As much as I love AIA St. Paul (I was on the board at one point as the Secretary), was very active with AIA Minnesota (on lots of committees), miss all my Minnesota compatriots, and am hopeful for what AIA Seattle has to offer, I am inclined to think AIA San Francisco is the best and most important AIA Chapter, ever. If they mimicked AIA Minnesota’s Leadership Forum, then they’d have it all. Well at least from this myopic perspective.

What has me saying this today? A friend who attended the 2014 AIA National Convention in Chicago sent me this link. It is AIA San Francisco’s bold vision of how to reinvent and improve the AIA. It brings together so much of what has been plaguing us as a profession. Here are the main points:

1. Power to the members.
2. Lead the profession.
3. Get Real About the Next Generation of Architects.
4. Set standards.
5. Be the voice of the profession.
6. Act global.

Point number two includes this idea: “Change the name and the focus of the organization. Integrate other design professionals into the organization and rename it: The American Institute of Architecture and Design. Build a bigger tent by embracing the changing nature of practice.” I completely support that name change. How great would that be? If there’s anything you can do to help bring that about, let me know. I want to be involved and help too.

There is another reason: 99% Invisible and Radiotopia

If you aren’t listening every week, here’s what you need to do:

1. Head over to http://99percentinvisible.org/ and listen to a whole bunch of episodes. Asking which one to start with is almost like asking which of my daughters is my favorite. But because of an amazing T-shirt that I will be wearing to death come Spring…
2. You could start here: Episode 114: Ten Thousand Years. I’ll talk more about that another time because there is so much there that fits so well with much of my writing here on Shoegnome.
3. Once you’ve listened to some episodes, head over and support the Radiotopia Kickstarter Campaign (it ends November 14th, 2014). Within 10 minutes of this Kickstarter going live I’d already supported (it took me a little bit to read through everything and watch the video). I can’t wait to get my Oakland Ray Cats and Holdout T-shirts. The second T-shirt is extra appropriate because it’s from a story about my new hometown of Seattle.

That’s all for now. Go get inspired by 99% Invisible, support the bold vision for Radiotopia, then think about what AIA San Francisco proposed earlier this year and how we architects have a lot of work to do.