Board Meeting

15 January 2005, Seestrasse 78, Erlenbach-Zürich, Switzerland

Attendees

Werner K. Rüegger, AIA, President
Karl Hartnack, AIA, Vice-president
Richard Anderson, AIA, Secretary (by video link)
Maureen Reinertsen, AIA, Section Director Switzerland
Lee Luxford, Assoc. AIA, (James Cowey proxy)
Sandra Zettersten, AIA, Past-president (David Marquardt proxy)
Giancarlo Alhadeff, AIA, Past-president (Enzo Ragni proxy)
Steven Miller, FAIA, Past-president (Otakar Dvorak proxy)

Pre-meeting discussion: quorum required to hold a legal meeting. By Roberts Rules a quorum requires 7 of the 12 Board members be present (50%+1= a majority) With four voting members and 3 proxies, we reached a quorum.

Minutes

—as recorded by Richard Anderson, Maureen Reinertsen et al.

1. Meeting called to order by Rüegger at 12h45

2. Elect Norà Demeter to take place of Otokar Dvorak as Section Director Eastern Europe

Demeter has agreed; correspondence on file with Rüegger, Alan Schwartzman, Anderson.
Dvorak must resign in writing. Schwartzman has spoken to him; only the formality remains; appointment of replacement is by President.
Demeter to be notified that she will need to become an AIA Int’l Assoc. member.
Anderson to write email to her about her membership for this year and her being on the Board.
Anderson also to check on percentage of full AIA members required as a minimum on the Board to insure Demeter’s appointment does not exceed the number of non-full AIA members. (See Rüegger note below.)

Rüegger note: The 12 Board members are the 5 Officers and the 7 Directors. All 5 officers must be full members of AIA. Up to one-third of the total Board may be Associate AIA or International Associate AIA, meaning that 4 of the Directors can be Assoc. or Int’l. Assoc. (With Demeter replacing Dvorak, the Board will have 3.) Since about one-third of our Chapter membership is in the Int’l. Assoc. and Professional Affiliate categories, we should try to have the maximum of 4.

3. Bylaws

3.1

Rüegger feels Chapter should have copy on the web site including all amendments; all present agreed.
Schwartzman offered to re-type bylaws; available by end of Feb 2005. Anderson will post them; Rüegger will follow-up.

3.2 Quorum

Will be addressed in May membership meeting, e.g. to allow for proxies at Board meetings, video links and conference calls.
Today’s meeting is pending on agreement by membership in May.

Schwartzman note: In some organizations a quorum is “the number in attendance at the meeting, provided it is either a stated meeting or one that has been properly called.”

4. Administrative Issues

4.1 Paris Mailbox

Chapter has a mailbox in Paris but has had problems with it. Schwartzman noted we have shared space at la Maison d’Architecture in Paris and a locker; availability of mailbox unclear.
Anderson noted Chapter receives only 5-10 pieces of mail per year in box. This could be sent to President, Treasurer, or appropriate officer.
Rüegger noted AIA National would like to have name as “brand” in Europe and having a physical presence in Paris helps.
Board consensus: ask Treasurer, James Cowey, to accept mail for next 2 years; Anderson to make request and change contact data on website accordingly plus send word to National.

Anderson note: Apparently we were working in the meeting with incomplete information and the post office box issue of last year was resolved successfully. The box is checked once each week by Isabel Meinecke’s husband, Jean. Mail issue has been resolved. —2 February 2005

4.2 Administrative Assistant

Current annual salary for Tamara Kwist: US$ 8000.
Anderson noted that Kwist hopes to keep her position and recognizes that the last month has been difficult.
General Board comments: continuity important; work load much greater than with previous Assistants; location not overly important with availability of electronic communication; conferences take up most time and effort; partnership strongest between Assistant and Secretary.
Proposal by Anderson: to continue with Kwist and re-evaluate in 6 months.

Motion by Zettersten: Continue with Kwist, re-evaluate in May (general meeting).: Seconded by Miller
Vote: unanimous

5. Membership

5.1 Recruiting

Rüegger: go for quality over quantity, i.e., mostly US-licensed architects working in our area and professionals.
Miller: we are still a small group among larger local US chapters thus a small voting block in National. Anderson will research the numbers up to confirm. *See note.
Alhadeff: argument can be made that we need more memberships to meet requirements for better representation. A region requires 1.75% of total AIA membership thus 72,000 members — not possible. We have allies in Gene Hopkins and Tom Penny who are on committee to investigate international membership issue. We choose to not align ourselves with New York Chapter.
Question: How can we help National or how can they help us? Answer: we feel we can help them more. National sees the relationship in reverse, they are more an asset for helping London (and us).
Alhadeff: London turned the issue on its head. Perhaps it is AIA national that needs the international components.
Miller: had 22 Czech architects join but only short term; many dropped when National membership was required; too expensive, too few benefits. 1 out of 10 new sign-ups will become active Chapter Members. Membership Committee (Chaired by Hartnack) needs to send letter to glean members from AIAX list.
Alhadeff: Getting any old member does not give AIACE much. We need to draw upon pool of AIA Members who are not assigned to a component.
Anderson noted we have the “AIAX people” list. A quick analysis of this list was emailed to the Board on 11 Jan 2005 in response to an email by Schwartzman. The message can be reviewed by members of the board mailing list online.
http://aiaeurope.org/pipermail/board/2005-January/000074.html
Many (±500) on list are in Canada, Asia and the US.
Miller: Hartnack should allocate contacting people on list to different Directors by region then work on rest with his group. Miller will take care of Asia Minor and Eastern Europe. Work within our component first.
Zettersten: Go back to Carol Madden to ask her help. Some contacts will be no good; get her to do the first cut; provide her with a script.
Reinertsen: “script” needs to question carefully whether potential member has any connection to Europe.
Hartnack: there may be other non-AIA architects working outside the US. He will test this out in Florida and Illinois.
Tom Vonier will assist with draft of letter to AIAX members and creation of International Region. Vonier and Schwartzman should be lead on this latter long term goal.

Motion by Miller: Support the Vice-president, Chair of Membership Committee. Short term goal: keep membership in our Chapter alive and “fresh” by recruiting full AIA members using list provided by National and distributed to Section Directors for contacts. Long term goal: follow-through with “Grassroots ‘05” starting with Carol Madden. Initiative to reach beyond current footprint to other potential members outside US so as to develop an International Region that includes Asia Minor and Africa. May require eventual name change of the Chapter.: Seconded by Hartnack
Vote: unanimous

*Anderson notes: For Grassroots, National defines AIACE as being within the “peer group” of “Small State Components (Fewer then 300 Members)”. Listed as having a membership of 135, we have unassigned and professional affiliate members which bring our known current total to just over 200 members. Our numbers would place us within the “Small Local Components (100-250 Members)” had National placed us within that peer group. —22 Jan 2005

6. Domain Registration, e.g., AIA “brand” registration in Europe

Rüegger: This is an issue with National touched on in 4.1 above; we do not need to discuss.

7. Annual Chapter Conferences

7.1 Annual Conferences:

Rüegger: should only be 1 conference per year; was voted this way 2 years ago by membership with regional ones interspersed. Not enough money for 2 conferences in 2005 as we are €10,000 short for Helsinki; no one wants to use sponsor funds. Chapter Conference complexity has escalated.
Rüegger: never in favor of Helsinki event as a second 2005 conference; month of May is too active. Udine: not interesting for this year but possibly combined with Venice Biennale in 2006.
Zettersten: no one ever voted that we cannot use sponsor money for conference. Need €5000-7000 in sponsorships for one; will follow through with Grace and others to insure availability of funds for conferences.
Rüegger: Paris Conference ended with a positive balance in their budget.** Porto needs money to close out their accounts. Available conference money is diminishing. Could spend this money on Student Aid, Design Excellence Awards, etc. So let’s establish our primary goals.
Miller: Chapter is too small to promote student scholarships; let National do this. Purpose of bringing in sponsors was for underwriting conferences (agreed by many present).
Alhadeff: idea was for one large conference per year with smaller ones in individual countries/regions.
Zettersten: sponsors (and Chapter contacts if known) to date are: CIMbéton, Philips, Grace (Zettersten), VM Zinc (Luxford), Lutron (Ray Spano with Miller as back-up), Eternit (Rüegger).

Motion by Rüegger: we use sponsor money for conferences and to balance budget: Seconded by Hartnack
Vote: unanimous

**Ray spano notes: the positive balance from the Paris Conference will strengthen the Chapter treasury and ultimately be applied to future conferences, local section events and other activities of the Chapter as approved by the BOD in the annual operating budget. —17 February 2005

7.2 Helsinki Conference — May 2005

Zettersten: How do we help get €7,000-10,000 extra for this conference? Hotels are organized, description and program are on website.
Alhadeff: Some Italian sponsors available, e.g, Clivet (€5000) in 2005; Zettersten to check with Enzo on this.
Rüegger: Our conferences are not cheap.
Anderson: proposed that non-member rates be set to cover costs as if all attendees needed to pay a rate which was not subsidized by sponsors.

Motion by Anderson: we should go ahead with Helsinki conference, setting fee at €250 for Chapter members and guests and at €375 for all others. This may result in promoting membership in the Chapter.: Motion Addendum by Rüegger: 1 guest allowed per Chapter member also at €250 fee; Seconded by Reinertsen
Vote: unanimous

7.3 Udine Conference

Alhadeff: since Helsinki was added to the roster and strongly favored for this year; and as firm commitments have not yet been made regarding the Udine program; and as there are many things that could be attached to the Udine program to make it more successful if held a year later (i.e. The Venice Biennale); we might well consider to delay Udine until fall of 2006.
Luxford: it was decided last year to have a major conference once a year. The major one is in the fall, allowing people to attend the National conference in the Spring. Two per year is better for those who can only attend one per year; this gives them a choice of conferences.
Reinertsen suggested Zurich for Fall of 2005 — something small. Udine suggested for Fall of 2006.

Motion by Reinertsen: Conferences should be planned for one small and one large each year. This year the small conference in 2005 will be a single day event in Zurich in Fall 2005. Spring 2006 will be an as yet unknown small meeting, maybe in Milan. Udine Conference will be in Fall 2006 and can tie-in to 10 year Anniversary Venice Biennale.: Discussion: Sections also have license to have Section Events. Small conference needs to have a Member “issues” session and time to just talk. Maybe the second conference of the year has several “nodes” for members to chose from. This brings up an interesting idea about agendas being addressed with results then being shared among members.; Seconded by Alhadeff.
Vote: unanimous

8.0 Membership Advertising Assessment

Rüegger recommends US $50 assessment in the US not to be paid by AIACE members in 2005. He feels AIA as a “brand” is good for us in general but Vonier says it wasn’t successful; no value for us.

Motion by Rüegger: waive $50 fee for our Members.: Seconded by Hartnack
Vote: unanimous

Note: Issue will be taken to Grassroots Conference, February 2005 in Washington, DC.

9.0 Budget Issues

Rüegger: Chapter has a “shrinking ” bank account: €2000 for Buchwald not in Treasurer’s budget nor is money owed for Porto. Reported €45,700 in bank account is actually only €40,000

Discussion: expenses and payment of additional €3500 for Porto Conference. Zettersten notes our bank account is its healthiest in years.

Motion by Miller: €3500 be moved from operating account (Credit Lyonnais) to Sun account.: Seconded by Rüegger
Vote: unanimous

Motion by Zettersten: pay €3560 balance for Porto Conference.: Seconded by Reinertsen
Vote: unanimous

Motion by Schwarzmann in absentia: President or President-elect go to National Conference to represent Chapter interests and issues. Request money be included in budget — US $2000 for one person. Also would like seed money for student scholarships and awards in budget.

Discussion: Miller noted that operating expenses should be taken from euro account. Sun account is a reserve in US dollars and should not be used for expenses unless replaced in US dollars out of our €account at Credit Lyonnais. At any time Chapter has dollar expenses, as long as dollar to euro is over 1:1, use the euro to pay dollar invoices. We need to know if Sun account funds are in CD or part CD and part cash.

Motion by Luxford: Chapter will send 1 full AIA Officer to the AIA National Convention or another full AIA member appointed by the Board at an expense to the budget of US $2000 who will then submit a written report of the voting results to the Board.: Seconded by Miller
Vote: unanimous

Note: Miller feels a seasoned member should represent us. Luxford feels we should groom a younger Board member for future representation of the Chapter. Suggestion that this be the President elect. Consensus was that no single person should receive the payment to go and vote. Rüegger suggested a proxy vote be given to all others who attend from the Chapter.

Motion by Miller: Budgeted Income = US $15,000; Budgeted Expenses = US $21,027. Total funds (US & Europe) = US $34,574. Accept $6027 deficit budget for year 2005. Budget needs to be resubmitted with changes. Allocate projected sponsorship of US $6,027 so that operating budget comes to balance at end of year in order to show income line-item of sponsorship and to balance budget. Proposes a vote on balanced budget with sponsor line item to cover deficit.: Seconded by Reinertsen
Vote: unanimous

Rüegger note: this is the 2005 budget. How about making this the 2006 budget as well for vote by general membership in meeting May 2005 in Helsinki?

10. Committee Work:

10.1 Design Excellence Awards, Scholarships

Rüegger: not good if these aren’t used for our own members.
Miller: should not continue chapter awards program as it stands.

Motion by Alhadeff: we will not have Design Excellence Committee nor Scholarship Committee under current format nor until someone desires to pursue these programs again.: Seconded by Zettersten
Vote: unanimous.

10.2 AIA Fellows Committee

Miller: Would like to head this committee which is presently chaired by Schwartzman. Vonier, Schwartzman, Miller and Arthur O’Leary are FAIA members. Our Chapter is to propose Honorable FAIA members. Miller requested Rüegger call Schwartzman to discuss how best to proceed with this process.

Note: Rüegger discussed the issue with Schwartzman who is now on the National AIA Fellows Committee. Schwartzman would be happy to have Miller replace him as Chairman of the AIACE Fellows Committee.

10.3 Sponsorship Committee

Zettersten: will assist Lew Koerner with this committee.
Hartnack noted absence of a document of formal agreement to German sponsors which may be required by their accounting or legal departments. Miller suggests draft agreement should be provided by the sponsor himself in the form that he requires. Zettersten will send draft text in English for Chapter President to review prior to forwarding to these potential sponsors.
Alhadeff: noted Zettersten, in recognition of her work to date, could be appointed as assistant to Chair Lew Koerner. Appoint Zettersten as vice-chairman of the sponsorship committee.
Lew Koerner is of the opinion that Ray Spano and Section Director France, Isabel Meinecke, be awarded a certificate of appreciation in recognition for their contributions in the area of sponsorship. Those present agreed certificates are not necessary as all Board members do similar sorts of work on behalf of the Chapter. A hearty thanks is conveyed nevertheless.

10.4 Continuing Education

Dominique Tomasov will continue in her current paid position where she is performing admirable services. The Board thanks her for her continued involvement.

10.5 UIA Conference (July 2005)

Miller and Alhadeff will attend. Alhadeff will ask Grassroots for funding and will also ask Suha Ozkan to arrange a cocktail to recognize the AIACE Chapter.
Miller thinks Chapter members should represent AIA at this event; will write letter to this effect, copied to Rüegger.

Alhadeff note (1 February 2005): he has been formally invited by the UIA to attend the conference.

11. Miscellaneous

11.1 Assistance to Tsunami Victims

General consensus is that we as a Chapter of the AIA are not the type of organization to respond to this sort of need. In view of the fact that Doctors Without Borders was turning away funds, and we are needing sponsorship to balance the budget, we do not feel that we are not in a position to respond in a meaningful way to this.

11.2 Board Meeting Attendees will review minutes after Anderson and Reinertsen coordinate their drafts; final copy to be posted on the chapter website.

11.3 Early registration deadline for Helsinki will be 11 April 2005.

12. 17h35, Meeting adjourned

—Respectfully submitted, Richard Anderson, AIACE Secretary, 10 February 2005

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