The one day retreat held on March 5 aimed to help members envision and strategize the next stage in the OWA+DP’s development in the context of the theme, “Realizing Our Potential.” Both current and past Steering Committee members as well as officers and founding members attended.
Before the retreat, all OWA+DP members were invited to complete a survey. About one-third of the membership responded. The goal of the survey was to gather additional views and ideas regarding the following four main priorities:
Visual Identity: in relation to a new logo and other aspects of visual identity
Membership Growth and Retention: aiming to engage more young and mid-career architects and designers, as well as addressing declining membership numbers
Services and Programs: offering new programs and services
Operations: identifying and addressing weaknesses in the Steering Committee structure and operations
Before dividing into groups to discuss these four topics, it was key to frame the discussion within the current context of women in architecture, while also looking back at how the organization emerged in the 1970’s. The main questions that came from this discussion were: how can the organization attract and serve younger women if they do not perceive the need to stand together, and how do we make our group more visible while maintaining an intimate, supportive culture?
Discussion of the past and present led into small group discussions on the organization’s future: what should OWA+DP look like by the 50th anniversary? Some groups brainstormed specific actions and strategies, while others tackled questions such as how OWA+DP differs and stands out from other groups. With discussions of past, present, and future in mind, participants identified values, as well as purpose & vision, which were distilled into words and short phrases. These keystones served as guiding principles for the discussion of the four priorities.
The participants were then split into four task groups, each focusing on one of the four priorities. They each presented their ideas on possible projects to address their topic, and from there all the participants collectively chose two from each group to prioritize this year. All retreat participants brainstormed together to come up with two to three action items for each project. Some participants volunteered to be action champions to follow through with these collectively agreed upon actions. Here are this year’s projects:
VISUAL IDENTITY
Identify and define OWA+DP’s benefits (message)
Determine the process to achieve the new logo/identity
MEMBERSHIP GROWTH AND RETENTION
Institute a procedure for welcoming new members
Outreach to universities
SERVICES AND PROGRAMS
Introduce regular, casual meetings at members’ homes, each with a topic or theme
Collective wisdom – produce a weekly email compendium of events, questions, referrals, jobs etc.
OPERATIONS
Review and revise Steering Committee numbers and term limits
Establish advisory groups to support the Steering Committee
Launch an annual transition meeting/vision retreat to facilitate handover between incoming and outgoing Steering Committees
Progress of these priorities will be discussed in upcoming Steering Committee meetings. Please contact the Steering Committee if you would like to be involved with any of these projects. To read the full report, which includes full descriptions of each part of the retreat, priorities with their specific action items and action champions, and visuals from the brainstorming sessions, please visit
http://tinyurl.com/retreatreport
Special thanks to Lori Sherman for facilitating this event, Gensler for letting us use their office in Oakland, and the following OWA+DP members for organizing the venue, catering, and facilitation: Gloria Kim, Allison Kinst, Aziza Zare, and Carol Mancke.