Somebody really needs to check for the pulse.

[mark foster]

My profession walked away from me.  My state board outlawed licensure experience to take LARE if the the candidate works for a registered LA in design build–effectively restricting my rights as an employer.

Why would I support an organization that does not accept me as a full member?  

[Boilerplater]

Agreed.  If you’re going to issue statements that can be quickly and easily refuted with a Google search, expect them to be questioned.  It makes him sound like he’d full of shit.  I can’t stand people who are full of shit.  Its like the couple who always appears happy and high-functioning and then are found dead in an apparent murder suicide.  This stuff needs to be out in the open if actual solutions can be expected to be found.  The automotive industry executives swallowed their pride and went to D.C. with their hats in their hands to ask for help, but this guy wants to make it look like things are just fine for this industry.  I had an interview recently where one of the owners told me two nursery owners that he had known for years have committed suicide in the past year.  Think we have it bad?  Imagine sitting on thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars worth, of inventory that there is no market for and has to be maintained.  Imagine raising nursery crops is what you’ve always done and you don’t know how to do anything else.  There has been real damage done here on the scale of a natural disaster in terms of affects on health and survival rates.  But some people would rather sweep it under the carpet.

[Heather Smith]

I guess I didn’t see it as being too optimistic…I do see it as a sales pitch for what landscape architects can do. Honestly, what should he say? haha. Yeah…we have a lot of unemployed landscape architects? I will read it again to see if I pick up the vibe you feel, but just remember people like winners. People want to be part of something positive and they don’t want to be connected to a group of Eeyores. I think this article would do great at educating the reader as to what LAs do, and I think it just points to a reconfiguration in the way landscape architecture will be practiced in the future. (I have a two year old yelling in the background…so I hope I am making some sense.)

[Leslie B Wagle]

I think what bothered some of us was the disconnect with the LEED remark specifically. I may be disconnected myself but knowing the builder/developer industry around here pretty well, I just can’t picture a scene with some of them having drinks at an area builder’s group and saying to each other (or themselves in private)…I’m going to do a LEED project…let’s see…that means I really need to go out and find a landscape architect. Many aren’t even aware of what we SHOULD do. If I’m mistaken, everybody just ignore my reaction.

[Heather Smith]

Yeah…I understand kind of wondering about the LEED focus. I guess recently I have just realized that I am going to dislike a lot of what others say about any given thing. Being an election year, perhaps I give articles such as this a bit of a gloss over. I can’t be outraged over everything! haha.

[Tanya Olson]

Yes – thats exactly what I would expect. You can’t expect creative solutions if you are delusional about the problem – look at Greece, North Korea, the former USSR, the American housing bubble – it doesn’t do anyone any good to lie.

The role of an effective leader is to identify obstacles and opportunities and help create an inspired roadmap toward overcoming / realization. Effective leaders meet people WHERE THEY ARE and walk them through a compelling vision for the future of the company, profession, etc. Their vision reflects understanding for the concerns of their members.

Instead what we are hearing is a false account or wishful thinking of where we are, no compelling vision that reflects the wants or needs of many in the profession. I think we are terribly disappointed with ASLA because it has so much potential to have meaningful impacts but instead seems obsessed with the superficial – RLA vs PLA for example – give me a break. Huge number of LAs are unemployed and they’re spending your membership dollars arguing about titles! Title acts are fabulous but those battles are in large part won. Is that ALL they’ve got?!?

[Anonymous]

You’re all over it. The timing of the PLA  thing really ticked me off.

[mark foster]

We are a “professional” discipline.  We deserve better.

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

I don’t know why people get so wound up about ASLA  whether it be negative or positive. I don’t believe that it is widely known outside of the profession. It influences what we, as landscape architects, feel about the profession much more than it does those outside of it as best as I can tell.

 

It is like listening to a real estate program on the radio or a car dealership commercial. It is always the best time to buy.

[Ken Householder]

Talk about being out of touch. If you ask me, the economy has, at best, temporarily suppressed the mainstream practice of sustainability and popularity of all things green  – kinda like our profession. But for him to not even acknowledge any problem in the profession confirms that he is ill-equipped to lead the professional organization that exists to promote and protect our craft. There may be places where requirements for employing “green” construction practices help to sustain local firms, but to say that sustainability has saved the profession is a lie.

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

[Like]

 

Extra money moving around (ie, wealth) is the best thing for environmental projects. When things get tight, it is back to minimizing expenses.

 

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