AIBC Council Meeting Summary–March 19, 2018

At the March 19, 2018 council meeting, the following items were discussed:

Council Motions

• Council approved Council Rules 8: Terms and Conditions for Mandatory Professional Liability Insurance, following the January–February notification period. During this time, member feedback was modest, with 13 survey comments and one email comment.
• Council approved that Wolrige Mahon LLP be appointed auditor for the AIBC for the fiscal year 2018.

President’s Report

• Represented AIBC on February 8, 2018 as one of the panel judges for the ACEC-BC annual awards for Engineering Excellence.
• Had discussion with the City of Vancouver Councilor Andrea Reimer regarding CoV Women’s Equity Strategy and expectation of gender diversity for the Urban Design Panel members, as well as other CoV panels such as Shaughnessy and China Town design panels. AIBC staff has been working with CoV staff in accommodating this policy while still adhering to our own guidelines.
• Issued President’s Message on January 31, 2018 inviting our members to provide comments related to our efforts on embarking on the new AIBC Strategic Plan.

Governance Committee

• Key areas covered and/or reviewed by the governance committee include the Strategic Plan 2019-2023, Code of Conduct including Conflict of Interest Guidelines, annual meeting agenda, and council (self) evaluations.

Finance Committee (FICOM)

• Met with Wolrige Mahon Auditors to review general issues related to audit and accounting procedures, and financial statements.

Human Resources Committee

• Review and monitoring of the council policy category 4.0: Council and CEO relationship, and operational HR policies with CEO.
• Completed majority of “one on one” discussions with council members regarding performance review and planning. They were very helpful discussions. One item of note: the addition of Budgeting/Accounting to council training and development schedule.
• Preparation for the tri-annual benchmarking of staff positions (per council policy) is in progress.

CEO Report

External Items

The new year got off to a busy start, filled with numerous meetings and events.

• Jan 12 – International Relations Committee (IRC). The reciprocity agreement with Europe appears to be back on track as ACE (the Architectural Council of Europe) has reported that no European state will be requesting a domain specific assessment, and Canadian architects will have the same mobility within Europe as do European architects.  I will be attending a final negotiating meeting on March 23rd, where we hope to finalize the agreement.  In addition, work has advanced with Japan and a meeting is scheduled for late May.
• Jan 13 – CACB (BEFA). The survey for all BEFA participants (candidates, regulators, and assessors) was finalized, with a participation deadline of March 16.
• Feb 5 – Strategic Plan, Staff Session. The facilitators spent half a day with staff leading us through an excellent exercise assessing success of progress against current goals, and potential areas of focus for the next five years.  Results were discussed with council at the February 19 Planning Session.
• Feb 28 – Ministry of Advanced Education. Thom Lutes and I met with the acting Assistant Deputy Minister and the Director to review a number of topics.  The highlight is that Minister Mark will be visiting the AIBC Office in March.
• Feb 28 – Vancouver Island Chapter Meeting. Following the meeting with AVED staff, Thom and I attended a chapter meeting where Andrew Pape-Salmon was presenting on the Step Code.  The meeting was very well attended, the discussion was excellent, and the chapter members were appreciative at having Thom and me in attendance.
• Mar 1 – Praxis Mixer. Dialog hosted the 2018 Praxis mixer, sponsored by the RAIC Metro Chapter. Following Jenelyn Torres’ presentation on registration, the PechaKucha presentations alternated between practicing architects (firms) and students from UBC SALA – it was an excellent event.
• Mar 2 – Intern Friendly Initiative (IFI). With the assistance of Jennifer Cutbill, RAIC BC-Yukon Regional Director, a teleconference was held with RAIC staff in Ottawa.  The RAIC is going to explore hosting a re-activated IFI under their Emerging Practitioners umbrella, viewing this as a pilot to expand to other jurisdictions.
• Mar 6 – City of Vancouver.  I met with Sadhu Johnstone (City Manager) and Gil Kelley (General manager of Planning, Urban Design, and Sustainability) and had a very productive meeting.  They committed to formalizing a reasonable process that would both address the City’s gender policy and also respect our guidelines, and would look to the composition of design panels as a whole rather than focusing on the AIBC’s component.
• Mar 6 – Bylaw Consultation. Very few questions were asked. With more members participating via videoconference than in person, we will work with the Governance Committee to tailor our consultation such that the effort is appropriate to the complexity of the proposed changes.  Thank you to Sean Rodrigues and Ross Rettie for representing council by attending in person.

Internal Operations

Risk Register

• The semi-annual Risk Register Status Report was submitted. Progress continues to be made to reduce both the likelihood and impact of the identified risks on the Risk Register. A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is currently in progress. Its function is to identify key business operations and activities that would continue to be delivered following an emergency or disruptive event. The BCP is part of the AIBC enterprise risk response.

Strategic Plan

• The twice-annual 2014-2018 Strategic Plan status report was provided to council, with items related to the June to December 2017 time period covered.

Financial Statements

• The Finance Committee met with the Wolrige Mahon auditors to review the financial statements. Based on their review, FICOM is recommending acceptance of the 2017 financial statements by council for distribution to the membership for the annual meeting and is also recommending reappointment of Wolrige Mahon as auditors.

Financial Risk Assessment

• The refresh/review of the Financial Risk Assessment is well underway by Deloitte, with a presentation of the draft report scheduled for the April 10 Planning Session.

LG Appointee

• Unfortunately, our Lieutenant Governor appointee to council, Cindy Grauer, has resigned because of time constraints. We are in touch with the Board Resourcing Office regarding a replacement.

Professional Conduct & Illegal Practice

• Astonishingly, no new complaints were received in January or February, which has allowed the department to address some outstanding Consensual Resolution Agreements. In addition, one illegal practice matter where a designer obtained a development permit for a six-plex was identified and resolved.  The designer has provided an undertaking and the project is not proceeding until it has been re-configured or an architect has been retained.

Registration and Licensing

Temporary Licences

• The number of temporary licences has increased from 51 in January 2018 to 55 in March.  The R&L department has been observing an increasing trend in the number of temporary licences especially in the category over $50 million construction cost with two new licences issued within this category in the last two months.

Examination for Architects in Canada

• Eighty-three (83) BC interns wrote the ExAC in 2017. The exam results were issued in February with BC interns posting higher results than the national average across all four exam sections.

Oral Reviews

• There are 24 candidates who applied for the March round, including 1 BEA candidate.

Waivers

• A total of 23 waiver applications were received and approved for 16 architects and 7 interns for Family Leave, Medical and Financial waiver categories. Of the 16 architects, 4 are also sole proprietors who applied for waivers of their firm fees. Three of the waiver applicants this year were also granted waivers in previous years.  We received fewer applications this year compared to last year’s 35.
• Seventy-five Retired Architects AIBC received Recognition of Long-standing Registration waivers of their 2018 annual fees.

Professional Services

CES Compliancy Update

• As of March 1, 2018, 35% of CES Participants (Architects AIBC and Architectural Technologists AIBC) have met their CES requirements for the July 1, 2016 – June 30, 2018 reporting period. Monthly reminders with pertinent information are shared regularly in order to keep this regulatory obligation top of mind with members. CES Participants who are non-compliant, per AIBC records, will receive a personal email reminder with transcript summary at the end of March.

2018 Advanced Code Knowledge Course

• The Advanced Code Knowledge (ACK) Course, offered jointly by the Architectural Institute of British Columbia and Engineers and Geoscientists British Columbia, is underway with a total of 28 registrants (23 in-person and 3 online via WebEx).

PD Courses

• New course offering of Blueprint for Business has been scheduled for April 13, 2018. Another offering of Law and the Architect will be scheduled for fall 2018 to accommodate the Intern Architects on the waitlist.

Recognized Educational Provider Program

• Recognized Educational Providers (REPs) are a valued part of the AIBC’s Continuing Education System. Through the REP Program, the AIBC partners with professional organizations, educational institutions, architectural firms, and commercial enterprises to extend a wider variety of valuable professional development opportunities to AIBC registrants. We are pleased to announce that the program is growing. On March 31, 2017, we had 114 active REPs. As of March 9, 2018, we have 127 active REPs. Review list of AIBC REPs.

Communications

Publications

• A Regulatory Review on Professional Liability Insurance was published providing registrants with a refresher on PLI in relation to the AIBC, as well as an overview of what to expect before compliance with the bylaws becomes mandatory. This article is part of an overall campaign to keep PLI current and relevant with registrants over the time period before the February 1, 2019 deadline.
• AIBC is working with Engineers and Geoscientists BC to develop a co-branded template for jointly authored publications.

Annual Conference (May 7-9, 2018)

• Registration successfully opened on February 21, with early bird rates available until March 31.

Architectural Awards Program

• Submissions closed on March 1, with a total of 58 award applications received. This was an increase of 11 submissions from the previous year. The awards will be presented on April 19 at the AIBC Gallery.

Annual Meeting & 2018/19 Council Election

• The Call for Council Nominations opened on February 19. The Council Election webpage was updated to highlight the role of the Nominations Review Committee. Additional information/subpages were also created to better present information to registrants regarding the process, candidates and council liaisons.

Gallery

• Current Exhibit: Wood WORKS! March 5 to 12 – Winners of the 2018 Wood Design Awards.
• Upcoming Exhibits:
  • Urbanarium Missing Middle Competition March 14 to April 12 – Winners of Urbanarium’s open design competition to develop and present exciting options for addressing Metro Vancouver’s affordability and social health challenges, with outstanding design and social innovation.
  • AIBC Awards Submissions April 13 to 20.
  • BCIT Architectural Science Graduate Exhibit April 23 to 30.

Media Relations

• Seven media hits, including pieces in the Georgia Straight and Scout Magazine on the AIBC Family Day Walking Tours. A story on the upcoming 2018 AIBC Annual Conference was also published in Canadian Architect.
• Montecristo Magazine published their feature piece “Discovering Vancouver’s Chinatown,” which was the result of a private architectural walking tour we held for them last month of Chinatown.

Stories and Profiles

• A story on Sylvia Grace Holland, the first woman to register with the AIBC in 1933, was posted on International Women’s Day. The piece received positive engagement on social media.

Walking Tour Program

• A special season preview of the AIBC Architectural Walking Tours were held on Family Day, February 12. Two private Vancouver-based tours were hosted.

Other Business

• Motions were also passed for AIBC council meeting minutes, policy compliance, committee changes, examination results and register amendments.
• Policy compliance reporting per the review schedule.
• Read adopted January 15, 2017 council meeting minutes.

Next Meeting

The next regular meeting of AIBC Council is scheduled for May 1, 2018 and held at the AIBC office between 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. It will be the last meeting of the 2017/2018 council. For those interested in attending an AIBC Council Meeting, please confirm your attendance in advance by email to ttough@aibc.ca.