August 15, 2011 Edit
July 2011 Trustee’s Report
Some of the highlights from our National Office the past month are as follows:
Governance and Administration
• EVP Nancy Somerville, Hon. ASLA, and CFO Michael O’Brien met with their American Planning Association counterparts on July 7. Discussions covered employee benefits, budget and audit processes and issues, continued collaboration on education programming and advocacy, and other areas.
Government Affairs
• The 2011 Advocacy Summit was held in Alexandria, VA, with 29 chapter representatives. Summiteers discussed a variety of issues, including local chapter advocacy, grassroots, and Complete Streets. The Public Awareness Summit is being held concurrently with the Advocacy Summit (see more in that section) and the weekend closed with a joint session to explore strategies for leveraging advocacy and awareness efforts to support both areas.
• In response to Chairman John Mica’s (FL) six-year transportation proposal that would eliminate the Transportation Enhancements, Safe Routes to School, and the Recreational Trails programs, ASLA advocates sent nearly 1,300 messages to legislators urging them to support these critical programs in a reauthorization of the surface transportation law. ASLA is working with several transportation coalitions, including Transportation For America, National Complete Streets Coalition, Safe Routes to School National Partnership, and others to prevent the Mica proposal from moving forward. For example, ASLA has joined Transportation For America and other transportation organizations in sending a letter to Chairman John Mica (FL) requesting that he reconsider eliminating programs for bicycle and pedestrian projects and to provide adequate funding for transit programs.
• Good news! Senator Jack Reed (RI) and Representative John Sarbanes (MD) have re-introduced S.1372 and H.R. 2547, the No Child Left Inside Act (NCLI). ASLA is a member of the national No Child Left Inside Coalition and is working to have this legislation signed into law.
Public Relations and Communications
• The inaugural Public Awareness Summit tooks place with the Advocacy Summit on July 22-24 in Alexandria, VA. Representatives from ASLA’s 48 chapters convened to plan implementation of a campaign to raise public understanding of the profession of landscape architecture.
• Planned 08.17.11 activities are cropping up across the country. Follow this map for updates on who is doing what.
• Staff are working with Water Garden News, Water Efficiency Magazine, Total Landscape Care, the Atlanta Business Chronicle, Design Bureau magazine and the Columbus Business Journal on stories about the profession.
Professional Practice
• ASLA will again be a sponsor of the New Partners for Smart Growth (NPSG) conference, to be held February 2-4, 2012 in San Diego. The agreement signed by ASLA and NPSG entitles ASLA to several complimentary registrations at the meetings, a display table, and printing of ASLA’s name and logo on promotional materials for the meeting. In return, ASLA will promote the 2012 NPSG conference through Landscape Architecture magazine and LAND.
Dave
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