Dear Chapter Members,

On April 13 and 14^th I attended the ASID Legislative Symposium. To tell you the truth, I had registered several months ago (one of my duties as President-Elect is to be your eyes and ears for legislation affecting our industry), but as the date approached I wished I could cancel. You know, we Designers are very busy these days, but it was too late to cancel.

As usual, I moan about attending meetings and events, but I am always glad I do because I learn so much and have such a good time networking with other designers. And this event was beyond amazing.

On the first day of the Symposium we convened in a meeting room at the Marriott. We were assigned seats based on our geographic location, but I was so fortunate to be between designers from Connecticut and Florida. As usual, when I have an opportunity to be with dynamic and exciting designers, I shamelessly pick their brains. Both these gentlemen were so kind and inspiring. The agenda appeared to be a long day of presentations, but it went by so fast with all the compelling topics. Susan Stuart of Capital Advisors talked about all the happenings in California. We also had the pleasure of an interesting presentation by Marie Lynn, Interior Design Specialist, and Architect of the US Capitol who told us all sorts of juicy details about the restoration of the capital. The most exciting part of the day was the Advocacy Training to prepare for "Hill Day" (well, the cocktail reception was pretty good too!)

On Hill Day, all the groups met on the Capitol Steps for a group picture and then departed to the Senate and House Offices for meetings with our Senators and Congressmen. Jennifer Hale, Janine Arietta (Peninsula Chapter) and I spoke with staff of Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Jerry McNerney and Rep. Ann Eshoo. The purpose of our meeting was to put a face to interior designers and talk about how we work and why we are important. It was very exciting to walk the halls of these offices and the streets of D.C. with all its history.

I took away from the event a greater understanding of just how important ASID's efforts are, through national headquarters and local chapters, to develop legislative proposals and to advocate for the passage of legislation that allows interior designers who demonstrate specific skills levels through education, training, and experience to sign stamp, and/or submit non-structural drawings for permitting purposes.

Specific issues that currently affect interior designers nationwide, for which ASID is advocating for our benefit are:

• State Taxation - ASID believes taxing interior design services would significantly hurt the design industry as the increased costs could prohibit consumers from fully utilizing the services of professional designers.
• Practice Restrictions - ASID supports legislation that provides a path for interior designers to become certified, registered, or licensed while not limiting, restricting, or preventing the practice of interior design.
• Federal Taxation - ASID is currently working to develop taxation policy that will promote the use of advance design principles and provide work for design professionals by encouraging the redesign of interior spaces to meet new high performance standards (basically tax credits for Aging in Place, Green Design, Universal Design, etc.)

In our state, IDCC (working collectively with other organizations) advocates the right to work for all interior designers in California. They represent professional interior designers from the state of California, including designers from multiple organizations and non-affiliated interior designers.

Currently they are tackling these important issues:

• IDCC employs a lobbyist year-round to keep our hands on the pulse of lawmakers- protection of the right for interior designers' to practice the scope they are trained to do.  This is an ongoing effort to have "eyes" in Sacramento who are trained to see potential harm to our profession in seemingly random bill introduced in the Senate or Assembly.  Examples of this benefit:
  • IDCC lobbyist Capitol Advisors worked to avoid AB2192- a bill that would have threatened the scope that residential designers would be allowed to practice, through a bill put forth by the American Institute of Architects California Council.
  • Our lobbyist, Susan Stuart speaks on our behalf at local regional and national meetings (she was a featured speaker at the ASID Legislative Symposium April 2015).
  • Susan and President, Patricia Weiss, have spoken at NKBA, ASID and IIDA meetings to further encourage unification in our industry.
  • IDCC works to strengthen and improve existing law through the sunset review process.
  • The Coalition's collaboration with our lobbyist provides opportunities to Investigate and develops opportunities for collaboration with other construction industry organizations - i.e. CLCID, CALBO Working towards One Voice for Interior Designers in the State of California. 

If you aren't a member of IDCC, I encourage you to become one.

It makes me feel good to meet people who enrich my life and learn about topics for which I would otherwise not have the opportunity to know about. If you have any questions about legislation, ASID HQ, or our Chapter, please feel free to reach out to me at any of the upcoming events (and there are some exciting ones coming up).

I hope to see all of you very, very soon.

Kathleen Jennison, Allied ASID