Join AIA at the Capitol in Springfield

Fellow Architects,

We need to capitalize on our success.
Or should I say, “Capitol-ize?” Let me personally invite you to attend AIA Illinois’s 6th Annual Prairie Grassroots Advocacy Day, in Springfield, on March 24, 2010.
We need your help. Even more than usual, every sector is pressuring the Legislature to advance its concerns. With one recent study showing approximately 30% of architects currently unemployed or forced to take temporary, lower paying jobs outside the profession, our needs are among the most urgent. We need the State to focus on moving Federal dollars into building projects ASAP and to clear away the logjams that are keeping the stimulus funds for capital projects from making it to our clients.
Two weeks ago, AIA leaders from across the country met in Washington, DC, to directly lobby our Federal representatives in support of issues of great importance to architects, particularly in this economy.
Before those meetings, however, we met for the annual State Government Network session. I had the great privilege to hear from our colleagues from across the US. Although we were meeting in DC, their most urgent concerns related to the need for their State legislators back home to act, and quickly.
This is where you come in.
Every year for the past five years a couple of busloads’ worth of architects have taken a day from their individual professional efforts to stand up for the rest of us, in person, in Springfield. Last year, we arrived just in time to help convince the Legislature to re-authorize our Licensing Act, ahead of its automatic “sunset” this year. The year before, we were able to help turn back the reinstatement of the Structural Work Act that returned from the grave just a few days before we arrived. The challenges this year, however, and the need for you to speak directly with your elected representatives, are even more urgent.
Besides – it’s great fun. You meet other, terrific professionals from across Illinois and you get to learn firsthand what it’s like to lobby for a bill, to help make better, fairer laws (Did you know there really is an actual lobby in the Capitol where you stand and do it?).
So register today! Fill out the enclosed form and fax it to 217-522-5370 or go to the Events Section at www.aiail.org. Working together, we can make a difference. I look forward to seeing each of you as citizen architects in Springfield on March 24th. Remember: decisions are made by those who show up.
Sincerely,


Eric Davis, AIA
2010 AIA Illinois Advocacy Chair