Secretary’s Report
10 November 2004, Paris
— Richard Anderson, AIAMembership
Tamara and I have received the first invoice report from AIA National for our review and corrections. According to AIA National, we have 126 memberships to process. Of these, 8 are Emeritus and 3 are Honorary (although noted, inexplicably, as dues paying to our chapter) leaving us with 115 paying at $100.00.
In addition to those invoiced by AIA National, we have local only members to invoice. These include, by my current count, 29 Professional Affiliate members and 27 “Unassigned” members. These quantities will likely change, as many Unassigned members are part of “conference sign-ups” and may not re-join.
All told, we are working with approximately 171 potential paying members at $100.00 each.
A euro rate needs to be established. Last year, Ray Spano gave us an exchange rate which is based on one year’s worth of data and projected for the next year.
Two other factors will also change our dues intake:
1. Tamara and I have yet to complete a final coordination of our databases. Some lag always exists between our records.
2. The second factor are a few 15-12 members. AIA National offered membership “specials” such that dues paid near the end of 2004 will apply to 2005. I also offered one or two 15-12’s for local-only members, to compensate for problems in processing their memberships. (These went to people who were attending no conferences this year and, as such, received no member benefits for the year.)
On Emeritus members
It took some time for me to iron out the conditions of Emeritus members and some toes were stepped on in the process. As of now, our eight Emeritus members pay no local dues. My apologies go out to our esteemed Emeritus members; Tamara and I appreciate their show of patience and understanding which their status implies.
On Honorary members
A great deal of confusion also exists in our Honorary members portions of the database. Notably, three Honorary members, who pay no dues to National, are being invoiced for our local dues. If this is anything but incorrect, I will gladly work with any directions given by other members of the Board.
Our list also includes Honorary members who appear to be dead. Web research alone does not always bear this out — I have come across one three-generation set of architects — any one of which could have been or be an Honorary member. Assistance with Honorary members in any other member’s native countries is appreciated.
The last bit confusion in the Honorary category comes from loosely applied titles: Honorary AIA and Honorary FAIA.
In early 2005, I will continue my review of our Honorary members and correct their titles for a separate listing on our database. They will no longer be included in the “country by country” member finder but instead have their own page (or set of pages) linked through the “member finder” and “about” pages of the site.
Within the coming weeks, Tamara and I will begin compiling the necessary information for completing our Chapter’s membership mailing. This letter will review some details of the chapter, remind people to look out for their invoice from National (and direct them to aia.org if they have not received their invoice), provide an opportunity to correct contact details and, of course, provide a form for renewing Professional Affiliate and Unassigned memberships.
We decided that a complete mailing to our membership once a year was the only way to resolve recurring problems in membership renewals and contacts. We also have a few members who have not supplied an email address. At the same time this letter goes out, we will also communicate with our members about renewal via email, most likely through the last quarter of 2004 newsletter, due to go out in January.
Membership materials
Building upon the initial work of Tamara and the text of Tom Vonier, a black and white version of a tri-fold brochure describing the chapter has been made available on the web site for download and printing. It is currently linked from the front page and will eventually be linked from the “about-join” section of the web site.
I had some problems printing the brochure from my office in Paris but I did learn this: A minimum of 110g weight paper is recommended. (This might also prove to be the recommended maximum.) To print correctly, a custom page set-up is required for your computer, an A4 sheet with no margins. The PDF file is designed to avoid printing into the margins on an average printer. (A “bone folder” will give you the best fold.)
Members and the web site
Members are, once again, encouraged to complete a new personal profile page according to the instructions provided on the template, as linked from the “member finder” page of the web site. It will be a long time before anyone (i.e. me) can change all of the old profiles: anyway, these are so old as to be likely out-of-step with your current practice or life. When you work with the template, do not add any extra HTML code. The code needed to do things like make one’s name bold is built into the template.
Continuing with the web site
Having moved to a new server and having read more on managing web site content, web site lessons, changes and improvements continue. Please excuse what will be some hiccups in links as the site evolves.
Over the summer, I began reading a text about online forms — to say the least it is something that one could take a good nap with — perhaps with the volume itself as a pillow. Nevertheless, when my “grand projet” in West Virginia is complete, I hope to implement this and also a mailing list. The mailing list was something I had hoped to have in place by now but that implementation included some unexpected pitfalls.
Additional future features on the web site will be an online comment system or method for members to post their own announcements.
As always, the web site works best with content. Much of that content comes through our conferences, some via AIA National and PIA's but the remainder must come from our members. Anything which smacks of self-promotion will be gladly accepted; anything which smacks of promoting some other business will be summarily rejected.
[Ed. note: as a recent example, someone recently contacted me about a link exchange. They had found that we linked Armstrong from our site and were interested in us linking their site and they would like ours. If they had asked to be a sponsor I would of course set the bait. Instead, they were looking increase the search engine rating of their site.]
Other web site notes
1. Some discussion has occurred with respect to posting meeting minutes on the web site. This prompted an informal survey; among respondents, the results was split. Among those who believe board meeting minutes should not be freely available, measures controlling their viewing or distribution were varied. Reasons for keeping them from the public were also varied. Those who spoke for keeping the minutes freely available were more of one voice, as might be expected.
2. More explicit directions for posting of sponsors on the web site must accompany the request and-or the guidelines for sponsors benefits need revision. It is not enough to say “keep it simple” and “just post it”. Also, while I can often finagle a link out of a company name, I sometimes can not. Bear in mind that it is the link itself (not solely the presence of the text) which provides worth for sponsors being mentioned on our site.
—Richard Anderson, AIA, AIACE Secretary