How Your Chapter Can Prepare and Re-Organize for Grassroots 2022!

GRASSROOTS EVENTS PAGE

Join us in Washington, D.C. for our annual leadership conference from Thursday, July 28 to Saturday, July 30, 2022 for a newly decentralized conference experience. With walking tours, firm tours, and interactive workshops you’ll get the most out of a trip to D.C.!
To register to attend Grassroots, log into your AIAS member account to see member pricing. Early bird registration will end on May 15 at $150 for members, before increasing to $200 and closing altogether on July 8.
For non-members, early registration is still available at $200 and then $250 after May 15. Registering early ensures you get the best deal and helps the national office prepare for the conference. Please also note, proof of vaccination OR a negative COVID test will be required before attending the Grassroots in person.
Also, If you would like to book hotel rooms alongside other AIAS members, we do have rooms reserved at Hilton Garden Inn Washington DC Downtown that you can book here. Be sure to book by June 28 at the very latest, but the earlier the better! The AIAS works closely with the hotel to ensure a certain number of rooms are booked to keep the block reservation open.
Chapter leaders are highly encouraged to attend the virtual Leadership Day taking place on August 6, a week after the in person conference. This portion of Grassroots is free for all members or nonmembers to attend but does require separate registration. You will NOT be automatically registered for Leadership Day if you are registered for the in person conference.

Does your chapter have a Freedom By Design (FBD) program? As part of the NCARB partnership supporting FBD, grant funding has been reinstated to help FBD leaders pay for Grassroots registration! These grants completely cover the $200 standard Grassroots registration fee. 

Attendance at Grassroots by the chapter FBD Director is encouraged in order to receive the training, resources, and a support network necessary to ensure success in the coming year! In order to receive Materials Grants for FBD Projects throughout the year, a representative from a Chapter’s FBD Group must have been recorded as attending either the in-person FBD session at Grassroots or the virtual FBD session at Leadership Day on August 6th. Find more information on these grants below!

FBD GRASSROOTS GRANTS

An in-person conference is more expensive than a virtual one, with event expenses paid by registration, travel, and lodging. The National Finance Committee has put together a list of fundraising, sponsorship, and donation strategies. Feel free to reach out for more information or to talk through any ideas with our Finance Committee at finance@aias.org!

General Fundraising Tips

• ALWAYS TRY TO SPEND AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE ON THE FUNDRAISER OR EVENT ITSELF!!!
• Calling on the phone can be much more effective for outreach to sponsors
• 90-60-30/2-1-2-1 Rule For Follow up Em
  • 3 months before event
  • 2 months before event
  • 1 month before event
  • 2 weeks before
  • 1 week before
  • 2 days before
  • 1 day before
• Thank you notes are a must for any donation/sponsor/fundraising attendee or supporter
• Have a set of pre-written emails so anyone on your team can help with outreach
• Set a timeline early on of key dates for your event/fundraiser
• A handwritten aspect to outreach and thanking donors/sponsors/speakers goes a long way
• Review your success rate and write down a debrief for future chapter boards to use
• Working at Scale – Fundraising happens at different financial levels
  • Micro scale $0-$40 -> workshops and small competitions
  • Small scale $40-$100 -> bake sales and ___ your professors (pie, dunk, duct tape)
  • Medium $100-$200 -> ask for donations, larger organized workshops, dinner with an architect/firm, local food, car wash, merch
  • Large $200-$500 -> event sponsorship, store, AIA relationships
  • Super Large $500+ -> auctions, school funds/grants/rolling funds, AIA relationships
• Keep your social media platforms active – there is no point hosting a fundraising event if you don’t MARKET IT!
• Don’t forget physical copies of posters and flyers in key places can be incredibly effective at your school
• Don’t just think architecture – think local businesses to help your community! A basket for a raffle is a great advertisement
• Try teaming up with another club at your school for a co-sponsored event to decrease costs, and then split the profits

Sponsorship/Donations

• Reach out to Alumni – See if your school has an alumni network to reach out through
• Sponsors can provide funds OR space for an event
• Make an itemized list of what could be donated for an event or fundraiser – this is especially great for raffle baskets. T requests should be made in person with a clear script of what the end funds are going to. For example, school scholarships and scholarships to attend leadership conferences, community engagement activities etc.
• Create a leveled sponsorship package for donors to choose from
• AIA Components can be asked to sponsor a few students
• AIA Components can be asked for a large general contribution, so chapters can subsidize the cost of attending a conference
• YOUR SCHOOL
  • If you have a grad program, ask the grad school to sponsor a student to attend and promote your program
  • Every school has a student organizations branch that has a dedicated budget of funds to hand out to student organizations. Create a presentation showing the value of attending Grassroots, and ask for funds!
  • (Considering this is probably the first time there’s been an in person travel assistant request in a long time from your chapter, don’t forget to remind your school of past levels of support they provided.
• Paint murals for local companies “for free” in exchange for sponsorship to a conference for members that really help with the mural
• Ask Local firms asking for support, especially those with AIAS alumni
• Create and maintain a donor database of alumni, sponsors, and board members that brought them in
  • Will be helpful as to not contact the same people too often or not often enough
• Go to Networking events to build new donor relationships 
• Utilize faculty as a resource to connect with professionals as well as becoming donors themselves. Produce a small information card that suggests personal donation amounts of $10, $20, and $50. Faculty have a deep understanding of the educational benefits associated with participation in extracurricular activities and might find these amounts marginal to assisting with bettering the student experience.

Fundraiser Ideas

• Host a fundraising concert with talent from your chapter and local music
• Auctioning off dinners with professors or local professionals
• Have a “Chipotle Night” or restaurant rebate where a restaurant gives a portion of proceeds for a day to your chapter, as you send more people to them and advertise. Chipotle and other chains are a good place to start.
  • This ensures that you are not going to the same funding source of architecture students for your events
• Have a weekly Barbeque outside your architecture building – with frequency, you can buy in bulk and charge less (while still making a profit)
• Large Scale event that includes raffle items, food at low prices or tickets, merchandise, silent auction and any other component you can think of!
• Napkin Sketch competition/auction
• Sell merchandise like t-shirts, mugs, stickers, calendars
• Classic Late-Night Fundraiser during finals and midterms where you sell coffee, tea, and baked goods in the middle of the night. This one needs a lot of promotion!
• Tools and Materials resale at lower costs than the book store!
• Sponsored events ideas:
  • Competitions
    • Sandcastles
    • Snowmen/Snow forts
    • Soup cans/box stacking
    • Napkin Sketch
    • Scavenger Hunt
    • Video games where you pay $2-5 to be in the bracket
      • Mariokart
      • Just Dance/DDR
      • Jackbox Games
  • Community based
    • Cookout/Potluck/Cooking Competition
    • Trivia/Game Night with local professionals
    • Bowling night with free food donated by the bowling alley
  • Educational
    • Sponsored Lecture Series
    • Local Architecture Tours
    • Visiting local AIA components to show interest in return for sponsorship

One of the reasons Grassroots is such an important conference is that it kicks off the start of the AIAS’s year, and the start of your new year at your chapter! At Grassroots and Leadership Day current, new, and future chapter leaders can attend workshops and training sessions focused on governance, leadership, finances, and other skills that are important to successfully running a chapter. Below are a few suggestions we have for preparing your chapter for Grassroots, and for the 2022-2023 school year!

• Review and update your Chapter’s bylaws using the Model Chapter Bylaws, and come to Grassroots ready with any questions you have on these documents – this is how you ensure your chapter stays strong year after year!
  • If your chapter has a Freedom By Design program, don’t forget to include your FBD Director in this process and make sure there is language in your Bylaws that defines the relationship between the program and your chapter!
• Review your school’s Learning & Teaching Culture or Studio Culture Policy using the Model Learning & Teaching Culture Policy to make sure you are ready to make your school a positive and healthy place to work and learn!
• Hold chapter elections! Grassroots is the perfect time to ensure new chapter leadership is ready for the year ahead, so you want to be sure those leaders are elected and ready to go. The Chapter Elections Guidelines can help you plan a thorough and equitable election!
  • After the election, don’t forget to remind your new Chapter President to Update your Chapter Information so the National Office can update your page on the website and keep in touch!
  • Also don’t forget to include a Student Licensing Advisor on your executive board – this position can be elected or appointed by the President, and is important in making sure your members have all the information they need to start the path to licensure!
• Plan a Board Retreat for your e-board so you can grow closer as a team, and plan out your goals and priorities for the year ahead! You can do this before Grassroots so you can be ready to apply the training you’ll receive to your chapter’s goals, after Grassroots to use what you’ve learned to plan out your year, or even during Grassroots in extended break times or over dinner! 
  • Don’t forget to identify areas in which your chapter needs to improve, and always feel free to discuss these with any member of the National Board of Directors!
• Your Board Retreat is a great time to create a preliminary Events Calendar that your chapter can follow throughout the year to keep things running smoothly and meet all the deadlines you need for programming, meetings, and other events. Google Calendar works great for this, and can be shared with your school’s student body! Don’t forget to include important dates for students, like midterms and finals. Always feel free to share your chapter’s events on the national Events Calendar!
• Discuss resolutions your chapter would like to propose to the national Council of Presidents. This is your biggest opportunity to make change in the AIAS; more information on the process can be found here. Proposals are due at midnight on June 11th!
• This isn’t a governance recommendation, but… don’t forget to plan your chapter’s Roll Call! In-person Roll Call, which is when representatives from your chapter get up on stage to announce your presence, can be whatever you want it to be to exemplify your chapter’s identity! This has ranged from videos to skits, ASMR sessions, or human pyramids (for liability reasons we don’t do that last one anymore)! We can’t wait to see what you’ve got!

Any more questions about how to prepare your chapter’s leadership and governance for Grassroots and the year ahead? Shoot an email to President Cornelius at president@aias.org!