Highlights from the Chapter Trustee
The Board of Trustees met in San Diego on November 14 and 15 for their Fall meeting. Highlights include:

Climate Change and the role of ASLA: The goal is to move Landscape Architects into leadership roles to confront the impacts of Climate Change. Now that ASLA is all in on the need to movement we feel that professionals who can make a difference should be leading the charge in words and actions. A meeting was set up at the annual conference to share concerns and find commonalities and find a way forward a fight.

The Budget. A number of the changes have been made the Center for Landscape Architecture to find savings to bring the Budget into the black, the changes were mostly operational and not organizational.

Personnel: A recruiting firm has been hired to find an exceptional replacement for the vacant position of Executive Vice President/CEO. The process is expected to take six months or more. Until the position is filled the responsibilities have been delegated to Ms. Blackwell and Mr. Millay. The replacement executive will have large shoes to fill.

Licensure: If you recall, it was not long ago the Licensure of landscape architect in one form of another was in all fifty states. This was the culmination of a lot of effort of several professionals, many of which were members of ASLA. The challenge ahead is a national effort to eliminate unwise regulation and licensure. The regulation of landscape architects happens at the state level and that is where the fight will be, not at the national level. Here in California we have been addressing any challenges to the continued regulation by the State. Your chapter has been and will continue to be in a leadership roll at the next licensure review cycle. If you were not aware the Governor signed the bill that assures that Landscape Architects will continue to be regulated by the State.
ASLA Web site renovation: The Center for Landscape Architecture is in the process of redoing the whole group of web sites that make up the ASLA web site. Because of the scale of the project it is expected to take 24 months to complete. So, if you have any suggestions as to improvements that you would like to see on the future site let you chapter leadership know so we can pass then along to the national leadership.
Membership: This has been a big topic for ASLA for several years, the problem is reaching the young professional and soon to be professional. If you look at the numbers, the decline is at the Associate level, there seems to be a disconnect. We ask the question how we can add value to the membership, and what form would it take. The web site renovation is one of the steps to add value your membership. In these times of instant communication, inefficient or frustrating web site experiences are not valuable to you. Your chapter leadership will be seeking answers to the Value question. If you have any ideas, please let us know.