President's Letter: January 2023

Happy New Year Friends,

As we enter a new year, our chapter has hit the ground running. Winter and Spring will be busy; we have our Job Shadow event, call for awards, and planning for the regional conference to look forward.

We have several other exciting new programs that will be announced soon – stay tuned! This year, we are looking to align our events close to pre-pandemic dates. For instance, we are moving our Awards Gala back to the spring. This will allow us to celebrate the student winners while they are still in session before they graduate. It will be a quick turnaround from last year, but we look to build off the success of last year’s Gala. If you would like to get involved in the planning, please reach out to me or Kevin Gaughan at kevin@formgardendesign.com. Information on this year’s Gala will be forthcoming. Please find information on awards submissions on our website.

We will also be mailing our latest edition of EMBARK, which will be our first issue in 2 years! I want to thank, Ben Boyd for making this happen as his last task as Immediate Past President. We wish him all the best in his endeavors. As a matter of convenience, we are using the information provided in your membership data from National ASLA to send you EMBARK. I would recommend that you check your member profile on ASLA.org to update your contact information to ensure that EMBARK gets to you. This is also a great opportunity to re-up your membership if it is due or lapsed. Please note that you can now enable auto-renewal, so your membership never lapses again!

Finally, a plug for those who are interested in getting involved with the Chapter. We are always looking for new members – from seasoned professionals to students alike - who would like to get involved. Ways to get involved include serving on a jury for awards, planning the conference or gala, being a board member or junior professional rep, or being involved with our lobbyist on state legislative affairs. Please reach out to me and we can happily bring you aboard!

Looking forward to a wonderful 2023!

Cheers -

Joe Ignatius, ASLA