AIBC Council Meeting Summary: September 10, 2013

At its most recent meeting on Tuesday, September 10, AIBC Council considered a wide range of matters including:

• A submission from its Strategic Planning Committee that brought forth a five-year strategic plan for AIBC Council. Council endorsed the plan, which identifies five goals of priority concern: Modernized Regulatory Regime; Vibrant membership; Regulatory Identity: Public Interest Outreach; and Institutional Excellence. Effort will now focus on implementing the plan, including a detailed operation plan that supports council’s goals and priorities. Click to view the 2014-18 AIBC Strategic Plan.
• Approval of a Registration Board motion, in keeping with directions brought forth by Associates Resolutions Task Force, that will see only three categories of associates within the institute: Architectural Technologist; Intern Architect; and Retired Architect. This decision also does away with the previous “.AIBC” title for associate categories. These changes are to come into effect January 1, 2014. Detailed information regarding the transition will be shared with membership, the public and others directly affected in the coming weeks.
• Approval of new rules governing the institute’s professional conduct process resulting from recent amendment to the Architects Act allowing for new AIBC Bylaws that, in turn, permit the institute to once again resolve conduct matters through consensual resolution. Council also approved the appointment of architects Selwyn Dodd, Pierre Gallant and Paul Thorkelsson, along with public representatives William McLean and Roy Wares, to its newly-established Consensual Resolution Review Panel.
• A report from its Associates Task Force outlining its timeline and approach for addressing an appropriate regulatory scheme for AIBC associates engaged in independent practice, along with terms of reference for the newly-formulated task force.
• A report from Treasurer Cal Meiklejohn Architect AIBC, which touched upon an organizational financial risk assessment that is being completed and initial discussions regarding the 2014 budget cycle.
• New terms of reference for both its newly-established Act Review Working Group and Diverse Membership Working Group.
• Additional reports from council’s Governance Committee, Operational Constraints Committee and Registration Board, along with a status report from Executive Director Michael Ernest Architect AIBC.

Council also passed motions pertaining to various consent items dealing with policy compliance, committee changes, examination results and registration amendments. The next official meeting of AIBC Council is scheduled for Tuesday, November 12, 2013 at the AIBC offices (#100 – 440 Cambie Street, Vancouver) Members, associates and the public are welcome to attend; please confirm your attendance in advance by contacting Yana Vassilenko by e-mail (yvassilenko@aibc.ca) or phone (604-683-8588, #314).

New Registered Educational Provider: Fontile Corporation

For the past 50 years, Fontile has brought innovative European kitchen and bath products to the Lower Mainland. The company offers a diverse range of products including porcelain and ceramic tiles, stone, and glass mosaics; it also specializes in kitchen and bathroom cabinetry, faucets and sinks. To learn more about all Registered Educational Providers, please click here.

Call for Submissions: Diversity by Design Exhibition

The AIA Seattle Diversity Roundtable and the Architectural Institute of British Columbia invite B.C. architects and architecture firms to submit their work for inclusion in an exhibit of complete or in-process projects expressing the theme of “Diversity by Design”.  The exhibit will highlight individuals and businesses in both Washington and B.C. whose works reflect the spirit of gender and cultural inclusiveness, in keeping with the AIBC Council’s commitment to supporting new and diverse membership.

The exhibit will be mounted at the 2013 Conference, hosted by the AIBC and AIA Northwest and Pacific Region, October 23-26 in Vancouver. It will tell the story of diversity in the profession of architecture through final design products as well as processes that engage architects from gender or ethnic backgrounds that are under-represented in the profession. This might include work for clients representing ethnically-oriented or social service enterprise/organizations, or other projects or actions that address issues of race, gender, and ethnicity.

Eligibility

In keeping with intent of this exhibition, submissions must reflect firms, practitioners and projects that demonstrably support diversity within the profession – particularly through the encouragement of leadership by minority and women architects. The submission must also feature a project completed within the last five years, and whose lead architect is AIBC-registered.

Requirements

• Interested firms and individuals are asked to submit:An exhibit panel in PDF format. The exhibit panel should feature a single project along with proper project attribution information (see AIBC Bulletin 44: Attribution: Giving and Taking Credit for Architectural Services), and be designed in keeping with the exhibit template provided (click here), which calls for a printed board at 22”x34”. Please use the following naming convention for your exhibit panel file: firmname_projectname_board.pdf

• A one-page (8.5” x 11”) overview document (also in PDF format) detailing project information. This should include project name and location, design team, contact information (name, phone, e-mail address), and a statement about the relevance of the project to the “Diversity by Design” theme. Please use the following naming convention for your project overview file: firmname_projectname_cover.pdf.

To access the required templates as well as a sample version of a completed submission, click here.

 Selection

Submissions will be reviewed and selected based on the message of architectural diversity and inclusion conveyed by the project team and/or the project itself.

Cost

There is no cost to submit. If selected, exhibitors will be responsible for all costs related to the printing and shipping of their exhibit boards.

Submission Deadline

5:00 p.m. PST on October 11, 2013. Submissions should be directed to:  communications@aibc.ca.

 

Contacts:

Rachael Kitagawa 206-624-5702

Titus Uomoto 206-898-9354

David Wiebe 604-522-6964

Light House Sustainable Building Centre Breakfast

Building Energy Benchmarking – Do We Need a Carrot or  a Stick?

They say “you can’t manage what you don’t measure”. When it comes to efficiency, municipalities such as New York and Chicago are now taking that to heart and requiring energy benchmarking for large buildings. What does this mean for buildings in in the Vancouver region? Is monitoring energy use simply another hoop to jump through, or is it essential to optimal building operation? What are the trends and tools for monitoring building energy performance, and what do you need to know about the legalities of reporting? Whether you are a designer, property manager, building owner or policy-maker, this is one panel discussion you won’t want to miss. Panelists include Tracy Casavant, Executive Director – Light House; Lorina Keery, Energy Manager, National Property Support Services – Colliers; Mark Hartman, Green Building Program Manager – City of Vancouver; and Dave Ramslie, Principal – Integral Group. It happens Wednesday, October 23, 7:30 – 10:00 a.m. at the BCIT Downtown Campus, 555 Seymour Street, Vancouver. For more information and to register, click here.

2 Core LUs

Sustainable Region Initiative: Coquitlam Breakfast

The Future of the Region Sustainability Dialogues and Sustainability Community Breakfasts are outreach components of Metro Vancouver’s Sustainable Region Initiative (SRI). They involve a series of high-profile debates and discussions intended to help decision makers shape the future of the region by presenting a range of views and stimulating fresh thought on regional issues such as housing, industry, labour and immigration, drugs and crime, regional economy, transportation, energy and agriculture. Please check the web site often to find out about future dialogues in your community.

Sustainable Community Breakfast: Managing Growth – Integrating Land Use and Transportation Planning

Metro Vancouver, member municipalities and Translink are implementing a Regional Growth Strategy (RGS) that includes working together to better integrate land use and transportation in the region. Learn how the RGS will focus over two-thirds of the region’s growth into urban centres and Frequent Transit Development Areas (FTDAs), priority locations along transit corridors that could accommodate higher density development. Speakers include Andrew Curran, Manager, Strategy, Strategic Planning & Policy – TransLink; Lee-Ann Garnett, Senior Regional Planner – Metro Vancouver; Carl Johannsen, Manager Community Planning, Community Services Planning & Development – City of Coquitlam; Anne McMullin, President and CEO – Urban Development Institute; and Richard Stewart, Mayor of Coquitlam and Vice Chair, Utilities Committee – Metro Vancouver. It takes place Wednesday, September 25, 2013, 7:30 – 9:00 a.m. at the Executive Plaza Hotel & Conference Centre, 405 North Road, Coquitlam. Click here to register.