March meeting minutes

Hi Everyone,

Thank you all for coming out yesterday. It was great to see so many familiar faces and I'd like to welcome all the new faces. I think it was our biggest turn out this time. We have a lot of exciting events coming up and interesting ideas exchanged during the lunch that I think has started to show that our group is coming together as one. So let's keep this momentum going. I have listed some of the items on the agenda that we went over during the lunch. Let me know if I've missed anything or if you have anything you'd like to add, we could go over them at the next meeting.

Architectural Tour
Jon Denton has been coordinating with the AIA Continuing Education Committee on building tours. The most recent one was of Wilson High School. There are two more tours coming up, one at Clover Park T.C. Student Center on April 8th and one at Stadium High School on May 6th. We hope to see everyone there, so mark your calendars!! Also let us know if you have any buildings in mind that you would like to see.

Associates Happy Hour
We have a BIG event coming up for the end of April that hopefully will become an annual event for our group. This event will be for all of the interns to get together and socialize. This is a chance for you to get to know your peers. You'll also have a chance to meet all the AIA Executive Board members and other AIA members of the chapter. The event is in the planning process with help from Dion, Marianne and Chauncey. So if anybody would like to help with the planning, please let me know. We also will be needing help for set up and take down on the day of the event, so if you would be able to volunteer some time let me know as well.

Event flyer/postcard
With that said about the happy hour event, we'd like to invite everyone to participate in a little graphic design competition. We need a flyer/postcard design for our happy hour event. There are no restrictions here so you're free to do anything. The image that we want to convey for our group with this event is that we're a young, hip and urban. Here is the group's mission and purpose statement.

"The Emerging Leaders Group was established by young intern architects of the AIA Southwest Chapter with an objective of individual development as well as preparing for future leadership roles in the architecture profession and community"

Group Identity
Our group has grown to a point that we need an identity to represent us. So we'd like to invite everyone who would like to participate and provide us with your own interpretation of the image for our group. There are no restrictions or limitations for this logo. See above for the group's mission and purpose statement. If you have any questions please contact Dion Serra at dion.se...@mcgranahan.com

Google Group Website
This website was created to allow for open communication among each other. We have been using this for some time as a way to let everyone know about upcoming events and our monthly lunch meetings. Please use this as a mean to communicate your ideas, comments, and/or suggestions to the group. The group would be able to come together and socialize at more events if we know about it. So, if you know of any events/ lecture around the community, post it on the website to let everyone know. Also, if you know of anyone who would like to be included in the members list, let Dion or I know and we'll be able to add them in the email lists.

Habitat for Humanity
We're starting up our group's outing events again. We had a really good turn out last August working on roof framing on a house in Reynolds Park. It'll be a once a month event on a Saturday. I'm thinking to start it up in June or so. There'll be more information coming once we get closer to the day, I will be sending out forms that you will need to sign and return if you're a first timer to the group and also information on the location and house we'll be working on.

Thea Foss Master Plan
(David Boe of the parks department has done a master plan but it is not included in this) Ben Ferguson and J.R. Mill will be heading up the event that will get us together for a design charrette on the Thea Foss Master Plan. The current design and development plan is currently on the Google Group Website for you to look at. You can get to it through the files link to the right of the page. They will provide us with more information once things get started. If you would have any questions for the guys, you can contact them at j...@tcfarchitecture.com (JR), bfergu...@blrb.com (Ben).

High School Mentorship Program
This is going to be a new program that is going to connect our group with potential future architects. If you would like to be a mentor to young minds please contact Dion. Though the program is still in the early stage, we'd like to know who would be interested in participating.

ARE Study Session
There is a free ARE study session for those who are studying for the exams on Thursday, March 20th from 5:30-7:30pm. The session will take place in the conference room next to the AIA office at 1201 Pacific Ave, Suite C4. If you have any questions or need more information, please contact Joan Rumsey at joan.rum...@mcgranahan.com

April Meeting
Our next lunch meeting will be on Tuesday, April 15th at the Varsity at noon. Hopefully the weather will be nice and we can have the meeting outside. The restaurant is located on Broadway in downtown Tacoma. Here's their website http://www.varsitygrill.com/index.php. Hope to see everyone there!!! Bring a friend or two.