Presidents MessageDavid L Stipe, ASLA, LLA
May has turned into June in a blink of an eye. We are just a few days away from the summer solstice and a long productive season for our profession. The highlight of May for me had to be the WASLA Conference held in my hometown, Wenatchee, Washington. It was a great event and very well attended, considering it was the first time our annual conference was held on the east side of the Cascade Crest. I have to make this distinction ‘Cascade Crest’ because many of you in the Puget Sound region consider the eastside to be Bellevue, Issaquah, Redmond, etc. Attendance and participation by vendors at the conference were critical metrics in the ExCom evaluation of the conference and by all measures the conference was a success. It needed to be, so we can continue to take the show on the road. Over the last year or so we have been discussing a plan to host the membership at a conference somewhere outside of the Puget Sound Region every other year. Following the performance of Meet in the Middle, we are feeling pretty good about our plan. In the coming days and weeks we will be sharing more information about the 2016 conference. I wanted to take a moment to recognize our conference committee and thank them for all of the hard work they put into this successful get together. Jillian Reiner, Conference Chair and Kate Richards both put in a significant amount of time planning the social and educational events. Courtney Landoll by any measure was the key to making the conference a financial success by almost single handedly recruiting the 20+ vendors that made the trip to Wenatchee. This was by far the largest exhibit hall we have had at a conference and I am hoping for more of the same in the future. Reta, Ryan and Becky along with all of the folks at SBI, our executive management company, stuck with us through thick and thin to make sure we put together a worthwhile event for all to enjoy. Big thanks to all who helped make it a great day. Steph Stroud our newsletter editor has done a great job in this month’s newsletter summarizing the conference. If you were there (here), thanks for coming.
David L Stipe, ASLA, LLA |
