Dear Members,
Thank you for the privilege to serve as President of the Southern California Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects.
I just had the honor to represent the chapter at the 2021 Conference of Landscape Architecture in Nashville. For those of you who did not have the opportunity to attend, I wanted to share with you some of the highlights of the conference.
Our chapter was well-represented in the leadership of educational sessions on topics ranging from a celebration of the Palm Springs desert landscape to the inclusion of disabled persons in the design process. Our members continue to demonstrate thought leadership on a national and international level.
Our chapter was well-represented in the 2021 Professional and Student Awards – congratulations to Sarah Maloney of Cal Poly SLO, Jared Edgar McKnight of USC (two awards!) and to SWA for being recognized for their beautiful Ricardo Lara Park in Lynwood.
As I mentioned at our recent Quality of Life Awards at the end of September, we were also excited to see our own Executive Director, Victoria Phillipy be recognized as an Honorary ASLA member for guiding our chapter through the challenges and opportunities of the last few decades. We also had the opportunity to celebrate our Trustee, Baxter Miller, as he was elevated to the ASLA Council of Fellows for his many years of service to the chapter and profession.
Most importantly, we had the opportunity to hear first-hand from National ASLA Chief Executive Office Torey Carter-Conneen on the details of ASLA’s 2022-2024 Strategic Plan. In many ways, the plan represents a radical shift in the focus of ASLA and re-orientation into a member-serving organization – something that perhaps has been missing and frustrating for many of you. We expect to share more information about ASLA’s new vision in the coming weeks.
When I ran for President of the chapter, I made it clear that a priority would be to grow our membership back to even greater than pre-pandemic levels. In fact, for many of you who are receiving this message – your membership has lapsed. Perhaps you simply forgot to renew – but I know our organization is not the only one asking for a check. I want to know fundamentally the answer to this question: what can ASLA do to help you in your professional career? Over the next few months, our chapter leadership will be reaching out directly to all of our members – current and lapsed – to find out what is missing.
Our executive leadership team is hard at work planning a slate of both in-person and virtual events and programs for 2022 – including site tours, educational sessions, and membership mixers. Meanwhile, the monthly “Landscape Architecture and the Science of Climate” program hosted by Cal Poly Pomona (and sponsored in part by our chapter) has been wildly successful and is being recognized on a national level – I would encourage you to keep tuning in.
Finally, we are looking to grow our leadership team, specifically with regards to increasing the diversity of voices represented. If you would like to participate, please do not hesitate to write and let me know.
Evan Mather, FASLA
