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Chapter Members, It is a profound honor to serve as your Chapter President this year. To begin, I would like to extend the sincere gratitude of our board to Past President Michael Stills for his many years of service to the Chapter and excellent leadership in 2022. I couldn’t be more excited for the year to come — serving with the amazing group of leaders we’ve assembled on our board. To start the year off, let me offer this recap on the success of hosting our first Texas Society of Architects Annual Conference and Design Expo in forty-five years this past fall. We have heard nothing but glowing reviews from our attendees and TxA leadership on the conference we put together. This reflects in no small part on the enthusiasm with which you came together as the host Chapter to welcome our colleagues from across the state. In true fashion, you have shared the infectious spirit of El Paso that will encourage our attendees to return for a future conference here. Here is a sampling of feedback I’ve received firsthand since the event. Everyone I’ve heard from had an absolutely wonderful time and will be talking up El Paso for a long time to come! Wonderful weekend! Best TSA Convention ever! Kudos on an excellent job! It was an Amazing Experience! By far the most fun convention I’ve attended. It is not an exaggeration to say it was the best TSA Convention ever, and I have attended them all since 1995!
Between members, non-member architects, associates, students and related professionals we brought 1,423 attendees to “CONNECTION” here to the El Paso Conference. With these numbers we’ve helped TxA build back the the in-person attendance to the Annual Conference in the post-pandemic era. We can’t let this moment pass without acknowledging the inexhaustible efforts of those who served on our Conference Committee — many of whom are among our associate members. These colleagues are the real heroes of the conference whose boundless enthusiasm for our city resulted in successfully hosting 22 guided tours and securing 24 sponsorships for the event. Those sponsorships together with a strong show of registrations from you, our members, we brought $27,945 in shared revenue back to our Chapter. Building on the success of the conference, my primary goal for the year is to continue our Chapter’s advocacy for architecture in our community. There is no greater work we can be doing than actively communicating the value of architecture and design to those outside of our profession in the community. To that end, our board is already hard at work planning outreach opportunities and our events for the year. The experience of hosting the conference is quite demonstrative of what can be achieved when we come together as Citizen Architects. With that, I call on each of you to get involved in your Chapter this year. Find a cause that you are passionate about and give back with your time to serve the profession. Take a moment to look at the committees we’ve assembled herein and come to the Chapter meeting on January 26th ready to volunteer on the committee of your choosing. Consider getting involved in TxA at the state level as well. President-Elect Rida Asfahani and I will be attending the Leadership Summit at TxA on January 19-20th where we will be advocating for a broader representation of El Paso in all of the Society’s committees. If you are interested in serving on a TxA committee please reach out to me directly. Finally, make plans to join us on February 21st for Architects Day in Austin to advocate for the profession with lawmakers at the Statehouse. We’ve got a great year ahead of us and I look forward to seeing you out there in the community! Best Regards,
William Helm, AIA
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