The Regional Associate Director (RAD) represents the entire constituency of Associate Members from across the region (California) to the National Associates Committee (NAC). There are currently 18 RADs across the U.S., and each must attend a mandatory NAC Annual meeting typically held in October.
Any AIA Associate in good standing may run for election to the RAD position, first to shadow the current RAD for 1 year, and then serve the full 2-year term. The RAD serves as a voting member on the AIACC Board of Directors, and is a member of the Council of Advisors (COA) within the Academy of Emerging Professionals (AEP). If the RAD receives his/her license while in office, he/she may complete the term.
The responsibilities of the RAD are considerable within the state and to national. Within the state, the RAD is funded to attend all AIACC Board meetings, AEP COA meetings, the AEP State Forum, Regional AEP Forums (within their region), the Regional Directors meeting, and National Convention (representing the region). The RAD also attends National Grassroots and the NAC Annual meeting, with limited funding for each event from AIA National. In attending these meetings, the RAD is the liaison between the state and national, reporting all information between the two, in order to keep the needs of the Associates foremost in everyone’s mind. It is also the responsibility of the RAD to engage members of the AEP or NAC about current events, issues, problems, and solutions. It is imperative that the RAD be available to attend these meetings, as being informed and informing others is the majority of this position.As a member of the COA for the AIACC, the RAD informs the Associate Directors (North & South) of National issues so they may pass the information on to each Emerging Professional Director within each Chapter. Coordination with the IDP Director is essential, as IDP is a key issue for most Associates. More specific duties of the RAD as far as the NAC is concerned are spelled out in the NAC manual, and include sitting on one of the three Community Committees, submitting articles to several online Associate news sources within the AIA, and attend monthly phone conferences (for NAC as a whole, and the Committee for which the RAD sits).
The RAD is required to attend several AIACC Executive Committee meetings along with the VP of the AEP. These meetings are independent of the AEP and thus the RAD is to coordinate sharing and dissemination of information of relevance to the AEP Directors through the AEP VP.
