by AIA Executive Vice President/CEO Chris McEntee
Your AIA is architects working together for the good of the profession and the society it serves. That is the impetus behind the “Covenant Between the AIA and Its Members,” which the Board approved in September. I applaud that bold move. By building from individual contributions, the AIA accomplishes things no single architect can accomplish alone.
Of course, this kind of synergy doesn’t just happen. It requires common, transcendent goals—as we discussed in my last blog—and the forging of a strong good-faith partnership among members—today’s topic.
Commitment to common goals benefits everyone. This was the chief reason 13 architects founded the AIA 150 years ago, and commitment to common goals is the reason the Institute is today vital and growing.
AIA members have been making this point for generations. At the 1938 AIA Convention, Francis P. Sullivan, FAIA (who had designed part of the Russell Senate Office Building) delivered a sentiment made famous years later in President Kennedy’s inaugural address: “When [architects] ask the Institute what it has done for them, [they] are missing the whole point of the Institute’s purpose,” Sullivan said. “The real question is: ‘What can you and what will you, through the Institute, do for the public good and the good of your profession?’”
What do you think?