Message from the AIA Oregon Executive Vice President

Curt Wilson, AIA
Executive Vice President / CEO

According to the New England Journal of Medicine, an outbreak of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) was first reported in late December 2019.  The CDC confirmed the first diagnosed case in the United States  on January 20, 2020. The first confirmed case in Oregon occurred on February 20, 2020 according to the Oregon Health Authority. An outbreak east of Seattle occurred in early March.  The University of Washington was the first US college to close campus for the remainder of the term on March 8.  The NCAA cancelled the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments on March 15.  Restaurant dining rooms were closed in Oregon on March 16.  Governor Brown issued Executive Order 20-12 on March 24 which included Stay at Home orders.  The federal government passed the third COVID-19 related law referred to as the CARES Act on March 27 with more than $2 trillion in funding and $350 billion for small business loans title Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans.  The application period for PPP is expected to open tomorrow April 3, 2020. 

Not only is the scale of the pandemic unprecedented in modern history, but the pace of events is more rapid than anything we’ve seen.  All of you, all of us are dealing with this issue.  Not only do we need to keep ourselves and our families out of harms way from the virus, we need to maintain our sense of well-being as we are isolated from all but our immediate family members.  Add on top of the that the need to protect our livlihoods, help our children continue to learn, and provide assistance to those that have less.

The focus of today’s Thursdays@Three is to provide support and timely information about CARES Act programs.

Virtual Happy Hours

AIA Oregon leadership wants to make sure our members have an opportunity to engage, connect, and share experiences with others.  Virtual Happy Hours (VHH), which are intended to be informal discussions with peers, have been scheduled as a venue to learn from sharing with each other.  See the article in this issue about VHH’s for the Small Firm Exchange, Emerging Professionals, and discussion on CA Services and Social Distancing.  Our plan is to continue to schedule at least two per week and identify a few topics to start the conversation.  Please drop by if you get a chance, and remember that you don’t need to be an active member of the committee the VHH’s are organized around.

Resources

The AIA Oregon COVID-19 Resources page was introduced on March 19.  Since then, I suspect that most of us feel overwhelmed with the resources and information we are receiving.  The organization of the page is expanding to simplify the search for information you are looking for, and we are highlighting new and time sensitive information. 

I encourage you to check out our website every few days for new information.  

Remote Working

As Oregon is under Stay at Home orders, many in our profession are working remotely from home.  If you check out most social media platforms, you’ll notice many of our firms are proudly showing their Brady Bunch squared view of their staff meeting together on Zoom or GoToMeeting.  In my various conversations with many of you, I’m happy to see that most of us are at least tolerating, if not enjoying the situation.  

However, an article in Architectural Record tells a different story.  In some part of the country, maybe also in Oregon, some firms are not supporting their people to work safely from home.  As noted above, this is an incredibly challenging situation given the best of circumstances, and it is very discouraging to me to hear that some of my colleague are not supporting their employees.

Maybe their response is based on a fear of the unknown and they need more support to create a supportive and productive environment for their teams.  The COVID-19 Resource page has been expanded to provide more resources for working remotely. I want to thank Boston Society of Architects for their fantastic BSA Firms Best Practices Guide - COVID-19.

Emerging Technology

Wednesday, April 1, 2020 marked the first day of the second quarter of 2020.  Per the AIA Oregon event planning strategy of quarterly themes, we are now in the Emerging Technology quarter.  Our related plans to celebrate emerging technologies are on pause as we adjust to this situation, but we should acknowledge that virtual conference call services are a relatively recent technology that is allowing us to remain engaged emotionally and mentally while we are isolated physically. 

My hope is that we can continue to provide timely and helpful information. Please reach out to me at cwilson@aiaoregon.org to let me know your work situation and how AIA Oregon can best help you.

Thanks,

Curt

Message from the AIA Oregon Executive Vice President

Curt Wilson, AIA
Executive Vice President / CEO

Getting Reengaged

I hope you and your family are healthy during these trying times.  The AIA Oregon staff team members are working from our homes and we are meeting through video conference daily, as many of you are.  We are catching up on tasks, planning for upcoming events presented remotely, and continuing to plan some of our larger events that are scheduled in the Fall. We’ve settled into a routine that is working for and allows us to communicate and remain productive.  Each of us are interacting with a lot less people than we did before, and we suspect many of you have the same experience.  The focus on the T@3 this week is on opportunities to engage and interact remotely with others. 

AIA Oregon Meetings

The plan for AIA Oregon activities discussed a few weeks ago was to cancel all meetings and events through March to lay low and allow our members to adjust to the new normal of work from home and social distancing expectations.  The assumption at that time was that after a few weeks, social isolation would become more significant in our daily existence and we would be looking for new outlets for engagement.  Assuming that’s how some of you feel, our sections and committee leaders are planning on meetings via video conference to move their committee tasks forward, consider new events and activities that can be done remotely, and provide an opportunity for anyone that wants to participate to engage with others.  We’ve added a list of meetings scheduled for April in this week’s edition.

Continuing Education Opportunities

On the Resources Page, under Professional Development/Continuing Education we have added links to providers of AIA Accredited continuing education webinars.  We’ll continue to add more links here as we encounter more offerings, so if you are aware of others, please forward a link to info@aiaoregon.org.

COVID-19 Relief Package

As you may be aware, the US Senate passed a multi-trillion dollar relief bill that moves next to the House.  AIA EVP and CEO Robert Ivy, FAIA sent an email update on the bill to all AIA members this morning, which you can review in our News from National segment.

This is the third federal COVID-19 related bill and the combined legislation impacts most aspects of our lives.  The Department of Labor has clarified that the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) will go into effect on April 1.  We previously reported that it was scheduled to go into effect on April 2 based on language in the FFCRA, but the Department of Labor has mandated that the effective date is April 1.  Here is the link to the mandatory notice required under the emergency paid sick leave portion of the law [https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/WHD/posters/FFCRA_Poster_WH1422_Non-Federal.pdf].  All employers with 1 – 499 employees must post this notice in a conspicuous place (we suggest you post this notice at each location where you have placed your other mandatory postings).  For those with employees working remotely, you should send this notice to each employee via e-mail to ensure that all employees receive a copy. 

We anticipate that more information about the requirements will be released and encourage you to regularly check out the Legal and Insurance section of our COVID-19 resources.

I’ve only had a chance to talk to a few of you this week, so my understand of various situations is based on a limited sample size.  It seems that many firms active in the public sector remain busy and are challenged with getting their work completed on schedule within the context of firm-wide work from home.  Of those that remain busy, some have expressed “video conference fatigue” and are not looking for more opportunities to interact with others through phone and screen.   I’ve heard second and third person of others that have been laid off or had their hours restricted.  I assume those not working, or working part-time, feel the isolation more acutely.  AIA Oregon needs to understand and respond to the situations of all our members, so we can put our resource where best needed.  Please reach out to me at cwilson@aiaoregon.org to let me know your work situation and how AIA Oregon can best help you.

Sincerely,

Curt Wilson, AIA
Executive VP/CEO

Message from the AIA Oregon Executive Vice President

Curt Wilson, AIA
Executive Vice President / CEO

A Google search of the term “COVID 19 Unprecedented Times” has more than 64 million results, so it may be overused, but I don’t know a better description.  As the Executive VP/CEO of a state chapter of a professional organization, I recognize our members aren’t looking to AIA Oregon as a primary source to help you live through this, but we aim to provide you resources to help address some of the difficulties you are experiencing in your firms.  This message is intended to update you on how AIA Oregon is trying to provide assistance.

Event Schedule

All engagements, including video conference calls, meetings, and events have been cancelled through the end of March so our leaders, volunteers, and staff can focus on health, family, and community.  At this time, we have cancelled all in-person meetings and events from April through mid-May, but we have not cancelled meetings that can occur through video conference calls.  As circumstance change daily, we may change our approach to scheduling, and if we do, we will post it to our website.

Follow this link to learn more about our current management approach to event scheduling and operations.

Resources

We added a Resource page to our website over the last few months, and recently added a COVID-19 page.  We’ve organized the page into the following categories:  Stay Informed, Workplace, Business Support, Social Health and Engagement, and Legal and Insurance.  All of us are receiving an abundance of information on COVID-19 and our intend with these resources is to provide information that seems useful to the architectural community in Oregon.  If you have suggestions for additional information, please send it to me at cwilson@aiaoregon.org.  Conversely, if you concerned with content and/or sources we are linking to, please contact me.

Communication

We will continue to issue this weekly enewsletter every Thursday at 3:00, and for the near future, the content will be focused on helping all of us get this painful moment.  We will also manage our website daily to provide access to useful information and changes to our event schedule.  However, we recognize you are all overloaded with emails and other sources of information, so we won’t send email blasts unless something in the judgement of the board or I is determined necessary.

What’s Happening

I reached out to some of you recently to ask you to share your observations and how your firm is managing the work situation.  The responses are very similar, and these are the highlights:

• Working from home is very common.  While some firms have shut their offices and requiring staff to work elsewhere, some offices remain open with a combination of work from home and work from the office.

• Firms are rapidly responding to the remote work arrangement by purchasing more devices and/or updating firewalls and anti-virus protections. Some are moving to cloud-based services because those protections are incorporated. Most firms are expanding their video conference and/or chat apps to better connect remote teams.

• Where staff is still present in offices, some firms are enacting procedures to manage social distancing guidelines.  This includes reducing the number of chairs around tables, eliminating multiple people sitting together to view a workstation screen, and consistent use of disinfectants.

• The implementation of construction phase services is challenging because site visits are a primary component to CA.  Many teams are exploring with Facetime and similar services that allow someone off site view on site work.  

• I’ve heard a few comments that General Contractors are discussing considering reducing the work force on site to better enable social distancing guidelines.  The expected result will be extended construction schedules.

• The status of projects reported to me varies.   A few firms mentioned some projects are going on hold, but more report no change to project schedules.  Some have expressed concerns that due to circumstances, including work from home, difficulties in scheduling project meetings with clients and consultants, and difficulties in submitting for permits, that it will be difficult to maintain project schedules.  Check the COVID-19 Resources for advice about contractual schedule obligations.

Please send me a message if you would like to share your observations and experiences.

Engagement

I’ve worked from home the last two days, which my dogs thoroughly enjoy because I’m liberal with the treats, but even they’ll get bored with the situation in a few weeks.  For those of you with school age kids at home, are they ready to go back to school?  As we move forward, AIA Oregon staff is exploring options to help you better engage with others in our community of architects, and remote access replacements for our continuing education programs.  We’ll update you on our progress.

AIA Oregon uses the messaging service Slack to connect our committees and leadership teams.  We encourage our members currently part of committee channels to engage and share during this time, and we encourage others to join our Slack community to engage in conversations to help us get through this.  If you aren’t in Slack, but interested in being added to the AIA Oregon Slack work space, please send a request to info@aiaoregon.org.

If you have any ideas of suggestions for how AIA Oregon can support you and our other members during these unprecedented times, please reach out to me at cwilson@aiaoregon.org, or message me in Slack.

Sincerely,

Curt Wilson, AIA

Executive VP/CEO