AIA Seattle Board Appointed Role for Student/Emerging Professional


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American Institute of Architects, The Seattle Chapter (AIA Seattle) and Seattle Design Festival (SDF) are two nonprofit organizations working together who envision a culture of design that fosters equitable, resilient, thriving communities. AIA Seattle is a membership organization serving more than 2500 architects and allied professionals in a ten-county area. Seattle Design Festival is an organization dedicated to unleashing the design thinker in everyone. The two organizations are governed by two aligned Boards of Directors who give time to support the vision, mission, and values of both organizations.

AIA Seattle + SDF are deeply committed to JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) in both the internal workings of our organizations as well as the member and public facing parts of our work.
Serving the designers of the future as well as the general public, the two organizations actively lead
programming to engage youth and young and emerging voices in design.

AIA Seattle is seeking a student / emerging professional for a one-year commitment to bring their diverse perspective into Board leadership.

Current elected Board members are design and allied professionals who recognize the need to support a pipeline of future designers as community leaders. They serve three-year terms with a number of responsibilities. The appointed one-year term emerging professional position is an opportunity for a student or early career professional to develop nonprofit leadership skills, network with established leaders, potentially grow into future leadership roles, and help shape the future of our organizations serving design professionals and the public. The invited emerging professional will join Board spaces but will not be a voting member of the Boards of Directors, and will not have the same level of commitment to the organizations as the Board members.

The Commitment

  • Attend at least ten monthly Board meetings of AIA Seattle as an appointed, non-voting
    participant within the year of service, running from September 2023 through August 2024.
    Board meetings are the third Thursday of the month from 4-6PM. Part of this block of time is for Seattle Design Festival Board of Directors meeting which the emerging professional is also
    expected to attend in interest of our aligned visions. Board meetings have been by zoom and
    have recently shifted to a hybrid format, with the goal in the coming months to resume fully in
    person meetings at the Center for Architecture and Design at 1010 Western Avenue, near Pike
    Place Market
  • Attend the Honor Awards and/or a full day program as a guest of the organization
  • Attend a two-day Board retreat, depending on availability, usually in May
  • Support Seattle Design Festival by volunteering at the festival or at a SDF event in some capacity to be determined with the Seattle Design Festival Program Manager

The Benefits of Service

  • Opportunity for networking and gaining knowledge about AIA Seattle, Seattle Design Festival,
    the local design community, and nonprofit service
  • A stipend of $1000 is available for the year of service, to be paid on a quarterly basis in the
    amount of $250 each quarter, as an appreciation of the time and opportunity cost
  • Membership in AIA Seattle with full waiver of membership fees for the year of service

Interested applicants should send a resume and letter of interest to Executive Director Melissa K. Neher at MelissaN@aiaseattle.org with preference to applications received by February 8, 2023. Some applicants will be invited to participate in a virtual or in person conversation to discuss the opportunity, and an offer will be extended to the successful applicant in late spring 2023.

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