07.25.12

Changing of the Guard

This past Saturday we held our annual “changing of the guard” Board of Directors meeting at the Herman Miller showroom in Culver City. This meeting marks the beginning of our 2012-2013 Board year. As outgoing President, it gave me the opportunity to offer a few words of reflection on my term, before turning over the reins to our new President, Scott Johnson of Wolcott Architecture Interiors, and our new President-Elect, David Fridlund of Wirt Design Group.

It’s hard to believe a year has come and gone. In many ways, it feels like only yesterday that I stood in this same room and spoke about my vision for the Chapter. Looking back, the thing I am most proud of is that the board was always willing to work collaboratively together and challenge each other do what is best for our members, our sponsors and the advancement of our profession. In the end, for me personally, this has been exponentially more enjoyable, more meaningful and more fun than I could have imagined – and for that, I thank all of you.

A few highlights and special thank yous:

We’ve made great progress with the License2Design campaign, raising awareness of how important it is for all of to understand what is happening from a legislative context in the State of California. Susan Coddington and Jeff Hollander were instrumental in getting this movement off the ground. I encourage everyone to check out license2design.org and register your support.

The changes we made this past year to the student award competition were just the first phase of a transition to an entirely refreshed, event-based competition. Thank you to Edel Legaspi and David Fridlund for putting us on an amazing track here. I’m really excited about the next iteration of the award program coming up.

And I’m especially proud of Bright IIDeAs and this great place where people from all over the Chapter can share stories and information about what’s new and notable in our industry. Thanks in particular to Kathy Beckwith, Michelle Ives, Catherine Minervini and Leigh Robins for their leadership in creating and maintaining the new blog.

I wish the new Board great success in the coming year. The Chapter is in great hands with Scott and David, and I know the bar will continue to be raised on providing relevant, exciting and fun programs and content for our members. I wish the new Board great success in the coming year. Thank you for making this such a memorable and meaningful one for me.

Cheers!