Monday, November 10

CONGRATULATIONS TO NOMA DETROIT MEMBERS!

Congratulations to NOMAD member company Hamilton Anderson Associates for winning the 1st Place Honor Award, part of the 2008 NOMA Design Awards given at the National Conference in Washington, DC last month.



Congratulations to member architect and NOMAD Vice President, Kenneth Crutcher, named to the Planning Commission of the City of Farmington for a three-year term.

NOMA Midwest Conference


To: All Midwest NOMA Professionals and Students
From: Kevin M. Holland AIA NOMA, Midwest Region Vice-President
Re: Midwest Region Conference 2009

Good evening,

I am sending this out to as many of you as possible. Please feel free to forward to other professionals and students as you may see fit.

Shortly after the conclusion of our Annual Conference in Washington, DC, the necessity of establishing a mid-year conference just for the region occurred to me.
I have had the opportunity to discuss this with members of INOMA and the student chapter presidents at IIT and UIUC.

We are, on very short-notice, planning a very condensed conference for Saturday, January 17 and Sunday, January 18, 2009 on the campus of the University of Illinois/Urbana-Champaign. Thanks to the UIUC NOMAS chapter, and in particular, Leeswan Bolden, we have secured both the Architecture Building and Temple Hoyne Buell Hall for these dates.

We do realize that January will be upon us very quickly, and many of you may feel that this effort is extremely aggressive, however; this particular weekend is just before MLK day and for the students, is probably the least intrusive on their academic schedules. Also, I would like to emphasize that this conference is not to compete nor replace the annual UIUC Symposium. In fact, we would strongly encourage NOMAS to continue planning and maintain the tradition of the symposium.

This conference would consist of a much focused event in the customary, three-tracks (students, interns and professionals) and the intent is to provide immediately-useful information which can be applied directly to a very purposeful event. (Click on schedule at right.) By which, on the first day, I propose:

For the students: a half-day resume and portfolio workshop with the opportunity to rewrite resumes on the spot. Immediately following this workshop would be a half-day job fair in which all NOMA firms are invited as well as, majority firms within the Midwest region.

For the professional interns: a full-day (or possibly, a two-day if the interns are willing to come in on Friday) ARE Workshop on both General Structures and Lateral Forces conducted by Marc Mitalski PE of Illinois-based, PREPA.R.E. Immediately following this workshop, any intern who is eligible, should be confident about taking and passing these difficult exams.

For the professionals: a half-day seminar on the State of the Economy and its impact on the Architectural Industry and a LEED Exam Workshop (with practice tests) conducted by Everblue Energy.

The second day would consist of a half-day charette of teams composed of both professionals and students and the second half of the day would be a body meeting in which a structure similar to the national body would be put in place at the regional level. For instance, I believe that the region needs to have at the very least, a treasurer, secretary, membership chair and two student representatives, among others.

In order to be successful, we need your input, willingness and commitment to attend this event. We need participation from all professional and student chapters from Detroit to Manhattan, Kansas. There will, of course, be a registration fee, which has not been determined, however; be very confident that the registration fee will be significantly less than was the fee for the national conference. However; the first requirement for registration will be the payment of National dues. We cannot extend invitations to firms for the job fair nor sign any agreements regarding workshops without your commitment therefore; please respond to me directly regarding your willingness to attend by this Friday, November 7, 2008, so that we might plan accordingly.

I hope that you will find this to be a cause worthy of your time and of your attention. Thanks for you consideration.
Sincerely,


Kevin M. Holland AIA Senior Associate
Director of Indianapolis Operations

MOODY•NOLAN, INC.
Architecture Civil Engineering Interior Architecture
200 South Meridian Street, Suite 440
Indianapolis, Indiana 46225
ph: 317.916.4082 fx: 317.916.4083