The AIAS serves as the incubator for the architecture profession and its many related organizations. By joining the AIAS, members are expressing interest in the profession and in their future. AIAS leadership development activities provide significant opportunities for students to advance their skills while encouraging them to become engaged members of the profession as well as leaders in industry, in their communities and in society. Many AIAS alumni and Legacy members have served and continue to serve as leaders in the profession today.

Through their involvement in local, national and international AIAS activities, AIAS members who participate in chapter leadership positions are provided with significant opportunities to expand their skill base and to develop as emerging professionals on a peer-to-peer level outside the traditional classroom setting. Through their attendance at AIAS-sponsored conferences like the Grassroots Leadership Conference or FORUM, members are exposed to important experiential and group based initiatives that promote collaboration, networking, public speaking, design practice and skill development. These “hands-on” activities translate into valuable leadership tools that these members take back to their schools and implement in their chapters.

With the challenge of providing affordable and meaningful opportunities for students to develop their leadership skills in a tangible way, the AIAS is faced yearly with escalating costs associated with providing these valuable experiences to its members. For example, rising event costs are making events like Grassroots and FORUM cost prohibitive for students to participate. The AIAS seeks a minimum of $750,000 in endowment funds to provide an income stream that will help AIAS deliver this important benefit to members, translating into significant future benefits for the profession as a whole.

A huge opportunity exists for the AIAS to make a lasting imprint on our future. In an effort to maximize our potential to engage more students, serve more communities and prepare more emerging leaders, the AIAS Board of Directors has committed itself, through this campaign, to develop and strengthen our membership through the quality of and span of our programs. For the AIAS to be successful, an intensive effort must be conducted to offer strong and attractive programs and services to students like Freedom by Design™, FORUM and the Grassroots Leadership Conference which are primary engagement vehicles for our organization.

Support our efforts with developing future leaders by making a pledge today.