The
AIAS has over 6,000 members in over 130 chapters in the United States, its
territories, Canada and other parts of the world. The structure of the AIAS allows
for involvement by any party interested in the issues facing architecture
students. AIAS chapters are located at colleges and universities, technical and
vocational schools, junior and community colleges, and high schools. Individual
affiliate memberships are available to interested parties within your school
and professional community.
One
of the challenges that the AIAS faces yearly is membership recruitment. The
AIAS membership year runs from September 1 through August 31 of the next year.
The majority of AIAS chapters have a large turnover rate of members and
leadership every year. This is an organization that is constantly facing the
challenge of enticing new members, as well as convincing existing members to
rejoin. Chapters with a small membership must attempt to raise their numbers,
while large chapters have to work just as hard to maintain their high
membership numbers. Chapters should look upon membership recruitment as a
challenge. It is an exciting opportunity to meet other architecture students.
Share your enthusiasm for the AIAS!
Recruitment Tips
·
Promote the AIAS membership packets that will be sent to each
member. These packets contain career and membership resources tailored to the
needs of each member, based on their year in school. This is a great benefit to
promote to former AIAS members who are reluctant to rejoin.
·
Obtain a list of incoming and returning students from the
department. Send an AIAS introductory letter out to these students explaining
the AIAS and offering the opportunity to join. This is also a good time to do a
pre-semester supply sale offering a discount to AIAS members. The order form
for materials should also incorporate an opportunity to join your chapter. Many
suppliers will offer competitive bids to “win” your school’s
business. Shop around for the best deal. With a little fund raising for your
chapter, you still should be able to offer members a substantial discount. It
is probably the easiest to go through one vendor.
·
Find out opportunities for AIAS members to represent your
student body on various committees within your program. Such representation may
include positions on the following: curriculum evaluation, student affairs,
public relations, faculty evaluation, dean search, student governments, lecture
series, and any other committees where student concerns should be represented.
Make the AIAS a visible organization on campus. Seeing the AIAS taking an
active role at the school, will spark student interest in joining.
·
Designate bulletin board space for the AIAS chapter. It can
be divided into different segments to post information. Topics may include
national AIAS meetings, member opportunities, AIAS publications, national AIAS
issues, competition posters, local AIA activity, newsletters, etc. People actually
wander around and look at this stuff!
·
Prepare an informational packet for students joining your
chapter. Include some basic orientation materials as well as coupons for
various restaurants in the area or supply dealers, important and emergency
phone numbers, application for AIAS membership, studio survival tips, faculty
rosters, a list of campus services, and anything else unique to your particular
program. You can also include the AIAS membership benefits brochure, which
highlights the AIAS services, discounts, and other opportunities, as well as
information on the organization as a whole.
·
Have a fall barbecue, inviting everyone in your school of
architecture. This is a great opportunity for members to talk about AIAS to
prospective members.
·
Have a spring cookout at the end of the year in which the
newly elected officers organize the event. You can push AIAS membership renewal
and help insure that members and non members do not forget about AIAS over the
summer months. Talk about Grassroots and next year’s FORUM. Also,
celebrate the accomplishments of the chapter over the past year. Always invite
EVERYONE!
·
Create a schedule and hold a variety of events before the
membership forms are due. This will prove the value of joining the AIAS.
Promote these events with fliers around campus and the architecture school.
·
Send out email to all architecture students announcing all
AIAS events and membership deadlines. Most schools have email distribution
lists of all students enrolled in each department. Ask your department head or
administration staff for access to this list.
·
Hold a large kick-off meeting with free pizza. Show the FORUM
video, the AIAS membership video, and photos from last year’s events.
·
Have active and excited AIAS members recruit potential members
in studio.
·
Make introduction and recruitment speeches in front of large
lecture classes. Ask the professor for five minutes at the beginning of class
to talk about the AIAS.
·
Look for local discounts and benefits at places like
Kinko’s or the local coffee shop that AIAS members can receive for
showing their membership card. Make the AIAS helpful on a local level.
·
Encourage faculty members to promote the AIAS and ask them to
announce membership deadlines and activities in class.
·
Go around all the studios the night before the membership
deadline. Remind the students of the deadline and have membership forms with
you. Collect completed membership forms and dues as you go along.
·
Hold more than one introduction or orientation meeting
varying the times so all students have the opportunity to attend.
·
Have a clearly marked location where students can drop off
and pick up membership forms and packets.
·
Leave AIAS brochures, copies of Crit, and membership
forms in lounge areas for students
to look through.
·
Make it a goal for each AIAS member to speak to ten potential
members about AIAS and the benefits of the organization and belonging to the
chapter.
·
Change all the computers in the labs so that their browser
home start pages open up to the AIAS Web site at www.aias.org.
·
Encourage non-members to check out the AIAS Web site at
www.aias.org.
·
Hold a competition for recruiting AIAS members. Tell current
members whoever collects the most membership forms wins a prize or gets their membership
free. Some chapter create a deal that if a member gets ten people to join the
AIAS, his/her own membership is free.
·
Remember to personally invite people to join the AIAS. While
large meetings are important and helpful, the personal touch can sometimes go
even further to convincing someone to join.
·
Most importantly, enjoy yourself! The AIAS is fun, and this
is why you want more people to be involved with the chapter. Enthusiasm is
contagious. So, have a blast and go recruit!
Chapter Goal
Attendance at FORUM is just as
important as membership recruitment. It is the one time of the year that
architecture students from across the world can come together in this capacity.
Each year, the AIAS national leaders work with chapter presidents to set a
reasonable FORUM attendance goal. Attending FORUM provides students with the
opportunity to learn about issues facing architectural education and the
profession, to meet students and professionals with common interests; to
interact with today’s leading architects; and to simply have fun. A
strong showing at FORUM from your chapter will also help your membership become
that much more excited on a local level.
1. Establish
a Chapter Schedule: Create a schedule of dates in hardcopy form for
students to use in planning. This will help students save up money prior to FORUM.
Maybe even hand out this schedule when you hand out membership forms. This
schedule should include due dates, the preliminary plan on getting to FORUM,
and approximate costs. his schedule
will also help remind students ask for money from outside sources.
2.
Collect Money in
Installments: If your chapter is traveling as a group, especially if
going by Rental Vans, it is best to collect money in installments. Use a
spreadsheet to keep track of who has paid and who still owes. Collecting money
while at FORUM is time consuming and risky.
3.
Fundraising: Establish a FORUM
fund raising committee at your first membership meeting. Plan on at least 20%
of your membership attending FORUM, and establish a budget based on this number
of people. Set personal, specific goals for the amounts each member will raise.
If your budget is $2,000 and you have 10 members, each member is responsible
for raising, or motivating others to raise at least $200. Then you can keep
your fundraising goals in mind as you come in contact with professionals, other
associations, corporate representatives, etc. This committee will be
responsible for much of the planning, but at the same time, everyone in the
chapter should constantly be on the lookout for potential donors.
The following is a list of proven sources
for FORUM fundraising:
·
AIA: Ask the local and state level chapters for funding.
·
School: Possibly ask your university or college to cover the
cost of registration, hotel, or school vans. Keep in mind that your
architecture school and the university are two separate sources for
fundraising. Many times the student government can provide resources to offset
the expense of attending.
·
Local architecture firms.
·
Scan local newspapers for potential donors: Look for articles
on the same types of programs, firms who have just been award a new contract,
businesses who have made recent donations, etc.
·
T-shirt sales
4.
FORUM Coordinator: Elect/Appoint a
FORUM Coordinator as a member of your executive committee to arrange FORUM
fundraising, travel coordination and promotion. Having one person responsible
for FORUM recruitment will insure that it is not forgotten during the hectic
semester.
Getting There
Getting to FORUM can be very time consuming, but with a
strategic plan getting there can be just as entertaining as FORUM itself. The
following are ways chapters in the past have managed to get to FORUM:
·
Bus or Carpool with another chapter: Look at your quadrant map and see
with whom you could carpool to lower costs. Leave from your school and pick up
members from other chapters along the way. This is a great way to make
connections with other chapters.
·
School Vans: Many colleges have vans and cars that
can be used by students and organizations for events such as FORUM. We
recommend first contacting your dean, because they often can direct you to the
best contacts with the best deals. Look into this option early to secure your
reservation. (There may also be additional restrictions that need to be
addressed well in advance.)
·
Plane: Book flights
early! Remember the holiday season is the busiest traveling time of the year,
cheap fares are limited and go quickly. The official travel agency of the AIAS
is www.studentuniverse.com/travel/aias.
Advertising
Advertising
is an essential part of recruiting members and non-members to attend FORUM. The
following are tools for advertising throughout your school:
·
Use the official AIAS FORUM Web Site: Go to
www.aias.org/forum.
·
Mention FORUM at all of your events.
·
Get faculty to promote attendance: This is especially
effective for incoming students. Contact the basic design faculty and ask them
to attend FORUM so they can meet other students.
·
Put small advertisements on lockers and desks.
·
Send e-mail to all students whenever FORUM events are
updated.
·
Have informational meetings for any students interested. Have
several so schedule conflicts are not an issue.
Planning
can be simple or it can be extremely complex, depending on the nature of your
event. Whatever its size, your event’s success will depend on the
thoroughness of your advance planning. The
rough chronological list of event-planning activities that follows includes
details that might be encountered only in a fairly complex situation--an
out-of-town seminar, for example. Be aware that not all of these steps apply to
all situations; edit them to meet your own event's requirements.
Also
be aware that this section is written as if “you” were individually
responsible for the planning and execution of each of the tasks discussed. In
real life you'll most likely be working with a group of people, each of whom
takes responsibility for a portion of the work to be done, with you in the role
of managing the overall process (or possibly delegating that management to a
meeting planner or other individual from your chapter’s committee
structure). Many of these tasks can and should be undertaken simultaneously for
maximum efficiency.
Your
first task is to spell out your objectives for holding a special event and
select an appropriate theme that will attract your target audience. A special
event should meet your marketing objectives effectively; if not, go no further.
Figure
out, in very specific terms, who your target audience is. Can you develop an
“audience profile” to help you frame your message in the most
effective way? Think about what your target audience will want to learn,
participate in or experience. Be aware: students are a different audience than
practitioners.
How
will you communicate with your target audience? You may have a list of media
representatives or your own mailing list of clients and prospects that you
intend to use. The more ambitious your plans, the more time you will need.
After
objectives and audience have been clearly defined, you can explore event
formats to determine which best suits your purpose. Your options include a meal
function (such as an “issues breakfast”), an open house party, a
half- or full-day seminar, an evening lecture…the list is endless.
Some
events are more complex than others are, and the expenses involved in staging
events are equally varied. The best approach might be to choose a format you
consider ideal, then scale it back as required to meet your chapter’s
budget limitations.
Now,
obtain budget estimates and establish a tentative planning timetable. Here is a
checklist of items that might appear on your budget:
·
Site inspection
·
Preparation of slides or electronic presentation
·
Rental of audiovisual equipment
·
Travel, lodging and fees for presenters
·
Food and beverage service
·
Meeting room rental
·
Printed materials (marketing materials, name tags, handouts,
evaluation forms, directional signs)
·
Photographer
·
Permits
·
Security
·
Shipping (printed matter, equipment)
·
Travel and lodging at meeting site
·
Staff expenses
·
Postage
·
Mailing list rental
·
Telephone charges
These
are general categories; your actual budget should break down into as much
detail as you can identify.
As
important as the budget is the planning timeline. A good rule of thumb is to
estimate how much planning time you'll need--then double it. Build enough
padding into your timetable to allow for glitches. A good planner allows for
emergencies and mistakes—because they always happen.
With
your timetable complete, you know how far into the future you should set the
date of your event for planning purposes. When you establish the date, consider
factors that could compete with your event for press coverage and attendance.
Always be aware of studio deadlines. If your event involves the community,
check the local papers for a community calendar and avoid days with street
festivals or art shows. Check with the local AIA component to see if the
professionals have anything planned during your proposed time slot. Always have
a rain date or other options to fall back on. Remember that planes do not always
arrive on time.
Remember
that architects are visually oriented people. Text fliers will attract bugs,
not architects. Student scribbles on trace paper can make great backgrounds for
simple fliers. More elaborate posters should use color and have a sense of
graphic technique. Plain banners
don’t cut it either. Create an interesting shape or even consider a 3-D
poster instead of a flat piece of white paper. You could even go so far as to
offer a competition for event posters. Simple prizes like donated supplies are
great for sparking interest in simple graphic design work.
Coverage
is important as well. Divide your event committee up so that larger areas can
be covered with advertising. Obey all posting policies. Posters in unapproved
areas attract school officials and sometimes police.
Good
planning usually means a successful event. If your event involves a speaker, it
is extremely important to arrive at the speaking location early in order to
check out the room arrangements, make sure the microphones work and test the
audiovisual equipment.
Always
have Committee members show up on time and in force to events. It is essential to have a clean-up
crew. The result of a poor clean-up job could be that you are never allowed to
hold another function in that venue again.
Keep
records of these events so that you can know what went well and what went
poorly. Consider these when planning your next function.
For
more detailed information on successful chapter programs, visit the AIAS
Programming Guide at www.aias.org/programmingguide.
Firm Tours (Firm
“Crawl” if more than one firm)
Presentation
workshops
Portfolio seminars
Career fair with
local firms/related businesses
Grad school fair (in
conjunction with your college)
Tutorial service
Presentations by
interns in various firm types/sizes
Joint meetings with
related design professions
New student
orientation program
Upper classman
advisory program
High school student
tour
CAD or 3D modeling
demonstrations
ARE presentation
(See state NCARB representative)
IDP presentation
(See state IDP Coordinator)
Town Hall meeting
or “State of the School”
Displays of student
works
Displays of
instructors’ works (possibly in empty store fronts)
Brown-Bag noontime
lecture series
Architecture weeks
and festivals
T-shirt design
competitions
Furniture design
competitions
Student research
projects
School newspaper
Edible architecture
model competition
Architectural
doghouse competition
Cardboard boat
races
Sandcastle
competition
Habitat for
Humanity (or similar organization) build days
Museum tours
Sustainable design
charrette
Construction tours
of architectural interest points (with the actual designers)
Roadtrips to
significant architecture sites
Film series
Beaux Arts Balls
Barbeques
Picnics and
cookouts centered on a school sports event (volleyball, softball, etc.)
Friday social hours
Open house for
parents and the community
Networking
First and foremost, introduce yourself by way of letters,
phone calls, emails, and/or personal visits to:
·
your
school’s administrators, faculty, staff and ACSA Faculty Councilor;
·
AIA
component executive(s), board, Associate Committee, and Young Architect Forum;
·
related
student organizations (i.e., APX, NOMAS, ASID, IIDA, Tau Sigma Delta, and
student government); and
·
local
practitioners.
Each will hopefully greet you and welcome you to contact
them in the future about how they can support AIAS and vice versa. Follow up whenever possible with any
and all that sound promising. Never
be afraid to ask these people for their help and support; there are few better
investments into the student body or future of the profession than supporting
an AIAS chapter. Above all, thank
people for their support by any one of the ways you came in contact with them
in the first place: letters, phone calls, emails, and/or personal visits. There are numerous other ways to
recognize these individuals or groups for their support such as nominating them
for an award (i.e. the AIAS National Special Accomplishment Honor Award) or
simply inviting them to one of your many chapter events.
Of
equal significance, know your network. In
most cases, unless your chapter has been defunct in recent years, there exists
a wealth of knowledge and experience in past chapter leaders, faculty advisors
and meeting minutes. Be sure to know
your school resources as well. Most recent graduates, many faculty members, and
your school’s career center could easily give you an idea of the firms
that recruit most heavily from your school.
Similarly, alumni centers can often provide you with a list of alumni in
your area to make contacts. Student
organization centers can offer great support, many of which coordinate
school-based grant programs for student initiatives.
Consider
less obvious sources as well: your school’s alumni publication, AIA
component newsletters, AIArchitect, Architectural Record, Architecture magazine, Crit, and other professional journals.
Read them from cover-to-cover: editorials, letters, ads, articles, cut lines
under pictures––everything! Each
time you do this, you will inevitably come up with a list of interesting firms
or firm principals to contact about chapter support or personal job
opportunities. A great door opener is to say, "I was impressed by your
letter to the editor in….”
Recognizing
the many similarities between the AIA and the AIAS, it should come of little
surprise that many chapters find their greatest supporters in their local and
state AIA components. Find your local chapter at www.aia.org. Often times, the best way to establish a mutually
beneficial relationship with your local and state AIA components is by
attending their meetings and events. Most
components welcome the AIAS to nominate a representative to their local and
state board of directors. In recent years, many chapters have been recognized
as voting members of those boards. At
the same time, extend the same invitation for them to attend your
chapter’s meetings and events. In
the event that your AIA component is less than responsive, the AIAS office can
provide guidance in establishing these relationships.
Another great way to encourage interaction
between chapters is to coordinate events within your region. There are several
traditional programs (e.g., regional newsletters, exchanges, field trips,
etc.), but the most common of all regional programs is a regional conference.
The conferences are preferably held at a centrally located school or at an
architecturally significant “hot spot” and generally last two to
three days, over a weekend. They can include anything from lectures and tours,
to discussions and debates. The exchange and discussion of ideas is vital, as
are opportunities to meet fellow architecture students and see new places.
Mentoring
Each of us can think of someone who has had a significant
impact on us during a formal, informal, long- or short-term relationship. Their
name may not even be on the tip of our tongues, but we will never forget the
impact they made on our life. This is mentoring. Mentoring is also about listening and sharing, but there is
usually so much noise in our lives that we often get distracted. This comes of little surprise,
especially considering the high demands of architectural education and
practice.
Beginning
a professional mentoring relationship while still in school may result in
stronger and more meaningful alliances later in one’s career. Likewise,
mentoring programs have the potential to welcome practitioners back into the
academic setting and further develop connections between education and
practice. Peer mentoring
relationships afford many of the same opportunities, as well as an increased
potential for students to more accurately relate with each other. There are also a growing number of
established mentoring programs at schools of architecture that have
successfully united mentors and mentees with a wide range of backgrounds and
career objectives.
While peer and professional mentoring surely require
different methods of coordination, utilization of resources, and modes of
communication, in general, mentoring makes a difference by:
As mentees or peer mentors, students have the opportunity
to:
Outlining
the roles and responsibilities helps both mentors and students understand the
expectations necessary to make a commitment.
Many mentors and students feel guilty if they think they are not spending
enough time on the relationship. Successful
mentoring can be measured in many different ways, whether the pairs communicate
by phone or e-mail only a couple times a month or meet in person on a weekly
basis.
Chapter Budget
A budget is your chapter’s best
estimate of how much money you will spend and receive during the coming year.
It is the basis for your fundraising strategy, and will help ensure that you
allot enough money to cover projected expenses before they occur. By developing
a budget early in the fiscal year, your chapter can avoid many financial
surprises and plan accordingly for those that do arise.
Budgets can be used
two ways:
There
are two parts to a basic budget: income and expenses.
Expenses or Costs
Money that
your chapter will have to pay in order to conduct its business, i.e., supplies,
purchase of books, printing, etc. On this
side of the budget, you will want to round up your figures, as the costs will
likely be higher in the end than you had expected.
Income
Ask yourself what the various sources of
revenue will be over the coming year.
Expenses
Now that you have
thought about what your sources of revenue are going to be, you must make
decisions about where the money will be spent. This may require greater detail
than the income calculations.
Keep in mind that it
usually costs money to make money, so it’s good to relate your expenses
back to your sources of income. Always include a narrative description of why the
specified amounts are needed in any new projects, and how you arrived at the
figure.
Incremental Estimating
The simplest method for estimating expenses is
incrementally. Make the current
year’s additions or subtractions to each item in the budget based on past
years’ experience, as well as growth projections. The problem with this method is that it may lead to increasing
budgets without a true evaluation of how effective the program really is. Do
increasing costs provide more to your members? If mistakes were made in past
budgets, you will compound the problem this year.
Evaluate Costs
The most useful
method for estimating expenses is to evaluate actual costs. Determine what you
will need to conduct your program then check prices with vendors (printers,
office supply stores, etc.). Not only
does this method help you determine the cost of your programs, but it also
helps you evaluate the benefits compared to the costs.