A message from our National President
Eighteen months into the pandemic, the challenges posed by COVID-19 continue to confront us.
Lockdowns and tighter restrictions are in force in varying forms around the nation, and most distressingly, further lives have been lost.
Our profession, like countless others, has been profoundly affected.
I want to take a moment to acknowledge this hardship and, most importantly, to thank our members for their support over these difficult times. Support that has helped us to better help our members in return. Your support has helped us to keep members connected, leaning on and learning from each other.
On top of the day to day challenges, we’re grappling with maintaining quality & safety while having reduced access to sites and clients. Major disruptions to supply chains are making building materials more costly and hard to procure in many parts.
A national survey of our members at the beginning of last year found that nearly one-third of respondents (27.27%) had been forced to lay off or stand down staff.
And the collaboration – with each other, with clients, with peers in the profession – that underpins so much of architectural practice is made so much harder by the tyranny of social distance.
But with the support of our 11,000+ members, to whom we as an Institute are deeply grateful, we’ve been able to take comfort and solidarity in the face of shared adversity.
We’ve witnessed a strong sense of unity develop such that – collectively – we can face today’s challenges and tomorrow’s opportunities.
This has been evidenced through members’ incredible support over the past twelve or so months of the Institute’s Lean In sessions and our new Community platform, allowing everyone to stay informed, to share knowledge and to continue to belong to something quite special.
The Institute has learned a great deal from our membership through these forums which enables us to continually improve the services we deliver back to members.
As the Persian poets one said, “this too shall pass”. For now, we need to keep leaning in because this means that when it does, we will be a stronger Institute, and a stronger profession, as a result.
But we can’t lean in without our members. So thank you once again for your support, helping us to be better and do better.
