Responses to AIA "Strategic Plan" questions

Strategic Council is gathering responses to three questions for its strategic plan. Candidate Thomas Vonier provided these responses.
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What issues should we address in society?
We often hear voices in the profession — indeed, we hear the AIA itself — asking the public to understand architects, and what architects do. Of course! But what are we doing to understand the public and its needs? We must pay greater attention to the political, social and business factors that influence practice, and engage with them more effectively. Our advocacy and influence programs must align with the issues of greatest concern to the public, and we also need to voice our concerns and convictions — for example, about the abysmal state of our infrastructure.

How might the architect's role change?
The requirements for capitalizing professional practice have risen — the costs of equipment, office infrastructure, practice insurance, and the mere costs of being an employer. This translates into large need for basic business acumen. As a professional body, we need to pay much more attention to profitability and the factors that sustain firms. This will mean a greater need to stress — and to deliver — valuable design and advisory services. As architects, we're better positioned, educated and qualified than our competitors. Let’s act that way.

On what should we focus in the near term?
With a reinvigorated emphasis on public outreach, and with new efforts to reshape the fee environment in which we practice, we’re moving in the right directions. We must work harder to reach the most influential policymakers and opinion leaders — not just to help them understand the value of well-designed communities and buildings, but to help them promote these values.