The American Institute of Architects’ is please to announce the winners of the 2006 national “Award for Excellence in professional continuing education.” Cannon Design, from Grand Island, New York won the large firm category. AIA Northern Virginia, Alexandria, Virginia won the AIA Component provider category, and Rogers Krajnak Architects, Inc., from Columbus, Ohio won the small firm provider category for Honorable Mention.

Established eight years ago, the annual award recognizes educational providers to architectural and engineering firms and their commitment to an overall system of developing high quality professional continuing education programs. Winners will accept a trophy at the AIA/CES MarketPlace at the 2006 AIA National Convention next June in Los Angeles, CA.

Joanna C. Merletti, Director of Training and Development at Cannon Design states, “The AIA’s submission process has been very beneficial in that it provides a framework to organize educational plans using a systemic approach. Your approach, based on the Malcolm Baldridge Quality Award, offers comprehensive core competencies and emphasizes the areas of strategy and measurable outcomes. These principles have helped to enhance our existing program, which has been very successful.”

"We are pleased and honored that the AIA has given us this prestigious award for our architectural programs," said Peter Krajnak, AIA, Principal of the firm Rogers Krajnak Architects, Inc. “We became an AIA CES registered provider and established the RKA Mentoring Program. Each registered architect is teamed with other staff members to research, prepare and present 18 -20 annual presentations.”

And Deborah S. Burns, Hon. VSAIA, Executive Director, AIA Northern Virginia adds, “Professional development is a top priority of our chapter leadership and we have been working to develop a strong continuing education program for the past six years. The Providers Award actually helped us improve our program. The first time I looked at the call for entries, I knew we weren’t ready to apply. I used the criteria to help determine the areas we needed to develop and expand. We are very honored to receive this award, but will continue to work on improving our program every year.”

According to the AIA, each winner demonstrated excellence in all phases:

1. “Commitment and support” examines the firm’s leadership, support, and commitment to education.

2. “Planning and analysis” examines the organization’s structure for analyzing educational needs and professional development of the architect.

3. “Design and implementation” review the program, learning objectives, design, and delivery methods.

4. “Resources and records” examines human resources and the record keeping process.

5. “Evaluation and improvement” examines the evaluation and improvement process of the education activities.

6. “Continuing education services, provider specific” is the area which judges examine the organization’s community outreach through educational programs and services.

The AIA awarded the 2006 CES Award for Excellence to the following three recipients. This award honors CES Providers and their commitment to an overall system of quality programming. The award criteria involved a detailed review of the organization’s strategy, planning and analysis, design, implementation, delivery, evaluation, and improvement process of their continuing education programs. We are pleased to announce the following winners.


AIA Firm – Large Firm Category
Cannon Design
Mark R. Mendell, FAIA, MRAIC
President
2170 Whitehaven Road
Grand Island, NY 14072
Ph: (716) 774-3281
mmendell@cannondesign.com


AIA Component Category
AIA Northern Virginia
Deborah S. Burns, Hon. VSAIA
Executive Director
205 South Patrick Street
Alexandria, VA 22314
Ph: (703) 549-9747
aianova@erols.com


AIA Firm – Small Firm Category - Honorable mention
Rogers Krajnak Architects, Inc.
Peter Krajnak, AIA
Principal
264 South Third Street.
Columbus, OH 43215
Ph: (614) 461-0243
PKrajnak@rogerskrajnak.com