIA Virginia president this year. I look forward to working closely with our EVP, Corey Clayborne, his stellar staff of Rhea, Cathy, Keesha, and Judy, and my fellow Board members to accomplish many things in 2020.
I’ve been active in the AIA since I joined in 1991 and am co-founder and principal at Reader & Swartz Architects in Winchester.
Some of the items I’m looking forward to us accomplishing, as a team, in the key areas of governance, education, outreach, advocacy, and member services are:
- Adopting our Strategic Plan in early 2020. Our new Strategic Plan will act as our roadmap and will guide our Board of Director’s and staff’s work over the next three years.
- Hosting our always thought-provoking, biennial Design Forum, which is one of my favorite AIA Virginia events. This year’s forum will be held in March in Richmond and will feature Steven Holl as our keynote speaker. Registration is now open!
- Exploring ways to invigorate and improve our members’ annual Architecture Exchange East experiences. We are always working to enhance the value of this signature event, so if you have any suggestions please send them my way.
- Launching a digital Inform magazine. It’s been several years since we published a hard copy of Inform, and I’ve missed keeping up with all of the beautiful projects being built around the Commonwealth.
- Investing in the future of our young professionals by helping our Associate members gain access to ARE prep materials.
- Advocating for the establishment of a statute of limitations for state projects.
- Strengthening our connections to AIAS in our universities.
- Exploring the creation of a new Virginia chapter of NOMA.
Again, I am looking forward to working with the team and our members on these and many more items. If you’d like to share your input, feel free to reach out to me at beth@readerswartz.com
Wishing everyone a happy, healthy, and professionally fulfilling 2020!
Beth