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Chapter Members, July is the month of summer vacations and we hope that you have been able to get away with family during this season of travels. On a personal note, my family vacation has included a trip down the length of California following the Pacific Coast Highway to create some unforgettable experiences with the kids. It has been nice to escape the heat for a few days and are now on the back side of this trip - returning to El Paso to wrap up our summer. This follows on an inspiring AIA National Conference on Architecture that President-Elect Rida Asfahani and myself attended at in San Franciso in the first week of June. At the conference we participated in the annual business meeting and cast our votes in alignment with the rest of the Texas representatives for the 2023 slate of board candidates. I am happy to report that all three of those candidates we cast our votes for as a Chapter were successfully elected. These include the following: 2024 First VP/2025 President - Evelyn M. Lee, FAIA 2024-2025 Treasurer - Heather Philip O’Neal AIA 2024-2026 At-large Director - Latoya N. Kamdang, AIA
Thanks again for the opportunity to represent our El Paso Chapter for this important annual meeting. At the conference, we were also able to celebrate the new class of Texas architects elevated to Fellowship this year at the Texas Trailbreak Reception. Any member of our state association is welcome to attend this networking reception hosted annually by Texas Society of Architects during the national conference to honor the new class of Texas Fellows. I urge you to make plans to attend this reception the next time you attend a national AIA conference. The next AIA Conference on Architecture is planned for June 2024 in Washington DC and promises to be an enlightening city to attend the conference in if you are considering it next year. If you have never had a reason to visit our nation’s capital this is the perfect opportunity to plan a trip. This subject of candidacy for Fellowship came up in discussion in this month’s board meeting. It has been some time since the El Paso Chapter has had one of our members elevated to Fellowship when Morris Brown, FAIA was elevated to Fellow at the national conference held in Denver a few years ago. Edgar Lopez, AIA and myself were pleased to be able to attend that ceremony in support of Morris. The burden of being nominated to Fellowship sits largely on the member who wishes to pursue this honor because the requirements for submitting an application require a big personal commitment of time and resources. In the past as a Chapter, we have not had a formal Fellowship committee or been able to provide interested members support in the effort, but this is something we hope to change moving forward. We have been making connections with other Chapters across Texas who have more resources at their disposal which can prove useful for our members who are interested in putting together a Fellowship application in a future year. Our state director, Edgar Lopez, AIA is currently engaged in this process with the assistance of AIA Dallas. If you are interested in pursuing this honor, I urge you to reach out to Edgar or another board member so we can assist you in making these connections so you can begin the process of preparing an application. Finally, July is also the month for our annual visit with the 2024 President for Texas Society of Architects. This year our annual visit with President-Elect Derwin Broughton will be a virtual meeting that will also serve as our monthly chapter meeting next Thursday, July 27th at 12pm Mountain. Use the Zoom info below to login to this meeting hosted by Texas Society of Architects. We urge you to join us to learn more about Derwin’s plans for the year to come and be prepared with any questions that you may have for TxA. We look forward to seeing you next week! Best Regards,
William Helm, AIA
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