The most powerful tool is the human soul By David Ferris We all have dreams. It is not a singular pursuit as dreams can be for family, home, career or personal achievements. As Walt once said "all of our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them."

 

Over the last several months our Chapter President, David Ferris, has been working with Dale Allen, Executive Director for Florida Greenways and Trails Foundation (FGTF), on ways to have Landscape Architects more involved with their organization, the development of the Coast-to-Coast Connector and other greenways and trails being developed all across Florida. We are pleased to announce that at their June meeting, FGTF approved having FLASLA join their Board. All FLASLA members interested in representing the Chapter on the Florida Greenways Trails Foundation Board, please submit a brief summary of your qualifications to David Ferris (president@flasla.org).

 

CCNA Update As this issue has developed, the design professionals working group has determined that it may not be necessary to run a stand-alone bill on the Consultants Competitive Negotiation Act (CCNA). The American Water Works Association (AWWA) has committed to working with the design professionals on a consensus solution regarding continuing contracts. Once this issue has been resolved, we can expect that it will be included in a bill that contains other AWWA items for next session. We will obviously need to watch this bill closely for amendments on the other items we have discussed.

 

Introduction and Key Takeaways In year three of the ASLA Diversity Summit, participants new and returning were eager to capitalize on the success of previous summits and move forward with concrete action items discussed in years one and two. While landscape architecture remains a small profession employing just 21,600, according to estimates by the U.S. Bureau of Labor, the demographics within the profession do not match the racial and ethnic demographics of the country. This discrepancy will only become increasingly glaring as the minority population across the U.S. continues to grow.

 

Highlighting the new members that joined Florida Chapter of ASLA in the month of August! We had nine new or rejoined members for August! We are very happy that you've decided to be a part of FLASLA and look forward to getting to know you better. --FLASLA

 

Did you miss out on the biggest FLASLA event of the year?!? Well, we've got pictures so you can still feel that you were a part of it! Exhibitors, Design Awards, Welcome Reception, Keynotes, etc!!!

 

As you know, ASLA is going to be making a big push for PARK(ing) Day (9/18). To encourage participation, we're holding a social media contest. It's pretty simple: we're asking people to share pictures of their PARK(ing) Day parklets on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, [insert social media platform that uses hashtags here], etc. with the hashtag #ASLAPD. In addition to sharing these pictures, we're going to choose one professional and one student parklet we see on social media with the hashtag and put them in the November issue of Landscape Architecture Magazine.

 

The Florida Chapter of the American Planning Association (APA FL) is proud to announce the kickoff of the 2nd Annual Great Places in Florida award program! This initiative celebrates Great Places in Florida and the communities that sustain them.