Membership and public engagement are paramount to the success of AIA Baltimore and the Baltimore Architecture Foundation (BAF). One of the largest objectives for the creation of the Center for Architecture is to facilitate this engagement. However, we will also need the support of the membership and the public to realize the design and construction of the center.
In looking to find ways to grow our engagement, we dedicated our annual retreat last week to discussing the following question:
With the agreed upon Strategic Goals of Knowledge, Advocacy, Public Outreach, how do you propose that we engage our membership and the Public to support these goals?
The board members and committee co-chair provided responses to this question clustered into three tiers of discussion:

• Personal – How can we relate to the Public and our membership with a one to one connection?
• Organizational – How can the relationship between AIA Baltimore and BAF support connection?
• Community – How can the organizations relate to the community?

From these discussions, each group formed a single action statement that we will use as the foundation for our engagement in the next year.  The three strategic actions based on the tiers of discussion are:

• Personal – Identify opportunities to support personal engagement and make the connection. This can be as simple as connecting members with volunteer opportunities to increase their commitment to a committee or a leadership role in one of our organizations.
• Organizational – Instill a sense of commitment to our 3 strategic goals in board leadership and members at large, and make it fun! Focus on reinforcing our core values throughout our organization to create rewarding connections.
• Community – Each committee is encouraged to identify a community partner. By connecting our organizational structure to community partners, we can broaden our impact.

While each or the actions statements are different, they share the ability to be scalable; these are strategies that an individual or the organization can put into motion. Furthermore, they can be put into motion immediately and can serve as foundation as we evolve. In sharing these actions statements with our membership, we hope you can join us in taking action and building a better future for AIA Baltimore and BAF.