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Message From The IDEC President
IDEC Record, Fall 1996

Our successful 1996 International conference is now a pleasant memory. The spirit of the conference, however, will live on for some time to come. Your Board of Directors, invigorated by the support from the membership, has renewed its commitment to strengthening IDEC and to utilizing IDEC's strategic plan to give direction to that work.

Several conference outcomes will help IDEC continue its forward movement. First, our concern for making IDEC stronger gives the board officers, committee and network chairs a grater sense of unity in effort and direction that will carry over to the record, the Journal of Interior design, conferences, and our central office services.

Second, we are moving forward with the Restructure committee's work, thanks to an extensive analysis of the questionnaires that were turned in at the conference or returned by mail. Our organization will be improved with a leaner board of directors and more rotation of officers to ensure broader participation of members in governance. The chairman, Nancy Blossom, IDEC, and her committee consisting of Paul Petrie, FIDEC, Scott Ageloff, IDEC, Dr. Margaret Portillio, IDEC and Patrick Flanigan, IDEC, have done a great deal of work to prepare and present the initial proposal. since the conference they have analyzed the data furnished by the questionnaires plus the comments and letters. The committee considered all input - before and after the conference. They will continue to develop an implementation plan and the bylaw changes that are necessary for our membership to put the restructure plan in place.

An additional payoff from the supportive membership is the ability of IDEC representatives to contribute on an equal footing with the representatives of professional organizations that comprise the boards of FIDER and NCIDQ. We will be able to support our liaison members to ensure that we are partners with the professional members of these boards. FIDER and NCIDQ are critical for our members and all of our graduates. It is important that we continue to participate and fulfill our roles in these two organizations that serve our profession. Jane Kolar Kucko, IDEC, as our representative to IDCEC, will continue to provide input from our organization into the development of continuing education courses and distance learning. We also anticipate an invitation to the table of DCPD, (Design Coalition for Professional Development) as co-players in the emerging partnership of industry and the profession to develop lifelong learning packages. We expect to have more to report to you on this by the close of the calendar year.

Current and vital changes in industry, practitioner and provider services, manufacturing techniques, national disaster impacts on regional and international building codes, and research are becoming increasingly important to the interior design practitioner, educator and industry representative. IDEC must strengthen its support of research. We see potential for this in the "special projects" component of the Restructure Plan. This one aspect has stirred positive comment and support from educators and practitioners who are members of IDEC. If we can provide funding for pertinent research perhaps we can encourage industry to take advantage of the research capabilities of our four year and graduate program members. Our future is dependent on collaboration and cooperation among these three branches of our field.

Las, but not least, we are making progress on providing World Wide Web-Internet services for IDEC members. We will hope to announce final plans at or before our 1997 conference. I want to officially welcome new board members, Lisa Waxman, IDEC, Education Services Director; Stephanie Clemons, IDEC, Member Services Director; Melba Rae Widmer, IDEC, Midwest Regional Chair; and Deborah LaMar Brooks, IDEC Pacific West Regional Chair. The Board is already in motion planning regional activities and preparing for the fall board meeting in early November.

Parting board members are Susan Coleman, IDEC, Membership Services Director; George Fuller, IDEC, Education Services Director; Melinda LaGarce, IDEC, Midwest Regional Chair completing John Peaslee's term of office, and Marcia Lehman-Kessler, IDEC, Pacific West Regional Chair completing Robert Wolf's term of service. These people have done a wonderful job and their experience and good judgment will be missed. Each of these people served the board and their respective constituencies well. They leave a strong legacy for the members taking their positions.

We are now beginning to finalize plans for the 1997 Annual International Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio. Hank Hilderbrandt, IDEC, will chair the conference and provide a solid program with tours of the significant campus contemporary architecture plus the historic architecture that abounds in Cincinnati. The theme "Negotiating the Labyrinth: Connections, Collaboration and Construction" promises opportunities for good paper presentations plus a new informal discussion and presentation period that Hank will build into an evening to us. This will provide an informal occasion for non-juried presentations that will give you incentive to talk about the issues and ideas that spark discussions and provide feedback to your fellow members. some of our meeting will be in the new facilities at the University of Cincinnati. Close up and personal looks at the new College of Architecture, Design and Planning building should prove exciting and interesting for all of us.

The Board joins me in wishing you a most productive and exciting 1996-97 Academic Year.

-Jerry L. Nielson, FIDEC IDEC President

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