Pub. 3 2015 Directory

5 AIA Montana—Serving Our Members into the Future PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE KLINT K. FISHER , AIA, PRESIDENT OF AIA MONTANA  — continued on page 7 M y six years serving on the AIA Montana Board have seen significant, positive change for our organization at the national, regional and local level. It has been an honor for me to collaborate with my fellow board members, and leaders at the national and regional levels, to institute practices that better serve our member- ship and sustain AIA’s leadership position into the future. I was fortunate enough to be in attendance in Washington DC at AIA Grassroots in 2013 when AIA National unveiled its Reposi- tioning Initiative and the resulting focus to Connect, Engage, Lead and Innovate. It was exciting for me as an architect from Montana to see our profession’s national leadership share their common concerns and develop strategies to address them. The input and feedback from the conference continue to be the foundation for AIA National’s initiatives and programs moving forward. The evidence of AIA National’s renewed desire to listen and respond to membership concerns can been seen at the very top of the organi- zation with the reconfiguration of the Board of Directors and the establishment of the Strategic Council. We have been witness to changes on the regional level as well. 2013 saw the last Northwest and Pacific Region Conference. In 2014 the first Regional Leadership Summit was held in Tacoma, Washington bringing the leadership of the region together in order to discuss and establish strategies to better serve the membership through- out our region. AIA Montana was fortunate enough host the 2015 Regional Leadership Summit in Bozeman this fall prior to the AIA Montana Fall Conference. It was an honor for me to represent you, the AIA Montana membership, as leaders from our region devel- oped ideas on how our chapters can better serve our membership. More on that later. Most significant to me however, are the changes that I have been a part of here in Montana. The Board’s longstanding efforts to revise the Montana Annotated Code’s definition of “public building” to align with the International Building Code’s definition resulted in AIA Montana’s cooperative effort with the Business and Stan- dards Department to change in the wording of the public building definition. The format of the AIA Montana Fall Conference has been modified to better engage our membership and provide them with additional continuing education opportunities in order to meet the State of Montana’s recently adopted continuing education requirements. AIA Montana has the good fortune to be represent- ed at the regional and national level by members Chere LeClair and Shannon Christensen who serve as Regional Director and Young Architect Regional Director respectively. It has been a very humbling and rewarding experience for me to serve alongside my fellow board members during my term on the board. I am con- stantly impressed by the creativity, leadership and team attitude of our members and what AIA Montana has been able to accomplish. Now it is time to look to the future. How will the AIA continue to build on the momentum created from its repositioning and pro- mote our profession? Perhaps this question is best answered by the AIA Advancement Statement: Together we agree that the time is now to change the way we think and behave in order to become a more valued, relevant profession. The AIA will focus its priorities to elevate public awareness, advocate for the profession and expand and share knowledge. Bold, visionary leadership is urgently needed to ensure a prosperous future and to inspire architects to create a better world for all people – through architecture. [Adopted by AIA Board of Directors, 2013] In a very practical sense, the AIA has made it a high priority to provide a valuable and consistent experience for all members in order to meet the objectives of the AIA Advancement Statement. The AIA has committed to provide the following Core Member Services to all members through AIA National and the individual local components: