AIA Northeast Texas - Tyler, Texas

At the TSA grassroots meeting January 15-16, we had a good briefing by TSA staff about a lot of the relevant aspects of the organization. A lot of you already know this, but I will remind you that the TSA Website (http://texasarchitect.org) is full of information pertinent to our profession. The Government Advocacy tab is full of important information on current legislative proposals that directly affect our ability to make a living. One important aspect is getting a practice act that requires Architects for projects in line with that requiring engineers, namely for projects in excess of $5000.00. One of the points of discussion by our Executive Vice President, David Lancaster, was to have the members work to have local communities have their Building Inspection officials and city board members or councilmen be aware of the importance to the community of having local restrictions requiring our participation to insure ADA, Life Safety, Environmental, Planning and Design Standards are used to increase the safety and quality of buildings in their jurisdiction. The TSA is putting together a list of existing communities requiring Architects in Texas and will give us an idea of other cities that have the requirement. If you are aware of any cities with the requirement please send me a list so that I can forward same. The next opportunity for modifying the legislation will be enhanced if there are a large number of municipalities that require our services. Never hesitate to volunteer for any planning or building inspection boards in order to be able to get ordinances in favor of our practice.