Lara Presber, AIA, AAA, AIBC, MAA, OAA, NCARB
lara@studiopresber.com
2020 National Small Firm Exchange, International Regional Representative
Image 1: The 2020 members of the AIA's SFx at E. Fay Jones' Thorncrown Chapel
AIA National’s Small Firm Exchange’s (SFx) Annual Meeting was recently held in Northwest Arkansas on 2 March through 4 March 2020. Representatives from each of the AIA’s 19 national regions, 1 international region and AIA staff met at Haizlip Studio’s Amazeum to discuss issues facing small firms and to strategize our objectives for 2020. Three quarters of all firms in the United States have fewer than 10 employees meeting the small firm definition and approximately 30% of AIA members work for small firms. The SFx Member Group’s mission is to advance the mutual interests of architects practicing within small firms, promote leadership and professional development in small firms, plus facilitate and support small firm networks.
The purpose of the 2-day Annual Meeting was to establish our goals for the coming year through focused dedicated Workgroups:
Practice
The 2020 Practice Workgroup aligns with the AIA national's existing document portfolio, which focuses the working group’s efforts to collect, curate, create and make accessible resources to help small architecture firms be more successful.
Influence
Integration with the AIA national influence portfolio of information and combines efforts with the work of the national Advocacy Workgroup from a small firm perspective.
Conference
The SFx supports the small firm architect at the annual nation conference through targeted small firm sessions, forums, events, and guides. The Conference Workgroup will continue to make the conference experience as meaningful and impactful as possible for small firm architects.
Outreach
The SFx Outreach Workgroup will support the efforts of all the working groups to communicate with small firm architects and engage them in meaningful conversation about the profession. Leveraging the ever-expanding array of communication technology, the working group will reach out to small firm architects where they're at and ensure they have the resources they need at their fingertips
Recent events have fast-tracked the availability of some of these resources and in addition to the specific links below, members can join the specific AIA KnowledgeNet by going here and once logged in, search for the Small Firm Exchange under the Communities tab.
Additional Small-Firm Practice Resources and be found here:
NEW! The Small Firm Compensation Report is out!
Visit AIAU Small Firm Series! We have worked with AIAU to collect its top small firm continuing education sessions into one easy location on their website. Check it out!
SFx continues to seek feedback on its Business Plan Beta Template for Small Architectural Firms. Aspects of marketing, virtual practice and small firm practice finances are being added. The results of the SFx / SPD / CRAN survey can be found here: Business Models for Small Architectural Firms.
