Board Meeting

4 September 2004, Paris

Attendees:

Minutes

by Sandra Zettersten

1. Welcome by Sandra Zettersten, AIA, President

Welcome by the President. Distribution of Agenda.

2. Treasurer’s Report as sent in by Tom McDuffie, AIA

Board Review of US and European accounts, based on email from T. McDuffie to Zettersten.: Chapter finances are generally healthy and recovering from the Porto conference, based upon the potential and real influx of funds from new sponsors. After settling the Porto Conference account, we merged the two money market accounts at Credit Lyonnais.

As of the last statement of 7 August 2004, this Euro account has a balance of €7,486.38.

The amount in the two money market accounts at US Sun Trust is $25,685.84 and $3,276.82 for a total of US $28,962.66, as of last statement of 31 July 2004.

AIACE yearly expenses for 2003 were $14,287.91. The money that is currently in the US Sun Trust accounts represents 2 years of membership dues.

(Tom notes: The Sun Trust account balance provides us an approximate 2 years operating cover, assuming funds to run the chapter continue to come from the US account. With Tamara’s relocation to the US, we may in the future need to employ someone from Europe to assist in the day to day affairs. If these expenses become Euro based we would experience a ± 20% loss ($5,800) from exchange rates to move funds from the US to Europe. Our sponsorship funds and conference fees go to covering conference cost. Should our future conferences continue to cost $35-$45,000 Euros each we will struggle to have any meaningful balance in the Euro account, unless we set aside some of the sponsorship funds and/or raise the events to a level that we have reserves. —Tom McDuffie, 31 Aug 2004).

Budgeting Notes

The Administrative Assistant’s salary is $700 monthly (€8400 per year).

The AIACE is budgeting around €2000 each for the President and the Vice-President, President Elect for participation in Grassroots. If the chapter faces financial concerns in the future this budget for Grassroots will be reconsidered.

These two expenses, yearly salary for the Administrative Assistant and the stipend for the President and the Vice-President, President Elect Grassroots participation will basically use all of the funds that the chapter receives yearly for membership.

3. Treasurer Appointment

Need to Replace Tom McDuffie as he has moved to London. The board thanks Tom for excellent stewardship. The Board of Directors voted to select James Cowey to fill the unexpired term of Tom McDuffie. James Cowey agreed to this appointment. It is the job of the Nominating Committee to nominate him for the full 2-year term.

4. Turnover of Treasurer Files/2 Signatures for Account and Event Specific Insurance

Tom McDuffie will turn over the complete treasurerīs binders to Jim Cowey at the earliest possible time. There is a white binder, credit card and checkbook that should be turned over in particular. The Board decided that it would be prudent to have two signatures on the AIACE bank account at Credit Lyonnais. Georg Berg, in his status as Past Treasurer of AIACE and who lives in Paris, agreed to assist Jim and to provide the second account signature.

Event Specific Insurance: It was suggested that event specific insurance be provided for conference organizers and the board of directors. The board should check into this. Zettersten will write an email.

5. Budget

Treasurer is to establish a budget based upon the above information and present at the Board meeting in Paris. He will coordinate with Tom McDuffie for historical data. Yearly outgoing costs are:

Incoming:

6. Administrative Assistant

Tamara Kwist, current administrative assistant, has moved to New Orleans. She has agreed to continue serving in her position until early 2005 — January or February. She can perform her work, as she is currently doing, per email from there. The Board thanks her for her devotion and her professionalism in running the affairs of our chapter. She is taking the reservations for the Paris conference and will provide the name tags and certificates per email for Paris when provided the names, as they come in.

Mailbox: Isabel is checking the AIACE mailbox regularly and scans the mail to send per email to Tamara. She will give the invoices and bank statements to Jim Cowey.

A person in Paris should be sought for the future to perform these duties, should Tamara not be returning to Paris. We should be aware of/recruit possible candidates.

7. Update on Paris 11-14 November Conference Committee by Organizing Committee

Alan Schwartzmann and Isabel Meinecke gave a very thorough update. There will be 3 Honorary Guests — Gene Hopkins, AIA National President, SEMAPA representative and Michel Seban, the President of French Registered Architects. Possibly, an honorary fellowship from AIA National to the Agha Kahn Foundation, will be presented at the conference, as it was not possible at the National Conference in Chicago. It is not yet know if display space will be provided for member displays.

8. Sponsors

Several of our members, specifically Ray Spano, Isabel Meinecke and Enzo Ragni (Clivet and Moretti) have been successful in obtaining new sponsors. Zettersten and Spano are continuing to nurture current sponsors and following up on recommendations and contacts from members. Lew Koerner follows up with a welcome letter.

Tamara and Zettersten have devised a system, and now a form for the new sponsors who are attending a conference with the welcoming letter, bill, wiring instructions for payment of the sponsorship and sponsor registration form for the upcoming conference combined into one easy letter. It should be used in the future also for efficiency and ease of keeping track of sponsors contributions, participation in conferences and billing.

Isabel distributed an Excel form for keeping track of contributions by sponsors from 2002-2004. Zettersten and Koerner helped fill out the info. Zettersten has most of the information in her AIA files and shared this information with Isabel and the Board inserted into Isabel’s form. Many thanks to Isabel.

Zettersten, AIA reinforced the need to establish a standing committee and touched on the issues of “Friends of Chapter”, partnership sessions, follow-up on challenge to attendees to contact sponsors for product information and confirmation of who is the main contact for each sponsor. Corporate partners’ committee needs to collect information on results of sponsorship. The added value needs to be established.

Since this did not happen in Porto because of very tight schedule, need to establish another time and place: The first Corporate Partnership Committee Workshop should take place at the Paris conference, if time permits.

Note: If our recruiting efforts for sponsors continue at this rate, we should be able to establish a buffer in our European accounts.

9. Section Director Directives by George Berg, AIA, and Zettersten

A report about personal contact with each Section Director from Zettersten as below. It was suggested that when a Section Director is appointed that a duty will be assigned to have at least one event per year and to make an attempt to expand membership in their region.

Switzerland
Maureen Reinertsen, AIA and others coordinated an excellent seminar with Novartis, all participants earning 6 Learning Units and cost 75 Swiss Francs per participant.
Also, Zettersten visited Joseph Föhn in Zurich and he said that he is organizing a visit this spring to the hotel addition-restoration by Sir Norman Foster.
Southern Europe Chapter
Ahmet Alp, AIA notified the Board that he is in contact with Granitas for potential sponsorship of the AIACE. He is also involved in the organization of the 2005 UIA World Conference and continues to contact potential new AIACE members in Turkey. Nomination for Section Director as term is ending.
Northern Europe Chapter
William Sebring. No news. Section Director term is ending. Nomination for new section director sought. [ed. RA]
France
Isabel Meinecke, Int’l Assoc. AIA has coordinated several excellent events for the French Section in 2004 to include Chartres and the Tuilleries.
Italy
Enzo Ragni has promised support and found 2 new sponsors for the chapter and next years conference in Northern Italy. Nomination for Section Director as term is ending.
Germany
Dieter Waldschmidt is contacting possible chapter sponsors. He must follow up and coordinate with Koerner. Nomination for Section Director as term is ending.
Eastern Europe Chapter
Otokar Dvorak. No news.

10. Website Report, Membership and General Secretary Report by Richard Anderson, AIA [ed. RA]

  1. Recent updates to the web site are excellent and goals established at previous meetings have been. Many thanks to Richard. A general email should be sent out to all members requesting updates for their resumes on the website and requesting recruitment of new members.
  2. It was suggested that Honorary Members be listed on a separate web page from members.
  3. Corporate partner page and Current sponsorship links have been updated. Richard would like the Board to review the sponsors’ link and list for accuracy.
  4. Personal resumé pages are being reworked. Previous notes from Richard: We might consider that people need to opt-in to having their data listed on the site. Although it was suggested that a modest fee be charged, the Board felt that all members were entitled to a one-page resumé as part of basic dues, and that the electronic version simply replaces the previously published hard-copy Directory. However, we might also consider a more elaborate version of resumés which for which we could charge a modest fee. We should also consider, that in the names listing of our membership, that some people may not want their contact data freely available. The Board emphasized that the original intent of the website was to provide an electronic version of the membership listing with names and a description of their practice.

Membership: There are currently 170 official members of our chapter as many people just joined for a year for specific conference attendance. There are 232 Honorary Members. It was decided that one more mailing about membership renewal be sent out. A membership drive is proposed by Zettersten.

11. Continuing Education by Dominique Tomasov, AIA

Thanks to Dominique for her continued excellent coordination of this very important aspect of our chapter. Her professional management assures that we have what we consider to be the best continuing education program in the AIA.

12. Nominating Committee led by Immediate Past President, Daniel Herren

The Nominating Committee chairman for the next year’s Board is the Immediate Past President, Daniel Herren. He should appoint 2 other members. The slate of candidates for the following year are to be presented to the Board by 30 September prior to the next election at the Fall General Membership Meeting. Daniel has agreed to do this in conversations with Zettersten and Zettersten agreed to send on any candidate’s information who have presented themselves to her. Suggest a general email to all members eligible asking if interested in posts that are currently open and request responses/recommendations, with CVs, to go directly to Daniel by a certain date.

13. Helsinki, Finland, Spring 2005.

Hans Buchwald has begun to organize and excellent program for Spring 2005 in Helsinki to include hotels. He has stated that he needs to do this spring as arrangements are already begun and his health may not enable him to do this at any other time.

Hans has also requested reimbursement for his trips to Helsinki — up to 3 possible trips — to organize this. The Board should have a conference call with Hans to discuss this by the first week of October. A draft budget must be established (utilizing our Excel form) by Hans and presented to the Board by email by the beginning of November 2004. All the basic organization forms were sent to him by Zettersten this summer.

14. Northern Italy Fall 2005 Conference Organizer, David Thompson, AIA.

A draft agenda should be presented and a date established for the conference. David has sent a very basic draft agenda with some choices to be made on it. A conference call with the Board and David should also be held by the first of October to clarify details. All the basic organization forms were sent to him by Zettersten this summer.

A draft budget must be established by David (utilizing our Excel form) and presented to the Board by email by the beginning of November 2004.

Enzo Ragni has volunteered to assist and has found 2 sponsors so far, to include Moretti who was also a sponsor of the Florence Conference.

Thompson has stated that he will try to obtain Benetton and Facau (handles Steelcase) as potential sponsors.

15. Architects Council of Europe Update by Giancarlo Alhadeff.

As Giancarlo was unable to attend, will be discussed in Paris, and /or Giancarlo should make an update per email to all members. Have no information at this time about the activities. This report to members should be developed and sent out by Giancarlo to the Board and Members and could be posted on the website. Richard: Maybe provide a link from our website to theirs — if they have one.

16. Goals and Vision for 10 Years.

A motion was passed at the February board meeting that an off-site meeting to discuss Goals and Visions for the future of the Chapter shall be held sometime before the next Board Meeting in July. This was not possible based upon busy schedules, but a time and date should be established.

Tamara: Send out an email to chapter members soliciting ideas for the Goals and Visions.

17. At Lew Koernerīs suggestion, the Board discussed two topics that are essential for the growth of the Chapter. These are the results of this discussion

  1. Establish a Committee to actively recruit new membership. A Membership Committee will be appointed at the Pairs conference. It should be headed by the Secretary who is in charge of membership and has access to the membership data.
  2. Establish a Scholarship Committee and use funds available to finance the Scholarship. This would be a way to integrate students and young architects into our chapter. If there is excess funding by sponsors, a scholarship fund will be started and contacts to schools established. A possible name was suggested as the AIACE US-English Foundation Traveling Fellowship.

18. Creation by National of an International Region of which Continental Europe will be a part and Contact with New York Post at Grassroots and follow-up

This item was discussed further at Grassroots in March 2003 with the other posts outside of the Continental United States and with National Representatives at a separate meeting. The Board must adopt a budget which acknowledges that attendance at Grassroots for the Chapter President and President-elect are obligations which cannot be eliminated.

19. UIA — Spring 2005.

Need to send a general note to Alp asking about the possibility of a local AIACE southern Europe section meeting in Istanbul in connection with the UIA. Zettersten.

20. Students

Isabel Meinecke suggested that we keep contact with AIA student groups and chapters — provide a website link to us for contacts when the students are in Europe. Possibly provide opportunities for exchanges with Universities.

End. —Sandra Zettersten, AIA, Dipl.-Ing. Architektin