What makes an AIA membership truly worthwhile? One could easily offer up some basic examples—discounts on contract documents, the tracking of your continuing education credits, access to resources like health coverage through the AIA Trust—but there is something much more intrinsic at the core of AIA membership, something many of us often overlook or don’t even think to acknowledge. It is the reason the AIA still exists today: At the core of your AIA membership, there are individuals—some paid staff, many more simply passionate volunteers—who pour their hearts and souls into working countless hours to ensure that your time spent in the architecture and design profession is the best and most opportunistic that it can possibly be.

These people are part of an international organization 90,000-strong, with a legacy stretching over 160 years. They advocate on your behalf; fight for the future of the profession and its emerging designers; maintain an institutional framework that brings together architects to explore advances in the way we design; and create safe spaces that allow for those difficult, but necessary, conversations surrounding such topics as equity, diversity, and sustainability to occur.

Here at AIA Detroit, we are fortunate to have so many individuals who are willing to share their passion with the greater Metro-Detroit region, to volunteer their expertise and leverage their connections, so that our AIA member experience is enriching and advantageous. When you are a member of AIA Detroit, you are welcomed into a community that believes quality architecture and design make the world a better place. It is a bustling network waiting for you to engage, and the constant efforts of its volunteers to support and improve the architecture profession are what make your AIA membership so valuable.

We encourage you to join us next Monday, June 18th, for a Midyear Membership Meeting, where you will be able to meet the folks who drive our Chapter’s activity, and receive an update on all the exciting upcoming programs and initiatives they have planned for the AIA Detroit community.

We look forward to seeing you there!