First of all, welcome back to everyone from what I trust was a relaxing break over Christmas (even if it now seems a long time ago!).

Although Chapter Council hasn’t met yet for 2017, we have still been active in promoting the message that Good Design is Good Business across a number of activities.

The FAD (Festival of Architecture and Design) Advisory Group has met twice in this period to assist the Institute in developing a strategic plan to deliver FAD as a regular and well regarded fixture in Adelaide’s Festival’s calendar. We are fortunate to have on this advisory group the services of Greg Mackie OAM, Trish Hansen (SAHMRI), Nikki Hamdorf (Jam Factory), Nick McArdle (Adelaide Crows), Associate Professor John Spoehr (Flinders University) and Dino Vrynios (GGA). They are providing valuable input into establishing the FAD brand long term. While this work is being progressed, the Chapter is developing the program for this year’s FAD event in October.

We have also continued our engagement with DPTI regarding revised conditions of contract for state government projects. The meetings have been heading in the right direction and we are aiming to arrive at a mutually agreeable set of contract conditions soon. Allied to this has been a discussion around how to assist the government in preparing better briefs for projects, and getting architects involved at the inception stages for projects. This discussion is occurring at multiple levels within government and we are aiming to see some results during the first half of this year.

With DPTI discussions proceeding well, we have turned our attention to local government procurement. Many members have advised that they are doing work with local governments across South Australia, and have expressed the view that procurement processes could be streamlined. There are many similarities with the DPTI discussions that we can draw on and we’d be interested in hearing about your experiences as we develop a policy in this area. I’d encourage you to contact the Chapter Office to share your thoughts.

Finally, with my term concluding at the end of February, this will be my last e-News as SA Chapter President. I would have to say it’s been a great experience representing the profession here in South Australia and I’d like to thank all of you who’ve contributed to our efforts over the past two years. I think we’ve achieved a lot in that time in raising the profile of architecture within the decision makers in this state.

Congratulations to incoming President Mario Dreosti. There’s always much to do, and I know that with your support, he’ll continue to drive the relevance of the profession within South Australia on behalf of you, the members.