Message from the ASID AZ North President

It’s a new year and a new decade and I completed my first quarter as your Chapter President. No one needs a reminder of just how rapidly the economic growth we all enjoyed in the past decade slowed to a crawl in 2009. It has been described as the worst economic slowdown in 75 years, and this past year challenged all of us just to survive. Still, our design community has proven to be very resilient. Many firms took actions of ‘positioning for the future’ by downsizing operations leading to unemployment or underemployment and customers downsized or delayed starting projects. Just how soon a favorable future presents itself remains elusive, but we can be sure it will come in time and with effort. Despite all of the uncertainty, new products are being introduced, some hiring is taking place, and small projects are moving forward. Members remain passionate about design, and although the numbers are lower than we want, new members join our community every week and many more express the aspiration to join in the future. All of the members of the Board continue to focus on 3 areas that we feel are critical for our success in the new decade: 

Increase Professional Success
Build Relationships
Increase the Visibility of the Interior Design Profession 

So, how are we doing? We really kicked you know what and accomplished a lot of our goals and strategies inour work plan in just our first quarter: 

• Phoenix Home & Garden and Phoenix Magazine, the most prestigious media outlets for the design industry inour market are now our media partners for our Design Competition Awards and so much more.
• PR consultant Naomi Anderson is also a member of our team telling our story over and over again in variousways for maximum media results.
• Opening up our greatly attended (250-300 attendees at each) membership meetings to the design community convinced many to join our vibrant chapter. New students have also joined from our membership/pizza drive at all of the local schools.
• Our search for new customers found us installing a 50sf ASID exhibit at the 12-week-old Home & Design Idea Center. Marketing materials focus on how to find (chapter website) and hire a professional designer.
• Emergency CEU’s were coordinated with Sherwin-Williams and ProSource for assistance with end of year CEU compliance.
• New Creative Brief was launched to keep us up to date with all of the latest and greatest information once a month.
• One-year event calendar published as an insert to our Desert Design Magazine to keep our schedules synchronized.
• Thirty volunteers assisted Habitat for Humanity on their net zero 5-day Platinum build during the Greenbuild conference week.
• IIDA agreed to a partnership on the UNVEILED trade show in September.
• And we did our first VIP (Volunteer Incentive Program) drawing at our first Happy Hour in December. 

The next quarter (January – March 2010) is just as busy as we continue working our plan that will result in tremendous benefits to members in the years ahead. Our goals include: 

• Student Charette Competition and Student Career Day
• All day, all ASID build day, with Habitat for Humanity 2/13/10
• Winter Desert Design Magazine
• Design for Hire public event
• Call for entries for Awards Competition
• Fundraiser
• 2010 Membership Directory
• ASID/Phoenix Home & Garden/Phoenix Magazine Exhibit, Arizona Style Showplace February 12 –14, 2010 at Scottsdale Quarter. 

We remain dedicated to serving you, our members. Please remain dedicated to your organization by renewingyour membership dues. A proportion of your dues is the largest source of revenue for our chapter and allows us to deliver all of the programs that benefit so many. Thank you for your support and your involvement in advancing our profession. I look forward to representing you in the coming year and will do everything I can to make sure that the best days in Interior Design remain ahead of us. Here is to the new year and a new decade of bringing beauty and function to our world - Where Design Comes to Life!

Brenda Strunk, ASID
2009-10 ASID AZ North Chapter President