Presidents Message – A New Year

February 18, 2014

Kurt Kalafsky, AIA

AIA New Jersey has hit the ground running in 2014. I’d be remiss if I didn’t first thank Jack Purvis, AIA for his leadership last year and I Iook forward to continuing to work together in the coming year. We will strive to put the architect in the forefront where it comes to rebuilding all of our communities across the state as we continue the rebuilding process after hurricane Sandy.

I have had the opportunity to visit with most of the sections at their inaugural dinners and have a few more to go, but in each that I have visited so far it has been encouraging to see so many new faces getting involved to help advance our profession. The next generation is our future and we need to continue to encourage and support them as they take on more leadership positions in the AIA.

We are gearing up for Grassroots in March where we will be taking our voices to the Washington to meet with our representatives and let them know that we have a great understanding of what needs to be done to move not only New Jersey, but our country forward as we come out of what has been the worst recession that most of us have experienced in our lifetimes.

I have been asked by many “What’s on your agenda for the coming year?” But I don’t see it like that. This is not my AIA, this is our AIA. Likewise it is not my agenda, it is our agenda. This is how I approached the leadership conference last year. For those who weren’t there, we asked ourselves some hard questions. What do we do well? What do we not do well? What should we start doing? What should we stop doing? What should we continue doing? Three major topics where chosen and broken down in great detail, Governance, Activities and Membership. We have assigned task forces to further discuss these issues and bring recommendation back to the board for action. This is what I see my role as your president, to help facilitate the will of the membership.

I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible in the coming year. Speak up, be heard, after all, we are Architects!

Kurt M Kalafsky AIA
AIA-NJ 2014 President

By admin | Posted in AIA-NJ News, Emerging Professionals, NJ Architect Newsletter | Tagged: AIA Grassroots, Kurt Kalafsky, Presidents Message | Comments (0)