March 27, 2011

Stop Interior Design deregulation in Florida!

 

Despite our best efforts, legislation to deregulate Interior Design in Florida is continuing to move through the Florida House and Senate. The time to act is NOW, and we need a collective effort if we are to stop this legislation. 

 

Please read further and consider if there is even one thing you can to do to assist us in this fight. It is crucial that you fully understand what it means to you if Interior Designers are deregulated and why we are asking for more help. 

 

If you do nothing else...if you are truly SO busy that you cannot take 15 minutes of your day to fight...please simply forward this email to your contacts who may be willing to help. 

 

The other easy thing you can do is sign and post a link to the petition on your Facebook wall and forward to your friends and family via email. The petition sends a letter to every member of the House and Senate every time it is signed, but we cannot emphasize enough that comments written on the petition do not get to the legislators and personal emails will have a greater effect. Even if you have already signed the petition, please make every effort to phone or email personally. If you took the time to write a comment, feel free to copy and paste it into your email - your words continue to remind us that we are fighting for something important. 

 

Thank you. 

Registered Interior Designers
We cannot emphasize enough that if Interior Designers are not removed from this bill, you will not be allowed to work on commercial projects without the supervision of an Architect. If you already work for an architecture firm, under their license, you will lose a valuable and marketable credential because your clients still like to know they are working with a professional of the highest competency. You took the right path to become a professional and your hard work will be for nothing. You will never have the opportunity to own your own commercial design business, and you will always need the supervision of someone who is not trained in the same field of knowledge as you.

 

Interior Design Students
If this bill is passed, the future you are preparing for may not exist. This means the cost of your education may be wasted, your hard work & sacrifice were in vain, and your expectation of a professional career is in jeopardy. You will be earning a degree that you will no longer be able to leverage as proof of your advanced training and knowledge.

We cannot emphasize enough that the students who have reached out have had more influence over our legislators than anything else. 

In addition to the phone calls and emails listed at the right, we are asking every student and alumnus to phone their Dean or President to ask for their support. 

      (352)392-4836 
FSU: Dr. Sally E. McRorie
        (850)644-5244 
       (305)348-7500 
MIU: Erika Fleming
        (800)225-9023
IADT: we could not find contact information for Karen O'Donnell             
Members of the Public

Registered Interior Designers ensure the public spaces you use every day are designed properly and safely with materials that protect your health, safety, and welfare. Registered Interior Designers are trained in fire codesaccessible design mandates of the Americans with Disability Act, and many other important areas of design that affect your interaction with public buildings. In fact, registered designers carry the primary legal responsibility for the safety of the built environment, NOT BUILDING DEPARTMENTS. To put it simply, every time you enter a public space and do not slip on the floor, when you or your loved one who is disabled has enough room to maneuver comfortably and move quickly in an emergencyor when you simply enjoy your experience - it is the work of a Registered Interior Designer. 

 

Architects
The knowledge of Registered Interior Designers complements yours and does not compete with it. Interior Designers appreciate and respect your work, as you do ours. Architects, Interior Designers, and Landscape Architects are the built environment's accredited and credentialed professionals; we are the stewards of good design.  Together, we have advanced the quality of Florida's built environment. If one of us fails to connect that message with the public, it will affect the ability of us all to! Think of the best examples of commercial design in Florida, or the best from your own office.  These projects involved all three professions working together. Help us remind the public of the importance of design in our built environment.

 

Sales Representatives and Vendors
If this bill is passed Architects and Engineers will be the only professionals permitted to work on commercial projects. We know that 50% or more of your sales come from Registered Interior Designers. Even in most architecture firms, it is the licensed interior designers on staff with whom you have built the relationships and who carry the knowledge of your products to the clients spending the money. Registered Interior Designers know who is supporting us in this battle and regardless of the outcome will choose to specify the products of reps who are fighting with us. 

 

POSSIBLE TOPICS FOR EMAILS AND PHONE CALLS:

 

( It may be helpful to highlight the points you want to get across and read them aloud when making calls. Be brief, direct, and tragic. Speak about whatever is true for you, these are just some ideas to get you started. )

 

If you only say one thing it should be "I am opposed to the Deregulation of Registered Interior Designers in House Bill 5005, and I ask that you strike Interior Designers from the bill"

 

- When you phone or write a Republican, please say if you are Republican in your message, and remember to BE HARSH!!!: "I am so disappointed deregulating Interior Designers will put people out of work and out of business that I will never vote for Governor Scott or any other Republican and will start discussing this position with my family and friends."  

 

- If you are phoning a Senator or Representative from YOUR district, be sure to say "I am a constituent and will not support you if you do not remove Interior Designers from this bill."

 

- "Deregulating Interior Designers will not encourage competition and growth, but will kill jobs, futures, and businesses." 

 

- "Interior Design curriculum and examination protects the health, safety and welfare of Floridians"

 

- "This bill does not produce jobs and reduces existing competition" 

 

- "Current regulations make money, cost the State nothing, and add to the discretionary Trust of the State."

 

- "The United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit upheld our constitutional rights in Locke V Shore"

 

- "Deregulating Interior Designers will eliminate anyone but Architects from providing commercial design services"

 

- "Deregulating Interior Designers will endanger the 20 interior design programs in the State of Florida. They will not have adequate student enrollment to continue the programs. Students are so discouraged they are threatening to quit now. This will put many Floridians involved in our educational programs out of work."

 

- "I cannot count on paying my student loans of $______ if interior design is deregulated."  

 

- "I cannot continue in my business if I am unable cannot provide services for the commercial projects I am trained to design."

 

- "You are destroying a livelihood I have built up over the past ___ years, and will force me to lay off ____ employees."  

 

- "You are reducing my ability to earn or to receive promotions since I will no longer be a design professional and compete as one"

 

- "If I cannot submit documents as a design professional and provide my registration certificate for local, state and Federal projects. I can't compete."

 

- "If I cannot work, I will be unable to make my mortgage payment"

 

- "What am I going to do with my reduced (or closed) business if interior design is deregulated?!"  Get specific on this - give personal examples. 

 

- "You are taking the ability to provide specific services from primarily women-owned businesses and giving them to mostly male-owned architectural businesses" 

 

- "You are risking the health, safety, and welfare of every citizen of the State of Florida"

 

 

 
How will deregulation affect YOU?
Registered Interior Designers
Interior Design Students
Members of the Public
Architects
Sales Representatives and Vendors

WHAT YOU CAN DO:   

 

Some suggested speaking points are at the bottom of this message. No matter what you do, remember to say :

"I am opposed to the Deregulation of Registered Interior Designers in House Bill 5005, and I ask that you remove Interior Designers from the bill"

 

MAKE A PHONE CALL:

 Governor Rick Scott (850)487-0801 

*no email - you must phone*

 

Speaker of the House

  Dean Cannon 

(850)488-2742

 

House Appropriations  Committee:

all numbers are

(850)488-XXXX 

(R)-Republican

(D)-Democrat

 

Grimsley (R) - 3457

Kreegel (R) - 9175

Chestnut (D) - 5794

Bembry (D) - 7870

Coley (R) - 2873

Gibbons (D) - 0145

Glorioso (R) - 0807

Hooper (R) - 1540

Horner (R) - 8992

Hudson (R) - 1028

Hukill (R) - 6653

Jones (D) - 6893

Kiar (D) - 1588

Legg (R) - 5522

Lopez-Cantera (R) - 4202

McKeel (R) - 9890

O'Toole (R) - 5991

Proctor (R) - 2977

Rouson (D) - 0925

Sands (D) - 0590

Saunders (D) - 9965

Schenck (R) - 6641

Snyder (R) - 8832

WIlliams (R) - 2047

 

SEND AN EMAIL:

 

 

COME TO TALLAHASSEE:

We need as many people as possible to attend the House Appropriations Committee meeting Wednesday, March 30. The time has not yet been posted, but please contact us  if you can attend and we will forward the time and location. If we can fill the room, WE CAN END THIS. 

 

 

 

Stop Interior Design Deregulation in Florida!