Happy New Year FLASLA Members! I hope you are enjoying your monthly newsletter as a benefit of your membership. Over the last year, this forum has been designed to become the clearinghouse for as much information as possible as it relates to the profession in our State. With the rise of e-blasts, and the vast and diverse amount of information needed to be delivered to members, I think many found that they were getting bombarded by copious and disjointed emails infiltrating their inbox. To filter, open and read all the different messages coming in from leadership was a job on its own. This newsletter has consolidated that information, so your State-level ASLA articles can be found in one convenient place.

 

Happy New Year! Welcome to the 2nd piece of this report series, ‘Your ASLA Membership’, telling you just a few notes from our national organization over the last month. ASLA ends the 2013 year with an increase of 1.34% over last year with 15,203 members. Do remind people who may have lapsed in their membership to rejoin and that payment options are available. Please feel free to contact me at Trustee@FLASLA.org if you have any questions or concerns about ASLA issues.

 

Political Issues Next Governor to have Significant Impact on Supreme Court Florida’s race for Governor has already generated constant press coverage. However, one item that has not received a lot of attention until recently is the impact the next Governor will have on the Florida Supreme Court. Four members of the seven-member Florida Supreme Court reach their mandatory retirement in the next four years. This has become a big fundraising draw for both candidates – current Governor Rick Scott and former Republican Governor Charlie Crist, who is running as a Democrat. It has also led to speculation regarding uncertainty in Florida law, which requires the justices to retire at the end of the Governor’s term. Some are predicting that three of the justices could wait out the next Governor’s term and then hear the resulting lawsuit regarding their retirement. A similar situation occurred in 1998, but after Governor Bush threatened a lawsuit, Governors Chiles and Bush worked together to choose Peggy Quince.

 

The completion of Lake Beauty Park is an expression of Orlando Health's Patient First Model of Care, as well as the shared community mission of enhancement, beauty and economic development in the area. The effort was achieved through the leadership of the Landscape Architect, to foster vision and collaboration between Orlando Health (OH), The City of Orlando and a private Doctor, each of whom owned land on this critical block at the gateway to the hospital campus.

 

Featuring: Hitesh Mehta February 12, 2014 at Jupiter High School 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM Hitesh Mehta is one of the world's leading authorities, practitioners and researchers on ecotourism and eco-design, including the physical planning, landscape architecture and architecture. Hitesh works literally around the world as a designer, architect and consultant, and also has a distinguished history in academia. He has served as an adjunct professor at several universities in Southern Florida, while concurrently serving as the Chairman of Landscape Architecture Section, Department of Architecture, at the University of Nairobi. His latest book is 'Authentic Ecolodges', and he has written several research papers on ecolodges and sustainable planning and design issues. Hitesh is a professional photographer, a Cricket Hall of Famer in Kenya, and he was named one of the "25 Most Powerful People in Adventure" in the world by Men's Journal, a New York based Magazine, in July 2004. You don't want to miss meeting him!