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Dear Colleagues and Friends,
It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve as your Chair of the ASID National Board of Directors. We have accomplished so much this past year – all due to the perseverance and dedication of our members and design community. I’m grateful to each and every one of you, and especially to those who took time to reach out.
My opening salvo last fall was “Let’s get to work!”, and that we have. We have accomplished so much this year through the leadership of our CEO, Khoi Vo. This has been an exciting time for our organization as we have tackled so many of the objectives shelved during the pandemic. As I have stated before, a debt of gratitude is owed to my predecessors who built a strong foundation and path for us to follow. If you’d like a recap of the year’s successes, I encourage you to watch the State of the Society delivered at GATHER this past August. You helped build our success through your feedback and suggestions and you all share in the kudos for a year well-served.
In a nutshell, we increased our social media and media outreach exponentially, brought back our 2nd annual national conference, restored the NCIDQ prep program, expanded small business benefits (including health insurance!), added a project-based FOCUS awards program to our many offerings of member-based recognition, awarded multiple grants through the Foundation Transform program, introduced our new virtual communities platform with more to come, and overhauled our member structure to be more inclusive and provide more quality leadership opportunities. Whew!
I can’t think of a better time to be an ASID member. At GATHER, Khoi and I introduced a challenge to every member to bring a plus one ( +1 | PLUS+1) to your next chapter meeting, gathering or event. The last few years have been challenging for all of us and we need to strengthen the ties between mentors and new and emerging designers. Please think of one person and invite them to join you at an ASID event. #ASIDPlusOne We remain the largest and most inclusive design organization and we’d love to include and honor even more voices in our journey to be THE advocate and resource for the profession.
Lastly, I salute our incoming Chair, John Cialone, and Chair-Elect, David Euscher. We are in great hands with such thoughtful and dynamic leadership in the coming years. To our entire team at Headquarters, thank you for your unwavering dedication and hard work – you make me even more proud to represent ASID. To our Board of Directors, you are amazing. To Past-Chair, Carolyn Ames Noble, you really CAN do anything. To all of the Fellows, Ones to Watch, Chapter Leaders, Design Communities, and Members everywhere, you inspire me and I hope our paths will cross soon.
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