Issues & AdvocacyIssues & Advocacy

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In this issue:

• A Note about the "Year in Review"
• Helping Architecture Firms Recover and Thrive
• Standing Up for the Smallest Design Firms
• Fighting Unfair Mandates and Taxes on Design Firms
• Demonstrating that Design Matters
• Advancing Sustainability and Livable Communities
• Furthering Our Credible Voice at All Levels of Government
• Building on our Code Leadership Legacy
• Empowering Citizen Architects to Lead
• Striving to Speak with a Unified Voice
• Establishing a Peer-Driven PAC
• Next Steps with ArchiPAC: Gaining a Better Understanding of Power in Numbers
• Making an Impact at the Ballot Box

In 2010, the Government and Community Relations (GCR) department at AIA National focused on a number of key issues related to the AIA's strategic plan. Throughout its activities the overarching principle was to identify and implement strategy to increase the AIA's ability to provide a credible voice for our members to elected officials, other industry stakeholders, and the public.

The continued evolution of a more sophisticated and comprehensive approach to advocacy was a major focus for the year. In all areas, the AIA’s desire to have increasing visibility, reputability, and influence on key issues tied to the strategic plan is predicated upon an effective advocacy effort. Consequently, a primary focus for GCR in 2010 was to develop resources and implement related strategies designed to empower the AIA and our members to act as a credible voice before elected officials, other industry stakeholders, and the public.

A key goal for 2010 was expanding the AIA’s credible voice through enhanced and effective engagement of members in the advocacy process. Consequently, efforts were made to increase the number of members that participated in AIA advocacy efforts; identify opportunities to showcase AIA members as spokespersons on core AIA advocacy issues; and further leverage the power of a unified voice on issues. A vital component of the year’s effort was to evolve the Rebuild and Renew agenda to emphasis the impact of design and construction on our country’s long-term economic prosperity; to advance policy initiatives that put architects back to work designing more vibrant communities; and to block efforts to pay for recovery on the back of the design industry.

The following report provides a brief overview of major areas of this year’s focus as well as related accomplishments and insight on future opportunities and challenges.

The GCR team implemented AIA strategy to advocate that Congress make credit more available for design and construction projects. AIA member Jim Determan testified before the House Financial Services Committee in May alongside a top Treasury official about the need to increase access to credit for design and construction projects. This came on the heels of another AIA member, Chris Green, testifying before the House Small Business Committee about economic issues facing architects. Following their testimony, the House passed an amendment backed by the AIA to increase access to capital from small community banks.

States are reinforcing this effort. In Minnesota, AIA members, John Hamilton, Ann Voda, Tom Hysell and Ken Stone along with Executive Director Beverly Hauschild Baron were instrumental in passing a jobs bill signed by their governor that encouraged investment and jobs in startup companies as well as offering tax credits for historic building renovation projects.

The AIA has successfully pushed Congress to extend Recovery Act provisions that expand the 7(a) and 504 loan programs that help small businesses get access to capital and encourage them to hire architects to build. The AIA has worked with GSA and other federal agencies to make sure that contracting opportunities are available to architecture firms of all sizes; in fact, the GSA is currently implementing recommendations for improving project selection and delivery that arose from an AIA-convened forum. And the AIA’s four-year effort to reform outdated and unfair federal retainage rules bore fruit as the Executive Branch finalized a rule change that will ensure architects and engineers are paid for the work they do for the federal government.

The AIA helped lead the successful fight to block a proposal that would expand payroll taxes on small architecture and other professional S corporations. AIA members sent a record 12,000 messages to Capitol Hill in opposition to the plan, and AIA members were quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The Hill, and other top publications. The AIA also joined with a coalition to successfully remove language in the health care reform bill that would have forced construction companies with as few as six employees from being required to offer insurance, even though companies with fewer than 51 employees in all other industries were exempted.

The AIA is now fighting alongside its small business allies to repeal a provision slipped into the health care reform bill that will dramatically increase Form 1099 paperwork burdens on the private sector.

The AIA’s six-year effort to get the State Department to move away from cookie-cutter embassies and embrace design excellence was realized when the Department announced new guiding principles for Design Excellence based on the AIA’s 2009 Design for Diplomacy report. In addition, the AIA’s fight to ensure the next Architect of the Capitol is a licensed architect came to fruition in February, when President Obama nominated Stephen Ayers, AIA, and the Senate confirmed him in May.

In October, the Center for Communities by Design won the 2010 "Organization of the Year" Award from the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) for its efforts to create a participatory design culture in the United States. The award was presented in Scarborough, UK, as part of the IAP2’s annual Core Values Awards, which recognize global leaders in public participation. The AIA’s entry, "Building the Designer Democracy Movement," was recognized by an international jury for providing "an impressive history of public participation, and clear evidence of the creation of a public participation culture within your organization."

The AIA is a national leader on the effort to expand the Energy Efficient Commercial Building Tax Deduction to $3.00 per square foot. The AIA led an 80-group coalition that wrote to Congress in support of the deduction. The AIA joined with the U.S. Green Building Council and other groups to issue a report to the White House on how it can use its existing legal authorities to promote green building programs.

And the AIA is leading a coalition of several leading design, transportation, housing, and environmental groups on an effort to reorient the tax code away from sprawl and towards livable communities.

At the state level, a resolution is also currently under consideration with the Environment Committee of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) related to Greening the Built Environment.

In addition, the Local Leaders in Sustainability reports continue to gain recognition and increase the AIA’s credible voice on the vital issue of community level greening policy. The series focuses on enhancing green building policy in communities across the country. These reports are producing widespread media coverage, speaking engagements for AIA leadership/members, and partnering opportunities. The reports are also being used in an academic context, in college classrooms focused on urban sustainability and architecture. Currently, two George Washington University professors are working with AIA staff on research and instruction for their Urban Sustainability classes this fall semester. The Local Relations team is also working together with the USGBC on the fifth report, Green Schools, which will be released in January 2011. Early successes on this project include stories on Washington, DC’s NPR station and in the Nation’s Cities weekly newspaper as well as upcoming presentations at the National League of Cities’ Congress of Cities and the 2011 Good Jobs Green Jobs conference.

Lawmakers in Washington are increasingly turning to the AIA for their expertise on a range of issues. Four AIA members testified before Congressional committees in 2010. In addition, AIA members presented at numerous briefings for top level Congressional staff, including one briefing the AIA co-organized with the office of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). AIA National staff also briefed key Congressional staffers on AIA policies and initiatives, including before the House Democratic Livable Communities Task Force.

Leadership at the state and local level armed with valuable resources prepared by State Relations are addressing committees and state legislatures on behalf of the AIA protecting issues affecting the architectural practice. As an example, in Colorado, AIA Colorado testified and had a statute successfully repealed related to continuing competency requirements. AIA Minnesota was successful in staving off an attempt by interior designers seeking practice registration in their state.

The AIA has realized significant success in the code development arena within the last two years, building upon a long-term effort starting in 1975 to get "one code." The work to create the ICC itself began in 1992, with the dedicated participation of many AIA members. That long journey has led us to the IGCC, and the IGCC has been a powerful entrée into a renewed effort the past two years to bring AIA to the forefront of advanced codes development. Hundreds, if not thousands, of AIA members have made the AIA’s success in the code arena possible, including the past and present members of the Codes and Standards Committee, AIA staff and consultants, and dedicated, passionate AIA volunteers.

With the development, and next year's publication, of the International Green Construction Code (IGCC), we have reinforced an important and credible leadership presence with significant national organizations. The AIA has successfully led the charge for some of the most forward-thinking energy code language in the country. We have done this in collaboration with organizations such as NIBS, DOE and others. The AIA is now being sought after as a partner in developing forward-looking code language for future code development. In our collaboration with other organizations, development of programs and strategic vision, we are providing value to our members.

Throughout the year, the Citizen Architect program has focused on multiple components, including programming at Convention and Grassroots, resource development, and component assistance. The Citizen Architect Exchange and Civic Engagement Reception at this year’s Annual Convention had the highest attendance number of the last three years. A key goal of the GCR department is to engage students, emerging professionals, and the regions. Examples of this effort include the AIA Student Western Quad Conference focused on civic engagement and Northwest & Pacific Region Meeting, where AIA leadership (with staff support) have presented on the value of advocacy and civic engagement.

We would like to increase the level of AIA component Citizen Architect program activity -- and, consequently, staff has been reaching out and assisting components on a number of efforts that are now bearing fruit, with a spotlight on AIA Pasadena & Foothill, AIA Los Angeles, AIA Palomar, AIA Florida, and AIA Iowa. Other local and state chapters are discussing increasing their Citizen Architect focus and a Citizen Architect guidebook for local and state components is also nearing completion. The Citizen Architect database is currently being updated as well with a survey that should demonstrate an even higher level of civic engagement by the membership than initially found in 2008.

This year also saw the formation of a Civic Engagement & Leadership Network, which, subsequently, developed a number of proposals and multi-year goals, including a Leadership and Civic Engagement workshop at the upcoming Grassroots conference; guidance on the Citizen Architect guidebook; further development of "Living Your Life as a Leader" resources; and a multi-year continuity structure/plan.

The year saw the inauguration of a concerted effort to engage membership and leadership in raising brand awareness of the AIA. As part of this strategy, GCR launched a successful effort to expand the influence of architects by providing component leadership and executives with a series of opinion pieces designed to increase the architectural profession’s visibility in key local media such as newspapers and business journals and to reinforce important themes. The topics covered in these pieces centered on the key issues facing the profession such as access to credit, jobs creation, and green schools. Among the successfully placed articles was one by Tymn Waters, AIA, president of AIA New Mexico, in the October 25 Albuquerque Journal ("Try Three-Pronged Approach To Creating Jobs"), which describes the AIA agenda on Capitol Hill for job creation.

On the federal side, opinion page pieces were placed for AIA president George H. Miller, FAIA, in such publications as the September 6 edition of The Washington Post ("Commentary: A way to fund much-needed public transportation improvements") and the November 8 edition of a key Capitol Hill publication, The Hill ("An open letter to the 112th Congress from America’s architects"). These pieces became key tools in helping kill an onerous Congressional proposal to increase taxes on small businesses who file as Subchapter S Corporations, as many AIA members do.

ArchiPAC, the AIA’s political action committee, made great strides to move toward a peer-to-peer fundraising model. The goal is to identify champions for every region to assist ArchiPAC fundraising, messaging, and the implementation of related strategy. Under this new model, ArchiPAC was very active in the recent election cycle; the steering committee took an active role in the distribution strategy contributing more than $210,000 to 60 candidates for the House and Senate. Many of these contributions resulted from requests made by AIA components and AIA members, and roughly 35 percent of ArchiPAC distributions were delivered by AIA members to the candidate in the district.

The peet-to-peer network concept will continue to grow under the umbrella of the Board Advocacy Committee (BAC) and other volunteer leaders and is well-illustrated by the current ArchiPAC Regional Challenge. During this fundraising effort several "regional champions" made direct solicitations to members in their region. To date, ArchiPAC has raised $80,000 in 2010 and with an active fundraising solicitation still in the works it is possible that our PAC will finish the year with $90,000 raised. However, most of the contributions for ArchiPAC were raised at Grassroots, through telemarketing, or at Convention, which really places limitations on opportunities to raise money and underlines the importance of establishing a higher level of direct leadership involvement.

Looking forward to 2011-2012, we need to focus on how to increase the number of members who invest in our PAC. In looking at our legislative agenda, it will require relationship with key leaders on Capitol Hill as well as new faces. We need our members to understand that the effectiveness of ArchiPAC is not necessarily tied to large donations, but rather in the number of who contribute even a small amount. Roughly one percent of AIA members contributed to ArchiPAC in 2010, and yet all members benefit from the AIA advocacy efforts. Our efforts need to emphasis the goal of maximizing member participation, regardless of the level of what they can afford to contribute. If we do not make the case for our professions future in politics, we will not be able to sustain the success that we have seen in Washington for years to come.

DesignVote increased its presence in 2010. To wit, AIA National published its first on-line voter guide. AIA tracked at least 4,000 separate visits to the site. DesignVote continued to send "get out the vote" messages leading up to the elections, with letters being signed by AIA president George Miller, FAIA, and BAC chair Mickey Jacob, FAIA. In addition, at least five AIA components held election related forums -- AIA San Diego and AIA Seattle used the AIA Candidate Forum Guide to host candidate debates; AIA Tampa hosted a candidate meet-and-greet; AIA Utah hosted Congressional town hall meetings with each member of their Congressional delegation; and AIA East Bay and AIA Los Angeles conducted policy forums.

Member mobilization on federal issues saw greater success in the level of member involvement in outreach to congress. This year, Congressional offices received more than 30,000 contacts from more than 6,000 members. In addition, AIA National was able to track 25 in-district visits between AIA components and members of the U.S. House and Senate. These visits included a number of ArchiPAC check deliveries as well as other meetings. Our grassroots efforts were very successful in our efforts on the S-Corp tax fight; besides the thousands of members who contact their legislators, we worked with key state components to set up higher level of contact. The best example was with AIA Maine who met with Senator Olympia Snowe’s (R-ME) office in the Pine Tree State during the Senate recess before a key vote. Following the meeting Senator Snowe spoke of her opposition to the S-Corp tax hike on the Senate floor and used many of our talking points as her rational. The message is that grassroots work, Senator Snowe eventually voted for the bill without the S-Corp tax hike, but it was our grassroots efforts that helped give her the ground to stand on.