PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE - APRIL 2011
Since taking on the role of State President of the Institute at the beginning of March, I have been pleased to receive messages of congratulations and offers of support from many members. Encouragingly, many members have expressed genuine interest in the activities of the Institute and have indicated a willingness to participate in the ongoing development of our organization. This is a good sign for my focus for the first part of my 2 year term as State President - that is to engage the membership more directly in the strategic development, organization and execution of the activities undertaken by the Institute here in WA.
We are very fortunate in WA to have excellent staff to support the goals of our Institute and it’s members. Meino, Kim and Voula do a fantastic job representing the Institute, managing day to day business, coordinating our committees and organizing our events. They do everything we ask of them, and more. But it is not their Institute - it is ours. We, the members, own the Institute and we need to take responsibility for its ongoing strategic development and subsequent activities. As with all member based organizations, the output for members is only as good as the input from members. So if you think things at the Institute can be done differently, or better, don’t just comment to your friends about it, get involved and help make a difference.
You may ask why is my focus on member engagement when there is so much work to be done in promoting the importance of design to the community, advocating the interests of the profession to government, property groups and contractor organizations, and participating in public dialogue regarding significant public infrastructure projects? The Institute has over 11,000 members nationally, with about 1,000 members in Western Australia. That represents a great resource - largely untapped. Whilst continuing to address our outreach objectives as best we can, my intention is to develop our organizational structure and to leverage the input of our members in order to maximize the extent and effectiveness of the activities we pursue in the future.
It is early days, but already we are identifying key Institute activities where we will be engaging more direct member input into planning and execution of our future programmes. These include our Awards programme, Architecture Week and Member Communications (including this magazine). If you want to participate directly in these or other activities of the Institute, or you have ideas you wish to share, then we look forward to hearing from you. Together, we can continue to develop the effectiveness of our Institute so that ultimately we can make a meaningful contribution to improving our community through architecture.
One such member that has for many years been highly engaged with the Institute is our immediate past state president, Rod Mollett. On behalf of all members, I wish to congratulate and thank Rod for his outstanding contribution to the Profession thorough his roles with The Architects’ Board, the Architects Accreditation Council of Australia, and of course the Institute - in particular for the last 4 years as State President. In his time as State President, Rod has ably represented WA members in lobbying government regarding:
·Development Assessment Panels:
·Residential Design Codes;
·the Multi Unit Housing Code;
·Cathedral Square;
·the Urban Design Framework;
·Strategic Planning and Governance of the Capital City;
·the Central Metropolitan Perth Sub Regional Strategy;
·the Outer Metropolitan Perth and Peel Sub Regional Strategy;
as well as being instrumental in getting Thom Mayne to Perth and pushing for further international speakers to visit WA. Rod’s efforts on National Council and National Executive have contributed to beneficial changes for the WA Chapter. I look forward to continuing to work with Rod on Chapter Council and will value his experience and advice.
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