March 18, 2007

• Busy days on the green roof front.  Work has begun on updating and expanding the green roof section of the ASLA website and on developing the additional green roof exhibit and outreach materials for which ASLA has received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.  Requests for green roof tours are coming in steadily and additional staff tour guides are being recruited and trained.  Green roof visitors this week included President-Elect Perry Howard, FASLA, and students from the North Carolina A&T State University landscape architecture program, as well as a group of D.C. officials and administrators who are overseeing efforts to “green” the city’s building program. 
  
  
• President Pat Caughey, FASLA, addressed the students at LAbash, hosted by Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge on February 22-24.  Also participating in the program were Membership VP Susan Hatchell, FASLA, and Leadership Development Committee members Bill Eubanks, ASLA, and Tom Dunbar, ASLA.  ASLA staff from the membership and government affairs departments staffed the ASLA booth.  Almost 700 students from programs across the country and Canada came to listen to presentations and lectures by professionals including Peter Walker, FASLA, Past President Leonard Hopper, FASLA, and futurist David Zach.  Staff handed out fact sheets, green roof playing cards, and other ASLA goodies, and answered questions about membership and licensure. 
  
  
• Cash contributions and pledges to the ASLA green roof are up to $204,906, or at 88 percent of the goal.
  
  
• The 2007 Professional Awards Jury will convened to judge 515 awards submissions in six categories.  Award recipients have been notified next week and will announced in the April 9 issue of LAND Online.  The awards will be presented at a special champagne reception during the ASLA Annual Meeting on Monday, October 8, in San Francisco.  This marks the fifth year in a row ASLA has drawn more than 500 submissions, placing it among the most competitive awards programs in the design and construction industry.
  
  
• A total of 22 nominations were received for ASLA Honors, which include the medals, the Landscape Architecture Firm Award, and the Community Service Award.  The Executive Committee will recommend up to two nominees in each of the nine categories to forward to the Board of Trustees for selection at the midyear meeting in late April.
  
  
• The National Landscape Architecture Month (NLAM) 2007 Chapter Activities page now features events for more than 20 chapters and 2 student chapters.  LAND Online featured NLAM as its lead story on March 13. 
  
  
• As part of NLAM activities, a mailing will be sent in early April to nearly 2,600 secondary school guidance counselors who are members of the National Association for College Admission Counseling. The mailing will include a cover letter asking them to promote landscape architecture as a career path, copies of ASLA’s “Career Discovery” brochures in Spanish and English, and a copy of the April issue of Landscape Architecture magazine with a special NLAM cover.  Chapter leaders will be sent the list of the guidance counselors in their areas to whom the mailing will be sent so they may contact them to coordinate outreach. 
  
  
• Lots of good media coverage:  Downtown Idea Exchange is covering the 2007 trends release and is interviewing Scott Siefker, ASLA. Nels Peterson, Associate ASLA, is being interviewed by Good Housekeeping magazine. The San Antonio Express News interviewed Steve Martino, FASLA, and Barry Landry, ASLA. Rob Tilson, FASLA, was interviewed by LIFE magazine and by Consumer Reports magazine. Ron Leighton, Hon. ASLA, and James Corner, ASLA, were interviewed by Reader's Digest. Doug Hoerr, ASLA, and Clare Ashby, ASLA, are being interviewed by Money magazine. Hearth and Home magazine is covering the 2007 trends release. The Boston Society of Architects is covering National Landscape Architecture Month. Planetizen is compiling profiles of 20 ASLA members and student members.
  
  
• The 10’ x 10’ ASLA booth formerly used at trade shows is now available for chapters to borrow for regional events. Contact Public Relations Coordinator Erin Maguire at emaguire@asla.org for more information on borrowing the booth.
  
  
• ASLA is now using a new clipping service that is able to pull articles from a much larger pool of outlets, including both national and international print and online media.  The enhanced clips will debut in the March 13 LAND Online under “Landscape Architecture in the News.” 
  
  
• A membership reinstatement telemarketing campaign began at the end of February to call 3,631 former members who have lapsed in the past five years. To date, it has resulted in 171 pledged reinstatements.  Calling is expected to continue for a couple of weeks.
  
  
• The March 13 issue of LAND Online included articles on the chapter activities around National Landscape Architecture Month, a wrap up of the Annual Meeting Steering Committee meeting, and more. The February 27 issue was delivered to 14,942 subscribers.
  
  
• The ASLA blog, The Dirt, has seen an uptick in both views and comments on posts in the recent weeks. This week, a blog post titled “A Blog Fight on Global Warming at AIA” has the most comments, and a post on Laurie Olin’s Atlantic Yards project has had the most views.
  
  
• At the suggestion of ASLA Online Advisory Committee ASLA has designed a favicon for the ASLA site.  A favicon is short for "favorites icon" associated with a particular website or webpage. Browsers that support favicons may display them in the browser's URL bar, next to the site's name in lists of bookmarks, and next to the page's title in a tabbed document interface.  The ASLA favicon matches the ASLA logo and will help with branding.
  
  
• Immediate Past President Dennis Carmichael, FASLA, participated in a brainstorming session planned by the Washington Smart Growth Alliance. Dennis was invited by LAM Editor Bill Thompson, a member of the committee. The goal of the alliance is to provide political support and heighten public awareness for regional conservation needs.
  
  
• Nearly 100 meetings were scheduled for the first In-District Lobby Day, most of them on the target date of March 5.  ASLA considers this a success.  Feedback forms show that there is a great deal of Congressional interest in both Historic American Landscape Survey (HALS) funding and the Small Community Visioning Initiative draft legislation. 
  
  
• Traditional Lobby Day is April 26—just around the corner!  We expect that ASLA will be able to build on the positive feedback from the recent visits to continue promoting the Small Community Visioning Initiative.  Staff will be working to secure a sponsor prior to April 26.  Soon, staff will be developing a complete list of attendees for Lobby Day because the scheduling process will begin shortly.
  
  
• Immediate Past President Carmichael represented ASLA at a public input meeting held by the National Park Service (NPS) to collect suggestions for the National Mall management plan.
  
  
• ASLA’s Sustainable Design and Development Professional Practice Network (PPN) released its latest newsletter recently. ASLA has asked the officers of the Sustainable Design and Development PPN for brief case studies illustrating sustainable design elements.
  
  
• ASLA’s Landscape/Land Use Planning PPN leadership is compiling feedback from 118 members who completed a questionnaire in February to determine the interests of this PPN’s membership.