| Archive | www.flasla.org | December 2013 |     |
President's Report
Our new 2014 leadership was installed at the end of November, representing five new Section Chairs, several Officers and Members at Large, as well as a new Trustee. We are all extremely thankful for those that served the Chapter over the last few years and those that continue to serve as volunteers. We also welcome our newly elected leadership that will bring new ideas and a fresh outlook on how we continue to move our profession forward. We also have established a new Executive Director for the Chapter, Corey Mathews – corey@flasla.org. Over the last few months Corey and his team have been able to audit and improve several of our internal functions that will make the Chapter more efficient and less costly to manage. We look forward to working with Corey on the continual improvement of the Chapter functions and policies and to offering the best service to the membership. In addition, we will be looking to Corey to help in the development of a new Strategic Plan. With a planning meeting with ASLA National scheduled for the spring and input from membership, we will be able to put together a guiding document for the Chapter that expresses the most up to date policies that will push Landscape Architecture to the forefront of the design industry. In the coming issues of this monthly newsletter you will see more detailed discussion on the updates to the Strategic Plan. We will also solicit your input on how we can improve not only that document but address issues facing LA's across the state and bring ultimate value to your membership. We also plan to highlight individual Sections and design award winners in each issue, praising the efforts and achievements of local LA's and recognized projects. State legislative committees have begun and it won't be long before the legislature is in session. We will keep you up to date on all things related to government affairs and the impact on LA's. Lastly, we will keep you updated on the efforts of your volunteer members and the valuable work they are doing, including the planning of our 2014 Annual State Conference and Expo being held in Key Largo at Ocean Reef Club. A call for papers has just been released for educational sessions. I encourage you to please review the information from our Conference Chair, Deena Bell – conference13chair@flasla.org – and submit a class for next July. I am looking forward to an exciting year, one that with your help could change the way people in our state look at our profession, and I'm not talking about how we see ourselves. I am a true believer in spreading the news of our profession outside our own office spaces, whether it is to related design professions, government officials or the public at large. We are members of a great profession that is as diverse as our individual careers and expertise. We just need to stop telling ourselves how great we are, and start letting everyone else know. I'm hoping, with your help, that we can achieve a small part of that goal this next year. Happy Holidays to all and I look forward to serving you in 2014. All the best,
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Let me first express that it is an honor to represent our membership as president of the Florida Chapter. It is a position that is incredibly humbling to me based on those that have served as past presidents as well as those that are currently spending countless hours volunteering their time for the benefit of your Chapter. While there are several initiatives we as a group want to achieve over the next year (I promise not to describe them all in this issue), one of the most important is to re-engage the membership in order to better understand your priorities. There will be several communication tools that will help us achieve that goal, some from a technological aspect as well as utilizing your local Section Chairs to more effectively reach out directly to the members. To kick things off, in January we will be visiting our youngest members, the students at FIU and UF to discuss those issues facing young professionals.
