Visualizing the Future: Mission 2130

A This podcast is sponsored by Autodesk. Autodesk has been a part of the Design conversation since 1982, providing the tools that help architects around the globe imagine and create beautifully designed, memorable buildings that people love and admire.

B Thank you to Autodesk for supporting the work of Practice Disrupted and helping us bring the architecture community together, sparking curiosity and leading vibrant and necessary conversations with industry's visionaries and thought leaders.

A I'm Evelyn Lee.

B And I'm Janine Chastain. We're collaborating on curated conversations to explore how the industry of architecture is changing.

A Together, we'll find ways to create new solutions to current challenges while elevating the value of architects.

B Welcome to Practice Disrupted.

A Hello, listeners. Hello, Janine.

B Hi, Evelyn. Hi, Disruptors.

A So, earlier this season, we brought on AIAs, or the American Institute of Architecture Student Leaders, which is an organization near and dear to Janine's heart, to talk about the future of the profession from a student perspective. Today. Today we're bringing on the leaders of the yaf, or the Young Architects Forum, which is near and dear to my heart as one of its past chairs, to talk about the future of the profession from those who are in line to lead or current leaders of their firms about where they believe the future is headed.

B So, Evelyn, before we jump in, I kind of want to just tee it up a little bit more on your experience with the yaf, you know, going through that experience, being part of the committee. How did being part of YEF shape your career development?

A Yeah, my experience with the YF was at a really interesting time. Over my course of participation with the yif, I was a new mother as a community director. And then when I stepped into the role of chair, I was pregnant with my second. Just had my second. So for me, there was a lot of personal career transitions. But what was great about the YF and the community was how big of a communal effort it was for all of us to come together and get behind the work. And how incredibly supportive this group is. And no disregard to the nac, who I was also a committee chair of.

A But I just think that where these individuals are in their career are really, really interesting, and we form a bond over the ambiguity of the future and how do we shape that future together going forward. That's what makes me kind of so excited about talking with this group and continuing to stay engaged with this group, because I think they are always looking at what's next in the most intentional way possible because of where they are in their careers and where they have to grow out of It. But for me, the YF provided a sense and a place that allowed for tremendous growth in a very supportive community that was open to new ideas in a way that frankly, practice didn't allow me to explore within the rigidity of having to get buildings built and having to move projects forward.

B Well said. Yeah, I feel like I've been working with YAF leaders all the way back to my days in AIs and it's an amazing group, very close knit, and I'm always amazed by how energetic they are about thinking about the future of practice. So I know today's conversation is going to be really inspiring. So with, without further ado, let's jump into a round of introductions. Evelyn, I'll let you kick it off.

A Let's go with Jessica as the outgoing immediate past chair and we'll work our way from there.

C Awesome. Well, thanks, Evelyn. I'm excited to be here and talk with all of you guys. I'm Jessica O'. Donnell. I am the 2023 past chair of the Young Architects Forum. They keep us past chairs around for one extra year for continuity and just for some mentorship back on the advisory committee. And I am from New Jersey.

C I work at a firm called Thriven Design and I'm super excited to talk about Summit 30 mission 2130 for the next hour or so.

A Okay. And the current chair, Matt Toddy.

D Yeah, thanks Evelyn. Likewise. Very excited to be here and get to share a little bit about what we're doing. It's a really exciting time with the app right now. So my name is Matt Toddi. Evelyn mentioned I get to service the 2023 chair of that committee and help provide some leadership to the group. And I am based in Columbus, Ohio and I'm a partner at Astra Studios, which is a social impact based design firm. So looking forward to this conversation and

A the fact that your firm one, doesn't have a name in it and two, you led with social impact design. I think is very telling of where future practitioners want to head with our firms. So thank you for that. And the, the vice chair all the way out to Hawaii. I'd like to note that we are covering all time zones here on this call. Jason Takeuchi.

E That's right. I'm, I'm in Hawaii. Hey everyone, I'm Jason Takeuchi. I'm a fourth generation Japanese American, born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. And I guess Evelyn, a lot of people don't know this, but my last name is actually two words. So Take and Uchi. So take is bamboo and Uchi is House. So I think I was made for this profession.

E I received my Doctor of Architecture degree from the University of Hawaii. I did a practicum at Sasaki in Boston, and then now I work at Ferraro Choi in Honolulu, where I've been for the past 10 years. And outside of practice, like Evelyn said, I'm the vice chair of the Young Architects Forum and we'll be chairing the committee next year. So thanks for having me.

A Yeah. So for our listeners who are like, who is this yf? What is the Young Architects Forum? Are you guys truly young? Which is a conversation that we can get into. If you want to talk about the designation of young in the Young Architects Forum, why don't you tell us a little bit about the committee and its place within AIA National.

D Yeah, I can, I can kick that one off. So, I mean, I feel like you, you both have done such a great job already of kind of contextualizing who the F is and, and some of the exciting things that we get to do, but really, you know, to get to get more in the weeds with it. The Young Architects, former yaf, as we'll probably lovingly refer to it as over the next few minutes, is, is a member based interest group or the aia. So we represent. What that means is we represent recently licensed architects. I'm going to pause. What that means is that we represent recently licensed architects from the first year of licensure up until the tenth year of licensure. So the term young can be a bit of a misnomer.

D It really has nothing to do with age and everything to do with the point at which you become licensed as an architect. So we estimate that today architects in this demographic are somewhere in the 20 to 30,000 member range of AIs. Total membership of about 96,000. So roughly 1 third. Our committee is made up of young architect representatives from every state, including D.C. puerto Rico and the international region. And then we also have an advisory committee comprised of the three of us chairs and five directors who get to provide some leadership for the group and various work groups that each director leads. So as a national committee, we're one of about 60 such national committees within the institute.

D And really what we're here to talk about today is, you know, the fun stuff, which is every five years the YAF convenes to hold a summit and kind of create a strategic initiative that kind of governs the work or over provides a North Star for the work that we're doing for the next five years. So that is what happened last year with Summit 30, also known as Mission 2130. And we're excited to share a bit more about what that looked like.

A And what I really love about how this summit evolved is the previous iteration is actually the Practice Innovation Lab, which we've referred to. So again, I think it's reflective of the committee's ability to take something and make it their own and decide what is kind of needed going forward. And they're very open to creating from scratch and even new as necessary as the industry and profession continues to evolve. I don't know, Jessica, if you want to jump into Talking about mission 2130 and starting with the Code redsharet.

C Sure, absolutely. So when figuring out what we wanted to do for the 30th anniversary celebration of the YAF, we took a quick look at what had happened at the past. And Evelyn, you just alluded to the Practice Innovation Lab, which was an amazing event that really kind of helped set the YAF apart in more ways than one. It was very practice based, as everyone is aware, very business focused. And we took a different approach very intentionally. And we wanted to look outside of architecture and we wanted to have a larger conversation beyond the design profession. So we started thinking about what could the world be a hundred years from now? I. E.

C Mission 2130. What does the world look like 100 years from now? I don't think anyone really knows. Who do we talk to about this? We had a wonderful steering committee that we could bounce ideas off of. And we broke it up into three separate buckets for the entire event. The first bucket was what you referred to as Code Red charrettes. And that was one giant virtual brainstorming event where we had people sign up to do a SWOT analysis, SW OT to identify the strengths, opportunities, weaknesses and threats to three different buckets. The bucket of the Built Environment and Architecture, the bucket of the Planet, and the Bucket of Society. And each of these groups met online they had never met before.

C And they just tossed out ideas of what could be great about the future, what could be terrible about the future. And we got a wonderfully large amount of data from that Code Red charrette. So that was part one. Part two, the steering committee took all of that data and we used a Power BI program to help synthesize it. From there, we extracted some common themes and we realized the best next step would be to have our in person portion of mission 2130 and bring in different groups of people to strategize. Okay, what do we do Next? This big 100 years in the future thought is very hard for a lot of people, including myself, to grasp with. And how do we make that tangible? That was our biggest challenge. So from code Red charrettes, we landed on Mission 2130, which was eight groups of about eight people.

C So about 55 people total showed up in Pittsburgh last August in 2022. And they planned out what the next challenge would be after the 2030 commitment ends. The really interesting thing was we tried to leverage things that we had learned about through the Young Architects Forum or through our own personal careers and bring that into the fold. There was homework before people arrived in Pittsburgh. There were video tutorials, there was reading, there were articles, things to catch people up to speed. And each of the crews worked with an AI consultant. So there was an image generated. Because the future is unknown, no one knows how an AI platform is going to spit out once you put the data in.

C Through a series of inputs of data images out, new data in, more images out. Each crew got a very unique picture of their vision of the future. Then, while they were in Pittsburgh, each crew developed a specific challenge to make sure that that AI image either happened or was not where we wanted to be, how we could avoid it, because not all the pictures were positive. And that was one of the coolest takeaways from that. So from that we had eight crews, eight pitches. Each pitch had a very tangible challenge goal, measurable successes and actions that we as individuals, we as the aia, we just as society, could take on starting tomorrow, to help make the world a better place for everyone who lives here.

B Obviously now interested to know what some of that visualization looked like. And I'm also interested to know, you know, some of the big takeaways from this program.

E I know it's always really challenging to. To visualize something just through audio, but we used an AI consultant. I'm not sure if we can name him, but he is an AI member and he does AI consulting kind of on the side as a hobby, and he's really good at it. So he. He generates really provocative images of buildingscapes, landscapes, peoplescapes, and he punches in code words that the groups thought were the most relevant to their particular focus of their team. So, for example, the team I was in, we really wanted to see old building a relic and somehow revitalize a community around that. And he was able to generate an image based on that idea. And it takes dozens and dozens, maybe hundreds of images to sift through, to generate, to actually come up with what we think the future is going to look like, and say, that's the one.

E But it's so hard because none of us really know what it's going to look like. So this is the best technology that we had and the best resources we had within our relationship circle, our AI circle, to get that vision of what the future was. While 100 years back from what we're looking for.

B Did anybody land on a dystopian vision of what the future would look like?

C Yeah. So I'll expand upon that a little. When people applied to be part of the in person event, we had a blind jury review and what people were initially judged on to make it to round two was what is your written description of the future? And I think it was 150 words or less and some very descriptive things after that of, do you think the most important thing to focus on is planet society architecture, trying to narrow it in. In that realm. And once the groups were created based on some overlapping things and some intentional juxtaposition of ideas to get some conversations going, we worked with the consultant who cherry picked the appropriate repeating themes from each person on that team and we got images that came out. We started with eight crews, but only four starter images. If you imagine the reverse of a suite 16 bracket where you have a final two, imagine a final four. And then as the input of data came in, it expanded.

C So each team ended up with their own unique image which looked nothing like the starting one. Some of the starting ones looked like a desert wasteland with giant screens that no one could really tell if it was a phone that was 10ft tall or a building or a portal to a new dimension. Other ones were super lush with greenery and waterways, and other ones were just geometric patterns. To Jason's point, the amount of images that the consultant went through, for every data input, there were probably two or three hundred images that we sifted through as a steering committee and picked. This seems like it is most representative of what that group was trying to achieve. Sometimes we got it right, other times we didn't get it right and teams had to adjust accordingly. Which I thought was a very interesting dynamic of you have no idea what the future is going to be. You could expect one thing and get something completely different.

C And how do we adjust and proactively adapt to that?

B It seems like a really cool exercise that you guys went through. I mean, it reminds me of like that experience in studio where you get, you know, the design problem and then you have an opportunity to respond to it. So tell us about some of the takeaways. The biggest Takeaways from this event.

D So during the event, one of the. One of the goals, right, we brought all these people together, and one of the goals was to come to a point of determination of what. What needs to happen. So we actually had all the teams kind of work individually as teams to create a reverse timeline. So if this is the picture of what the world looks like 100 years from now, what are the steps we need to take to get there, starting now? So we actually had had every team kind of illustrate that reverse timeline and what are the milestones, what are the steps? But. But we also kind of infused the. The idea that, you know, you need to leave Pittsburgh, you need to leave this event with three very actionable steps. What do you do tomorrow? What do you take home to your office? What do you take home to your city? And start to activate now.

D And I think that was a really useful exercise because we allowed the teams to take a very, very broad idea, a very big concept, and distill it down into, okay, three very, very practical, actionable steps for what's next. So there were some really interesting themes, which I will allow Jessica and Jason to kind of lead in into some of that conversation.

E I think, you know, the takeaways, a lot of what the result of the deliverable aspect is the image. So if you look at a lot of the images, almost all of them have some kind of plant landscape, very natural scenery to them. And I think that really suggests that we're going to be living in some ecological biosphere. What that looks like for each team was totally different. So I think we pretty much are confident that within the participants of Mission 2130, that we felt like there is a really strong ecological response to how we're going to be living in the next hundred years. But besides that, architecturally, I don't feel like there was any consistency. Everyone had so many different ideas. And I actually think that it relates more to people's aspirations about social responsibility and education of architecture.

E Rather than making things look good and having the highest quality design, it's more about the fundamental principles behind what you're making, the intention behind the architecture. So I think that's actually really exciting in a way, and I'm looking forward to hearing what Jess thought.

C I feel like you said it perfectly. If I had to list one takeaway, which is very hard, but if I had to list one, I was just so impressed with everyone who showed up, committed to this process, and really thought about the bigger picture. No one thought about me, myself and I, while they were There everyone thought about how can we do something better for literally the entire world? And I think that just is a perfect snapshot of what kind of the current generation of leaders thinks and how we approach problems. It's, yes, it would be great if it helps me as an individual, but that's not why I'm in it. I'm in it to help the person sitting next to me and the person coming behind me. And I think that was probably the coolest takeaway for me personally.

A So you mentioned at the top of the call that it was at its heart a strategic planning initiative for the next five years. It's an event that happens every five years. So then what becomes the tangible takeaways in terms of the mission and vision of the Young Architects Forum going forward out of Mission 2130?

C It's a fantastic question and made me think a couple minutes ago I was talking about this was broken up into three parts. I totally forgot part number three.

A You did.

C So part number three is after the in person event, we gave an update to the full YAF committee and we synthesized the data for another round and we compared it to the AIA strategic plan, we compared it to the Young Architects Forum mission, our vision and our value statements, and we created a graphic that showed the overlap. And in those overlaps, we identified three buckets that really captured the essence of each of the crew pitches, but also provided direction forward for the next five years for the Young Architects Forum. So, Matt, do you want to just chime in on how we ended up phrasing that?

D Yeah, this is, and this is, this is probably my favorite part because it obviously has the most impact in how we play together every day. Those three kind of overlap, if you picture a Venn diagram that has three components where we sort of landed as we distilled all this information was there were three really critical themes. And one was advocacy. Very broadly, we, we have defined that as advocate for change. Right. So it's, it's, it's general and specific at the same time. What that looks for like for us now is, you know, having conversations about what does advocacy mean to you? Is it politics? Is it equity based conversation? What is change? You know, so there's some really fun conversations that we get to have out of that. So the second, the second bucket then is educate for impact.

D Again, sort of strategic in being broad, but also specific. Education can mean a lot of things. You know, continuing education for architects is a big, big topic that we are all, you know, involved in every day. One of the great, great Ideas that came out that was a personal favorite, I think, was what does it look like to bake in volunteer service as a part of our continuing education requirements? That could be a fun conversation. Right. And then impact, likewise, how. How are we measuring impact? What does impact look like in how it relates to geography, how it relates to market segments and the work that we're doing? And then the third and final bucket that we got into was diversification. And we have defined that as diversify for the future.

D So this is, this is where we get to talk about pipeline and pathway. What does the future of our profession look like? The consensus is it has to look different than it looks today. So again, kind of broad allows a lot of room for us to kind of play and have some fun and explore these three topics over the next five years.

B So, Evelyn, I know you actually applied for this program and participated. Okay. So you should probably chime in with your perspective about this a bit. And what was your experience?

A These type of events for me is always like. It's like a return to school in the best way possible. I think there is a lot of very active conversation, not only while we were in our groups, but beyond kind of the more structured time. It did not pull an all nighter. I think that happened, that didn't happen during the practice. And it wasn't necessarily encouraged during the practice. Innovation Lab. I think some people did stay up pretty late.

A I do know that we stayed up late enough to get kicked out of the room that we were occupying at the time. But it was more about the interest in the conversations that were happening, not like the whip of a boss saying we need to submit by the end of the day. It's just like this energy of renewed spirit and optimism about the potential of where the future of the profession can head. So I always, even though it was a very interactive and active two days, I always appreciate coming out of those two days with more energy than I had actually going into it because of those conversations.

B So I guess I'm curious. It kind of ties into this thesis that we have on the show around, really this desire for change in the industry. And I wanted to talk a little bit about from your perspective as volunteer leaders of the AIA and advocates for leading the profession forward, what role does YAF have in leading the profession forward? And what role does this next generation of architects play in meeting those challenges that you're. You're exploring through this conversation?

C I'll jump in and say that the strategic initiative that we landed on sums that up to a T in my opinion. So Matt mentioned our priorities very, very cleanly and clearly. Our strategic initiative for the next five years is architects in action, catalyzing for change. So this generation of YF members is going to be out there doing the work, making the actions so that change will happen. We're not leaving it for the people behind us to change everything. We are actually going to be in the trenches doing the work, which is amazing.

A But I imagine that you guys are foreseeing some challenges in that. So let's get into those. What do you see as the big challenges against the momentum for change? And how can anyone listening who might be who in this bucket yard, architects licensed 10 years or less, really contribute to that, especially if they aren't necessarily the firm leader?

E Well, I think this is a loaded question, Evelyn. There's so many challenges. The fact that we just went through a pandemic means that we potentially lost a lot of leaders that would have been great in a firm to work with. They could have been our boss, they could have been someone that could mentor us. And now they're in another fields. Maybe they're not even in the construction industry. So that's one. I think the second one kind of relates to the exercise that we went through in the summit, which is technology and AI.

E This could be an ally for us. This also could be a threat for us. I'm not really sure right now, but I. I could see the autonomy being something that could help us or could hurt us in terms of drawing production, proficiency in detailing, design autonomy.

D So if.

E If we don't lead it, I think it might end up leading us.

C I would just add, you know, it's important to remember that you don't have to be a leader of your firm. You don't have to be the leader of a project. You can make sure your voice is heard. Even if you feel like your voice might not be the loudest in the crowd. Any voice speaking up is meaningful. So don't be afraid to take part in these types of initiatives, even if you're not, you know, if you don't think you're part of firm leadership, if you don't think you're a leader in the traditional sense of the word, and not to disclude.

A Matt. So to bring you back in here, what is the responsibility placed on firm leaders going forward?

D Yeah. Thanks, everyone. I think. I think that's a critical question. And I mean, I. I hope it's just flexibility, right, and being open to new ideas. I think there's a large segment of Our industry that loves to do it the way it's been done. I think where.

D Where we need to be as firm leaders, where. Where firm leaders need to get to is this idea that, you know, things move so fast that by the time you have it figured out, it's. You're. You're out of touch. It's out. It's. It's not. It's not relevant anymore.

D Right. And that may be a broad or over generalization, but I'm challenged by it every day. I mean, I'm. I'm a young millennial, and I've got the next generation in my office that are. They're passing me by. Right. And I just. I feel.

D I feel it. So how do we. How do we create space and make room for those conversations and allow those ideas and those people to have room to exercise and to. To let their ideas kind of bubble up? Because I think that's. That's what's going to get us through the next hundred years. I definitely don't want to be the one standing in the way of progress.

B Yeah. And thank you for your transparency on that.

A Matt.

B I think. I think what you just said out loud is something that I don't know that a lot of firm leaders would be willing to say, and even. Especially on a podcast. But I think that you acknowledging that in verbalizing it, like, that's like, half the battle. So I think even just saying that that's a challenge and identifying it and communicating it, you know, that's the kind of leadership that I'm looking for out of the people that I want to be led by, that they're willing to say, you know, this. We're trying to figure out this challenge that's a little bit complex and maybe not so black and white.

E I would definitely echo that, Janine. I think Matt is a really good example of a firm leader that I think a lot of us aspire to, to be like. And he also allows his employees to lead firmly. So I think it goes both ways. So I appreciate that, Matt.

D You guys are making me blush over

A here, but I think your perspective and how transparently you share that perspective is a huge cultural shift from my early days as an associate new graduate at a school where this program or this. This industry was very much gated. Right. I had to earn my way to a client meeting. I had to earn my way to the construction site. But just acknowledging that there's so much to be learned by the people that are coming out of school and giving them a voice and empowering to Create change, I think, in and of itself is a mind shift that is much needed in the industry to push it forward. So you kind of identified some of the challenges. What are you guys most excited about? Where do you see as the greatest opportunity for this to grow and to be nurtured within the AIA and then the industry more broadly?

E So we talked about earlier, we talked about the threat of staffing in the profession, but I do think that there's an opportunity there, because I think five, six years ago, most of a big majority of the membership base of the AIA was baby boomers. And now we're seeing a steady shift towards Gen X and the millennials. And pretty soon, we're not going to have as many baby boomers running companies. And so I think there's going to be a huge shift in leadership since there's not as many Gen X leaders. Actually, folks like Matt are going to be assuming leadership positions probably sooner than they even thought they would. So I think that's a huge opportunity that a lot of people are not really seeing that's going to be coming to them sooner than they think. The second thing is I do strongly feel that the profession is becoming more diverse. And those two things, we're going to have to leverage the potential of these leaders to bring those diverse backgrounds and translate back into the built environment.

B That's a really good point, Jason. Then I want to pick up on your first point, and then we can talk about your second. But the element about the generational shift, I have been obviously looking at it from millennial perspective, and I think I read something the other day that baby boomers, you know, some of them started exiting during the pandemic. That's some of them had been planning on retirement for a long time. But we're actually, you know, we're experiencing a staffing shortage because there aren't enough millennials in the workforce. And yet this report said that we're going to also experience a staffing shortage once we start to lose the boomers from practice, because as you pointed out, it's going to shift. Leadership responsibilities already are missing the middle. And then we're trying to bring in this new generation of emerging professionals, and it's going to be very disruptive in ways that I don't know that anyone really has a clear understanding of yet.

B So that's definitely a concern of mine. And then, yeah, the diversity, it's been such a point of discussion over the past several years, and I think I'm ready to see it move from aspirational. To tactical, to actually seeing firms that are succeeding and implementing it and getting past the point where, you know, we're saying there are not enough candidates out there, but that we're actually figuring out ways to bring those people into practice in a meaningful way that they can contribute. So I'm excited that YAF even is interested in tackling some of these really hard conversations because they're big. They're really big.

E Yeah, they're huge. And I know that my voice may not necessarily reflect the committee's opinions, but these are things that I strongly feel, and I hope to bring that individual perspective to my leadership of the committee next year.

A Going back to the YF and the work of the yf, what does that mean, tactfully, in terms of what type of programming are you guys looking at? How do we support this next generation? How do we develop leaders in an aspirational way? How. How are you encouraging the impactful change now? How is YF kind of scaffolding all of that up the next few years?

C I would just start with as our committee's growing. So we just went from the single state. We went from the regional AI model and adopted the single state model. As Matt pointed out in the beginning, we have 53 reps making sure that our committee is a safe space where people feel comfortable having these tough conversations and then opening up these conversations so that it's not just the 53 of us. We want to make sure people feel like they belong. They can come join us. They don't have to. It's not an us versus them.

C You don't have to be part of the committee to be part of the movement, so to speak, and making sure that people really feel like if they're looking for their people, we are their people. We want to be their comfort place, their safe space where they can come and talk about this stuff and figure out how do we move forward? Because not one person has the exact specific answer that will solve everything.

D I'd like to add on to that that, you know, I think a really important part of where the GAFF is now is I think, in large part due to your legacy. Everyone is, you know, we're a group of disruptors. We've sort of taken that mantle on, and it's my hope that we can continue to kind of be the people that be the part of the institute, the aia, that is disruptive and continues to challenge the status quo. As Jess mentioned, we've. We've got a committee of 53, which is the largest. Our committee's ever been. We've essentially doubled over the last two years to, to that number. Our capacity has never been as high, the vision has never been as grand as it is right now.

D So we've got a lot of really bold ideas that are, that are percolating and we're challenging, we're pressing some buttons and challenging some things that I think need to be challenged both within the profession and within the institute. So I'm really excited to see how these three kind of priority buckets roll out over the course of this year and then in the next in terms of how we contextualize the work we're doing and, and how we identify the areas that need to be disrupted.

A So I'm going to keep you on the hot seat for a little while longer because Matt, you're the current chair and first quarter of the year has flown by already. What is the imprint that you would like to leave on the committee this year? And then, Jason, you know, the follow up question to you would be like, where do you take that and run with it in 2024?

D Yeah, I think in terms of where, where we go, I, I think in very general terms, I would like for the committee to be further down the road of understanding what it means to be an advocate, what it means to educate others about what we do and how to have these conversations based in, in very equitable terms. Right. Working towards a better, more diverse future for our profession. And I think we're well on our way. I'm really excited about the stuff that's happening with the committee and really my hope, I had really big shoes to fill, as is very evident, with Jessica leading the way. My hope is really just to leave the committee in a better spot than I found it.

E And I think the committee has been on a trajectory since your time, Evelyn. It's been growing, it's been awesome. It's had a huge reputation within the AIA and it's kind of looked at as the future of the profession. So a lot of other member groups want to have a liaison from our committee. They want input from us. So we're constantly looked at as a resource of what the future holds. But in terms of following Matt's time as chair, there's, there's a couple of things that I'm looking forward to doing. The first one is my hope for greater diversity.

E So this past year was the first time where we really had full representation from each state. The three other areas that we mentioned and we never really had a direct path to solicit leaders. They always have to be elected to us. So this is the first time that we're getting people that we've never met before, people that are doing amazing things. And not only do we have them working on our committees, but when they fall off, we now have a better avenue to ask or at least encourage them to choose someone that's not represented on our committee to take their place. So I think with that encouragement, it's going to lead to hopefully greater diversity in our committee. The second thing is we're going to have access to what local chapters are doing so much more better and all of their programming, their efforts are going to be more accessible to us. So we're going to be able to bring those really good ideas from those states back to our national committee much more effectively and have essentially a faster avenue to connect with those members that we actually represent.

E The third thing is I want to hone in on the specific issues that are most critical to the demographic of young architects, that are distinct from associate members, that are distinct from, you know, mid career architects. So we've had a lot of interest, specifically our committee about business development, starting a firm, leadership training, mentorship, reverse mentorship, and cultural competence. So these are things, these are items that I hope to play out in a webinar and a presentation, articles focusing on really the professional development of young architects as defined by the aia. And the last thing is I hope that we have fun. I listened to the replay of the podcast with Vershay and she mentioned that fun is hardly used in architecture and I would totally agree with that. That's something that we definitely need to see more of in the realm of what we do.

A And by the way, Jason recently contributed to a Fun at a YAF call. It was like kind of a town hall by doing a wrap at the opening. So he is already moving that initiative forward. When this show is released, I think we will be looking at including a ton of resources in the show notes, including the latest issue of Connection, which will also have a recap, it's electronic publication of the YF, which will have a recap of Mission 2130 as well. But for anyone who is listening and saying Jessica said and Matt said, you didn't have to be a part of this group to get involved in this group. How do I do that? Can I do I have to be a member of the aia? I guess we can even start there. But how do I, how do I get involved with everything that you guys are doing?

D Yeah, so that's a great. That's A great question. And, and the best way I, I think is to, to figure out what are the engagement opportunities at the local in your area. So there are YAF chapters all across the country in various local components. And that's most, that's like the most likely entry point. Most, it's the easiest entry point where engagement, where you can get engaged. Because most local programs obviously are going to be with people from your community, whether they're in person or virtual, but they're going to be people in your immediate network. Right.

D So I would recommend, you know, reach out to your local chapter, local component, see if there's events or programming that's, that's YAF specific or YAF adjacent and get connected there. Beyond the local piece, there are lots of national opportunities for young architects that happen, and these are primarily virtually virtual in nature, just because of the nature of it. But the YAF distributes a lot of content through our digital publication, which is called Connection, and that's available on issuu and you can find it on our social media channels as well. There's also a webinar series that the YAF puts together. We're working on some content for aiu. There's a mentorship program called Align that works to pair young architects with AI fellows in cohorts. Obviously, we would welcome any young architect or non young architect out there listening who's curious to learn more, to reach out to us. We'd love to get connected.

D Love to plug you in where appropriate.

B I want to give you guys kudos because I think your educational resources are pretty phenomenal. I follow the Instagram account for you all. You've consistently posted interesting things. There you have the publication that always has great articles and yeah, I think the mentorship piece and you know, going Back to another YAF friend, Ryan McEnroe, you have generated some really amazing programs like the Christopher Kelly Leadership Development Program, which is really about mentorship and leadership, and then of course, Nexus. So to anyone who's listening from the YAF volunteer group, I just want to say thank you guys for your work. You are making a huge impact across the organization.

A I think this has been an amazing conversation. Are there any last closing thoughts that each of you would kind of like to run through to close out this episode?

D This has been fantastic. I could talk about this all day. It's a lot of fun. But I would say in the spirit of Mission 21:30 and where the app has been and where we're going, I just challenge you to think about how much time do you have in the profession. For me, it's, you know, I'm looking at 20, 50 is probably. Probably my exit ramp. I got 30 years to sort of do what I'm gonna do and leave my mark. Right.

D So, like, think about what that. What that looks like. Is it next year? Is it in 30 years? Is it in. I don't. God knows. 40 years. Right. What do you want the profession to look like at that point? And what can you do tomorrow to start on that journey? So that's my challenge.

E Evelyn, you mentioned that the last webinar you're. You're in. I remember you saying, is he gonna do a outro rap?

A Yes.

E So I wrote. I wrote something super quickly. But I just want to tell you all that you are all incredible. Saving the earth from chemicals, talking and having a good time on Practice disrupted is inevitable. Thank you for making this experience so memorable, not just for young architects, but for emerging professional professionals.

A Yeah, and Jason's already making things extra fun.

B That's the first time anyone's rapped on practice Destructive.

D That was great.

E Gotta have fun.

A Jessica, did you want to close that out?

C I'm just gonna drop the mic for Jason because I couldn't have said it any better. So I just echo what Jason and Matt said, and anyone can reach out to us at any time if they have any questions. We'd love to chat more.

B Hi, Disruptors. If you like the content from today's show, you can find all of our past episodes over on practiceofarchitecture.com podcast.

A Be a part of the conversation by joining us at our speakers and others in the community@practiceofarchitecture.com community.

B Our social media handle is practiceofarc. That's practice of Arch. We'd love to hear from you, so feel free to drop us a DM and say hello.

A Thank you for joining us on Practice Disrupted, a podcast by the Practice of Architecture. Tune in next week for a new conversation on change in the profession.

E Fashion.