Matt Toddy, Erin Reilly-Sanders, Danial Hanes, Brett Wedding, and Elizabeth Krile joined other nonpartisan AIA leaders in Washington DC for Hill Day and leadership workshops February 11-13:
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We met with staff from the offices of Representatives Mike Carey (OH-15, west and south of Columbus), Joyce Beatty (OH-3, Columbus and to the northeast), and Marcy Kaptur (OH-9, Toledo/NW Ohio) and Senators John Husted and Bernie Moreno.
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We advocated for addressing the pressing concerns of the profession: housing legislation, 179D tax credits, design freedom/White House Preservation Act, and increasing loan caps for architecture students so that they can access low interest rate graduate funding.
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In the keynote workshop, April Rinne recommended using trust (the importance of emotional trust rather than cognitive trust), control (especially letting go), and vision (looking for things we don’t expect to see) to develop a “flux mindset” and view change as opportunity- see https://www.aia.org/aia-architect/article/april-rinne-teaches-architects-how-navigate-change .
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Educational sessions focused on topics like the importance of advocating for building codes, supporting mid-career professionals, leadership transitions, gender equity in architecture, and media training.
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Candidates for 2027 AIA national positions introduced themselves, with voting in June at the national conference. https://www.aia.org/candidates-elective-office-2027
- If you want to advocate too, consider emailing your congressional representatives regarding these issues through the AIA in Action Center https://aia.quorum.us/actioncenter/