Citizen Architect & Lobby Day
Leadership Training for Volunteers & Staff
Carlos R. Hernandez, AIA (LBSB President ’24), Casey Chapin, AIA (LBSB VP ’43), and Kristine Hammond (LBSB Executive Director) attended the AIA’s Leadership Summit in Washington DC, February 27 – March 1. For Hill Day, where we lobbied Representatives of the U.S. Congress, we were paired up with Jorge Garcia, Assoc. AIA of the California Desert Chapter, Jason Cochran, AIA of the Inland California Chapter, and Paolo Leone, AIA of the Orange County Chapter. We met with staffers from the offices of Representative Young Kim and Representative Ken Calvert. The three LBSB leaders also dropped by Representative Robert Garcia’s office to say hello.
The AIA leaders advocated on behalf of AIA members, presenting the Democracy in Design Act (HR 964) that would prohibit the federal government from mandating any national design style for federal buildings and encourages the government to avoid excessive uniformity in building design. We also asked the Representatives to petition the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Council to amend FAR 15.404-4(4)(i)(B) to clarify that the 6% fee limitation for A/E services on non-military public projects applies only to cost-plus-a-fixed fee contracts and that the Brooks Act QBS standard applies to all other types of federal contracts for A/E services.
The chapter representatives attended keynote speaker sessions and a variety of educational sessions, and learned about the process of exercising our voices as design professionals, how to implement new leadership tactics, and heard about successful programs at other AIA chapters.
