Getting In Ahead of the Fellowship Cycle (1 LU)

Join AIA East Bay for a discussion about all things Fellowship! Whether you are finishing up your application or years away, this seminar is for you.

The most concrete goal of this seminar is to increase the number of AIA East Bay members who become Fellows of the AIA. The seminar will help members put together effective submittals, but that’s actually just the last step in a longer process. The first step is developing a culture that encourages members to become the kind of folks who naturally end up as Fellows. We want to enlist younger members into this way of thinking, but the young aren’t the only ones who can benefit. As Wavy Gravy says, “It’s never too late to have a happy childhood.” The gist of it is to think of Fellowship not only as an honor, but also as a model for professional development, one that encourages architects to master an area of expertise and share that expertise broadly with the profession. The mastery and the sharing aren’t separate things; they form a loop, because sharing expertise is one of the best ways of mastering it. As Art Gensler has written, “Expertise closes deals,” so this way of thinking about professional development is good for business, as well. Fellowship, as a model, can be good for the individual, for the firm, and for the profession.