This past year was an eventful, highly productive and distinguished one for the Northern California Chapter. We made progress on all fronts with a very dedicated Executive Committee team. We focused on our goals of advocacy, leadership, education and communication.
Advocacy
Chiye Azuma from ASLA-NCC served as President of the California Council of the American Society of Landscape Architects (CCASLA). She and Cathy Blake, FASLA represented our Chapter to review legislative actions that matter to landscape architects in California and at the national level along with members from the Sierra, San Diego and Southern California chapters. Our Executive Committee members participated the the ASLA’s Advocacy Day in Washington, DC and walked the halls of congress and the senate to advocate in person to our elected officials. We also sponsored a student for Advocacy Day in DC this year – Joanna Salem.
Leadership
Highlights include the elevation of 4 fellows – Cathy Blake, David Meyer, Gary Strang and Tom Leader and the Jot D. Carpenter Award to Chip Sullivan.
The Chapter continues to provide solid recognition to our accomplished membership through the our local awards program.
The Chapter joined the ASLA Founders Society by finalizing a $15,000 total donation to the Center for Landscape Architecture. We also provided $5,000 to student scholarships to support the Historic American Landscape Survey (HALS) program.
April Philips, FASLA continued to represent the Chapter at ASLA national as our Trustee and was re-elected to a 3-year term. Joanna Salem was also selected as a representative on the Education Committee at the national level.
Education
The Chapter ran another robust and educational lecture program this year and fostered a new partnership with Stanford University, sponsoring their lecture featuring Kevin Conger, FASLA. The South Bay Subcommittee also held a lecture on Creative Play, adding to the San Francisco based lecture series.
Communication
The Chapter’s strong Emerging Professionals program was run by Katrina Majewski and Gifford Bautista again this year, with solid results outreaching to early career professionals. Katrina also attended the Public Relations meeting in Charleston, SC last year as the Chapter’s representative at this national meet-up. She has been using her skills to further develop the Chapters social media interface with our members.
It was a very busy year and we can’t thank our former Executive Committee enough for their hard work and dedication running the Chapter. We have been doing a great job filling new vacancies – welcome to Gifford Bautista and Tala Fatolahzadeh , our newest Directors. We appreciate your energy and commitment. We are always interested in hearing from our members. Please send us your ideas.
Policies
- Adopted Chapter Travel Reimbursement Policy
Events
- Lectures
– James Urban Lecture October 15, 2015 SF AIA
– Landscape Architects Registration Review January 21, 2016 AIA SF
– Landscape Matters March 17, 2016 AIA SF
– Sketch Crawl in honor of World LA Month, May 7, 2016 SF
– SITES May 25, 2016 AIA SF
– Business Development, September 15, 2016 AIA SF
- Networking
– Presidents’ Gala held December 9, 2015 at California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco – sold out
– Giant’s Night held July 26, 2016
- Southbay
– Creative Play Lecture October 22, 2015
– Shark’s Hockey Night, January 26, 2016 (first time event)
– Stanford Lecture: Kevin Conger on May 4, 2016– Octoberfest networking event with ASCE, APWA, APA,YMF, AGC in San Jose October 13, 2016 - 10 Parks that Changed America Screening in SF – Marybeth Harasz, President and Liz Boults, President-Elect attended on March 13, 2016
- Parking Day highlighted on September 16, 2016
Awards
- Judging swapped with the Potomac Chapter
- Presentation of Awards April 21, 2016 at the Marine’s Memorial Club in SF
- Jurors: Cat Chang, Jim Lee, David Ruben, Carrie Rybczynski, Chip Sullivan, Peter Walker
- Student awards judged at UC Berkeley by Liz Boults, President-Elect and presented at the UC Chancellor’s Residence
- Fellows elevated: Cathrine Deino Blake, Tom Leader, David Meyer, Gary Leonard Strang
- Medals – Chip Sullivan awarded the Jot D. Carpenter Medal for Excellence in Teaching
Funding Support
- $10,000 to Building Fund for Center for Landscape Architecture for a total of $15,000 over two years
- HALS scholarships $5,000
Emerging Professionals
- Tilden Botanical Gardens Tour March 12, 2016
- Office tour of BASE Landscape Architecture May 25, 2016
- Happy Hour June 21, 2016 in Oakland
- Happy Hour August 23, 2016 Oakland
National Meetings Attendance
- Marybeth Harasz, President-Elect attended Chapter President’s Council in Chicago, IL with Laura Leuer, Executive Director and David Nelson, President in November 2015
- Katrina Majewski attended the PR summit on January 8, 2016 in Charleston, SC
- Marybeth Harasz, President attended Advocacy Day and acted as Proxy for the Trustee in Washington, DC in May 2016
- Liz Boults, President-Elect and Amy Cupples and Student, Joanna Salem attended Advocacy Day and the Chapter President’s Council Mid-Year meeting in Washington, DC in May 2016
- Marybeth Harasz, President, Liz Boults, President-Elect and Laura Leuer, Executive Director attended the Chapter President’s Council in New Orleans, LA in October 2016
