Message from the AIA Oregon President

Amy Vohs, AIA
AIAO President

Hello everyone,

I don’t know about you, but I’m working on getting my head around no school till September.  Home school is turning out to be a fairly substantial shift in thinking for me.  I’ve had to learn new programs, new meetup websites while covering the gap in the day when school gets out just after lunch. I am grateful for the many on-line resources out there and looking forward to slipping in some of these programs during the summer..SHHH.  I’ll tell them it’s life-long learning. It should never stop right?

The staff has been busy over the last several weeks uncovering and expanding resources as well for members to better deal with current practices during this pandemic.  We get updates from National at least once a week and sometimes daily to get out information on how to help financially, educationally and emotionally. 

These resources and updates are located on our Resources page https://www.aiaoregon.org/covid-19. 

On Wednesday we discussed how to stay safe on the job site. There are articles and templates on how to communicate to owners and continue Architectural services during Construction Administration safely, how to create your own business plan for emergency preparedness and more. These will also be on our resource page.

Please let us know if we can help connect you with other chapters when you have projects in other states that require regular site visits. Partnering up with other local firms can help ease the pressure to travel while assuring you’re not missing something from a Facetime video walk.

Virtual Happy Hours

AIA Oregon is hosting two happy hours a week. We don’t just drink in front of our computers. These are meant to be informational and assist with responding to questions we are getting on a regular basis.  Tuesdays we are focusing on support for individuals and Fridays we are focusing on support for business leaders.  Please attend as you see an interest. Topics will be posted prior to the events.  In many cases we include attorneys and insurance carriers to provide any support as needed.  We are open to topics that concern you to assist with continuing the practice of architecture and related work.    

In an effort to continue with our quarterly topic of Emerging Technology, we’d like to get a happy hour started to discuss how your firms handle the digital move working with clients from a distance and keeping the design process moving. Please let us know what your favorite platforms are.  Email Curt Wilson at cwilson@aiaoregon.org. 

Virtual Education Programs

AIA National has made several webinars free during the next few months to assure that we are providing enough credits for licensure. Many of these are shown on our Resources page under Professional Development.  We are also adding several that are dealing with virtual design programs as firms share just how they are maintaining the design process at a safe distance from others while not getting Zoom bombed! This finally happened to us Wednesday and it was interesting, to say the least.

Chapters across the country are sharing access to their educational programs as well. When we hear of good ones, we post them to you. Here are a few coming up:

Action Now: Accelerating Pathways to Decarbonization  April 21, 2020 8:30 to 5:00 (6.5 LU/HSW) https://www.aiaseattle.org/event/action-now-2020/ Cost is Free.

Living Future Conference is going virtual as well. May 7 – 8, 2020 https://www.aiaseattle.org/event/action-now-2020/

U of O HOPES Conference  April 15 – 17, 2020  HOPES website

AREs and Emerging Professionals

As most of you who are testing are aware, NCARB is giving a 90 day extension to those currently testing.  We are looking for additional ways to provide on-line study courses for you as well since all those travel plans are on hold. We hope to have more information for you in the next few weeks.

Chris Lewis, the AIA appointed NCARB Licensing Advisor, was present at the EPC happy hour on Tuesday to offer his services and information on NCARB.  Please feel free to contact him with any questions you might have if you missed the happy hour.

There is a lot going on right now and most of it is virtual so remember to take a break from the screens. Get outside now that spring is here (at a safe distance that is). My yard is getting some much-needed attention and my dog is getting more walks.  Remember to be patient with each other as stress has a funny way of popping up once in a while, surprising us all. 

I look forward to seeing you soon,

Amy Vohs

AIA Oregon President

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