Aloha Hawai’i Chapter Members:

It is my pleasure to begin this new year as your Chapter President.  With a dedicated and enthuastic Board, my goal is to find a way for each member to benefit from our organization through programs and different chapter events.  We will also continue to work on and update our new chapter website.  We hope to have all phases of it completed shortly, and I encourage everyone to use the website for chapter information.  You can access it at  www.asidhawaii.net.

At our Leadership Conference this summer in Chicago, ASID National presented us with some upcoming changes which will impact all chapters and their membership. One of the most important changes is a new membership bylaw enacted in April by the ASID Board of Directors which requires practitioner members of ASID to engage in regular, ongoing, continuing education.  This new member requirement strengthens the interior design profession by improving individual competencies, attitudes, knowledge and skills in subject areas essential to the growth and success of the industry.

Practitioner members of the Society will now be required to complete 6 contact hours of continuing education course work (equal to 0.6 CEUs) every two years.  The first 2-year reporting will begin January, 2008.  In order for our members to be able to comply, our chapter will begin scheduling CEUs to be offered throughout the year.  If you would like more information, please refer to ASID.org for more information on CEU requirements.

I am looking forward to working with all of you this year, and providing opportunities to strengthen our chapter and membership. I would also like to thank Debbie Lowry, ASID, and the 2006-07 Board of Directors for all their hard work and creative planning over the past year.  It was an honor to work with all of you, and you have made my transition to this position a smooth one.

Let the Adventure Begin!
Rici Conger, ASID