CALIFORNIA
FOCUS
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| American Institute of Building Design
California Society Newsletter |
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| Society News, Happenings & Important Information to Use |
AUTUMN - 2009 | |
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RED LETTER DAYS:
MARK THESE DATES December 10, 2009
Board Meeting via internet conference
March, 2010
California Society Conference and Board Meeting, San Luis Obispo, California
August 11 - 14, 2010 National Convention, Portland, Oregon Redux!
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CONTACT US:
AIBD, California Society
413 Capitola Ave
Capitola, CA 95010
Phone:
916-541-1576 Cell
831-479-1452 Office
831-479-1476 Fax
www.aibdca.org
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MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
Members of the AIBD Board were able to convince the
California Architectural Board, that there was no need to change the exemption
section of the California State Business Code.
I want to thank all those members
who attended the various meetings this past year. A special thanks goes to Jeff Rice, for his
efforts. Please see the Legislative Corner, below, for a full report.
The Annual Conference will be in the first two weeks of
March 2010. Please save some time during
those weeks to come to San Luis Obispo.
We hope to have the final dates in a few weeks and have secured great room rates
for Sun, Mon, and Tues at $119.00 per night. We are opting to change from the usual Thurs, Fri, Sat format to realize substantial savings on the room rates. We
plan on having several faculty members from Cal Poly lead our educational seminars. Caroline Loisos has set the stage for this to
happen, and is working with myself, Diane, and the Dean of the School of Architecture to create a fantastic day of seminars.
At the National Convention in Portland in July, the Society Presidents of
Oregon and Washington and I talked about having a "Best in the West", western
regional design competition. I am
working with John Ford to put together the competition. Watch for more news of this in the future.
I have appointed a special committee of Jeff Rice and Carole
Chapman to put on some one day seminars on "what you should know about state law and
running a design business."
The intent is to have these seminars given around the state this coming year.
Happy Fall
Richard Emigh President, AIBD, California Society
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CHAPTER NEWS!!!
SAN DIEGO Chapter is scheduling regular meetings for the third Tuesday of every other month. Upcoming meetings are slated for June 16, Aug. 12 and Dec. 15.
Contact Caroline Loisos (760-494-7722, caroline@loisosdesign.com ) or Alan Austin (619-440-3624, agenthavana@cox.net) for additional information.
AIBD San Diego Chapter Meeting
Vinyl Masters - Local Window Factory Tour Tues., Oct.
20th, 12pm.
(Lunch included!)
Jeff Rice has created a PowerPoint slide presentation for the California Architects Board meeting (see Legislative News in this issue!) and is in process of adapting it for use as a recruiting tool! Watch this space for news of its availability and details of how you can access it for use in your local chapter!!!
Chapter Presidents! Please submit your Chapter news and dates for this space. Deadline for WINTER 2009 issue is December 15, 2009.
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WELCOME
TO THIS NEW MEMBER!
Ian St.
John Brown
21133 Victory
Blvd Suite 225
Canoga
Park
Phone 818-704-7804
Fax 818-704-4724
Email isbdesign@sbcglobal.net
Ian has 25 years of design experience, including 6 years in
the United Kingdom. The last 19 years as the owner of the ISB
Design Group. While in the United Kingdom he worked in Choricy and Preston,
Lancashire in Architectural firms. He was a member of MSAAT, the UK equivalent
to AIBD.
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NATIONAL REPORT
by Gordon Hoehle
Due to reduced attendance, the national convention in
Portland, Oregon, this past July, fell short of the required room reservation
minimum. To mitigate the resulting surcharge, next year's convention
will be held, once again, in Portland, August 11 - 14, 2010. Sites for upcoming national
conventions will be Michigan in 2011, North Carolina in 2012 and, hopefully,
California in 2013 - although no contracts for any of these sites have been signed, as yet. Stay tuned! |
HUMOR CORNER
UNCLEAR ON THE CONCEPT!
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LEGISLATIVE CORNER
by Jeff Rice
What's happened and what's happening in our State Government!
Legislative Committee Report
September, 2009
On September 17th, the California Architects
Board held their regularly scheduled meeting at Pier One in San Francisco. During that meeting, Jeffrey Rice of AIBD-CS
(American Institute of Building Design - California Society) and Doug Stead of
CCIDC (California Coalition of Interior Design Certification) were to give
presentations to the board regarding their respective certification
programs. The purpose of the
presentation was to provide information and education to the board members
about unlicensed individuals providing residential design services in the
state. However, before that presentation
could be made, a board member made a motion to dispense with the presentations
and to remove the Strategic Plan Objective to "...investigate the need to
increase consumer protection in the current exempt areas of architectural
practice." The president of the board
asked if there was any discussion or questions.
Mr. Rice and Mr. Stead, as well as California Society President Richard
Emigh and board member Larry Golden, the Vice-President of CCIDC and a
representative of ASID, were allowed to respond to questions and make statements. Following the discussion, the board voted to
approve the motion and to completely remove the objective from the Strategic
Plan.
Thus ended the saga that started in December, 2008, with
the Architects Board voting to create an objective for the Regulatory and
Enforcement Committee that would "...explore the feasibility of eliminating
the license exemption for residential designers." Having learned of this threat to their
professional livelihoods, the AIBD-CS board went into action. They immediately made contact with other
design groups who would be affected by the elimination of the legal exemptions
to the Architects Practice Act in order to create a unified front to fight this
issue. They wrote letters to the CAB and
asked to be allowed to address the issue at its next meeting. On March 19, 2009, in San Diego, the CAB held a board meeting. At this meeting, representatives of AIBD-CS
and CCIDC, CLCID, and ASID were there to make public comment on the objective.
(See Spring 2009 AIBD newsletter report on
that meeting.)"
As a result of this dialogue with the CAB over the right
of unlicensed individuals to design residences in the state, the chair of the
Regulatory and Enforcement Committee, Larry Guido, stated that their committee
did not really believe there was a real problem with
unlicensed designers and proposed to remove the objective from the
Strategic Plan. That proposal was
defeated by one vote. However, it was
clear that the CAB was not prepared for the opposition and after some
discussion, a proposal was made to change the objective from one of trying to eliminate
the exemptions entirely to one of initiating "...a dialogue with
residential designers, interior designers, and other interested parties to
investigate the need to increase consumer protection in the current exempt
areas of architectural practice." [From CAB staff report]
The first step toward this objective was to invite
Jeffrey Rice and Douglas Stead to attend a meeting of the Regulatory and
Enforcement Committee and present their respective organization's structure and
certification programs. As a result of
this effort, the REC voted to recommend to the CAB that this issue should not
be pursued.
The following is taken from the Agenda package prepared
by CAB staff for the use of the board members at the September meeting:
The consensus of the REC during the meeting was that
this issue did not warrant pursuing.
Some of the specific comments included
- Government regulates too much now.
- This will eliminate competition,
thereby allowing licensees to dominate the field.
- The Board should not regulate a profession
that has never had complaints against it.
- Staff is not being increased and is
already over-extended with significant issues.
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Not a health, safety, and welfare
issue.
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If there was a specific problem that
could be focused on, then it could be discussed. But until there is a problem,
why waste the time.
- [Member] has represented design
professionals exclusively for over 20 years and in all that time, he/she only
represented one interior designer in a lawsuit.
- In [member's] experience in insuring architects
engineers and other design professionals for 30 years, [member] found that
interior designers and building designers do not receive claims.
The REC also suggested
that additional data would be helpful to the Board. Of the 296 total
complaints closed by the
Board in 2008, approximately 28 (9%) of them initially alleged technical
incompetence against unlicensed individuals. The vast majority of the remainder
of the unlicensed complaints (199) involve title violations( for which we issue
citations and penalties) and fee disputes (for which we do not have
jurisdiction- for licensees or unlicensed persons).
In addition, the Board
will hear presentations from Messrs Rice and Stead who will offer a
comprehensive overview about each of their organizations' certification
programs and related consumer protection issues.
In light of the REC's
consensus the Board is being asked to not pursue this objective as there is no
evidence of a problem.
It is the Legislative Committee's consensus that,
although this particular threat has now been stopped, the history of the
architectural community's desire to eliminate all unlicensed practice in the
state would make us believe that this issue will never be permanently put to
rest. It is imperative that building
designers and interior designers who wish to continue to practice in the exempt
areas of the Architects Practice Act will need to stay ever vigilant to all
attempts to remove these legal exemptions.
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Continuing Education Deadline Looms!
Have you met your Continuing Education Credit Requirements for 2009?
CABEC is now offering the
one-day CEPE Webcast Training for the 2008 Energy Efficiency Standards at no
cost! The date of the webcast training is October 26, and it will run
from 9:00 a.m. to approximately 4:00 p.m.
If you wish to attend this training, please be sure to fax,
e-mail, or mail your registration form in to me by October 19, and I will make
sure you are registered.
You will receive a link to download the training manual and
instructions on how to connect to the webcast sometime the week of October 19.
If you wish to certify as a CEPE you will need to register
to take the exam before November 10.
Kim Coolbaugh
CABEC Executive Director
9974 Scripps Ranch Blvd. #130
San Diego, CA 92131
(877) 530-3045 Toll Free Long Distance
(858) 530-3045 Fax and Local Phone
Click to email
Here are some other sources for on-line continuing education - some are free, some are not:
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IT'S DESIGN COMP TIME!
It is just a little over four months until our California
Society Design Competition entries are due. We continue to try and make it as
simple as possible to enter so that all of our members can participate.
This year there will be about a dozen categories covering
all of the work we do as designers. Everything from custom homes of all sizes
to individual construction details.
For those of you who
have some time on your hands, why not dust off that drafting table and practice
your design skills by entering the Unbuilt Design category? Simply come up with a floor plan, four
elevations, a typical site plan and any sections you may like and submit it. As
we did last year, there will be no fee for the Unbuilt Design entries in the
hope that all of our members can participate.
To enter, simply contact John Ford at (559)323-4375 or email
jfdraw@aol.com to receive the entry forms.
You will fill in the forms, reduce some of your drawings, take some photos and
submit your entry. You can mail in your entry, or, as most members do, email
your entry. The Design Comp Committee with print your photos and put your entry
packet together for you (too easy!)
For those of you that have never entered before, we can send
to a sample entry to let you see what it is all about. If you have questions,
give John Ford a call. This is a fabulous way to get recognition for your work
and is invaluable as an advertising tool.
A big spread in your local newspaper highlighting your winning designs
is a great way to get new clients!!!
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DETAIL CORNER
MEMBER
CONTRIBUTIONS NEEDED HERE: SUBMIT YOUR INTERESTING, DIFFERENT, ODD,
USEFUL, PROBLEM-SOLVING, AND/OR UNIQUE DETAIL DRAWINGS FOR PUBLICATION.
CLICK HERE TO EMAIL FOR MORE INFO
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 BACK TO THE OLD DRAWING
BOARD
Musings of Veteran Designer
As I see it!
This column is a bunch of unrelated, rambling thoughts,
questions and observations: The kind of things that stick in your mind or niggle at you for
a moment or two. I'm sure you all have a
few of your own (send them to me and I'll put them in the next newsletter!) Some
of these are from an email sent to me by a friend who regularly shares jokes
and interesting stuff. Some of them are
thoughts of my own. Some are
the observations of spouse and friends.
Regardless, they are worth a giggle or two.
More often than not, when someone is telling me a story,
all I can think about is that I can't wait for them to finish so that I can
tell my own story that's not only better, but also more directly involves me.
Nothing sucks more than that moment during an
argument when you realize you're wrong.
I don't understand the purpose of the line,
"I don't need to drink to have fun." Great, no one does. But why
start a fire with flint and sticks when they've invented the lighter?
I totally take back all those times I didn't want
to nap when I was younger.
There is a great need for sarcasm font.
I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery
bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.
I have a hard time deciphering the fine line
between boredom and hunger. Whenever
someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart", all I hear
is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart".
Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they
told you how the person died.
Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the
whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get
so incredibly nervous? Like I know my
name, I know where I'm from, this shouldn't be a problem....
You never know when it will strike, but there
comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing
anything productive for the rest of the day.
I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of
Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page specification
that I swear I did not make any changes to.
Why is a school zone 20
mph? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for pedophiles...
As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a
pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I
always hate cyclists.
Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive
times and still not know what time it is.
It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.
Even if I knew your social security number, I
wouldn't know what do to with it.
I am convinced that placing your hinny on one of those impossibly small bicycle seats triggers smugness and arrogance in otherwise perfectly delightful people.
Even under ideal conditions people have trouble
locating their car keys in a pocket, hitting the G-spot, and Pinning the Tail
on the Donkey - but I'd bet my patootie everyone can find and push the Snooze
button from 3 feet away,
in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time...
We need to go back to the Pony Express and the
telegraph. We all know waaaay too much,
waaaay too soon. 75% of the stories on
the news wouldn't be news if we had to wait two weeks to hear them.
The new DVR is killing me.
I set it up to record two shows that I like, on at the same time. Then I have to go to bed at 8:00pm to watch,
on the bedroom TV, the baseball game or a third show that is in the same time
slot. I'M GOING TO BED AT 8:00 PM!
Speaking of TV:
Check out the new Ken Burns Series on The National Parks: America's Best Idea on PBS. The first segment on Yosemite, Yellowstone
and Alaska was terrific!
Carole Chapman
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