ACA - SA March 2016

John Held , 10 March 2016

Procurement, research, registration and roundtables – a brief update on a very active month at ACA – SA.

White Card Training

14 members undertook White Card training on 1 March – feedback was positive and we can organise another session when there is sufficient demand.  

Research Project

Analysis is well underway on the State of the Profession survey, and the report will be released next month.

The survey was answered by 133 respondents. This is a very strong response rate, and compares well with what else is known about the number of practices in the state (there is no single reliable figure available). For example, the APBSA register includes 119 companies and 8 partnerships (although some of these businesses are located interstate). The SA Chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects has 83 practices in the A+ category, and a rough count from yellow pages gives a total of 170 practices.

The high response rate indicates a willingness on the part of the South Australian architectural community to engage with questions about the current state of the profession and it future. The discursive responses are particularly interesting, with a clear emphasis on two main issue – fees and relevance.

Keith Neighbour Study Group

A new group has commenced leading up to the next round of registration exams. Contact Ian Hore for further details

DPTI procurement

Member will have read of further changes within DPTI, which are causing some uncertainty and concern. In the last few weeks ACA – SA has met with various DPTI management representatives. Work includes:

  • A short paper sent to Denise Hatzi, Manager, Strategic Procurement, on DPTI Prequalification, its benefits and suggestions for improvement. There is a review of Prequalification under way, and we also met with the MBA, AMCA and Master Plumbers recently to share our experiences of the system.
  • An analysis of contract conditions within the tender documents for Lead PSCs, drafted by David Kilpatrick and submitted jointly with the Australian Institute of Architects.
  • Meetings with DPTI to see if we can adopt the ACA Safety in Design proformas as their standard. John Schmidt has also drafted a guide to safe roof access for architects which we will also discuss with DPTI.
  • Concern at changes in contract conditions, and a suggestion of major changes to procurement methodologies
  • A short submission is also being drafted on ACA’s views on government procurement following a meeting of ACA reps with Paul Viney, Denise Hatzi, Brian Roche, Derek Cruickshank and Andrew Brown.

As you can see, there has been a great deal of activity.  We have been liaising closely with David Homburg and Nicolette di Lernia from the Institute to ensure a unity of voice for architects.

Roundtable with Paul Viney, 3 March

 Paul visited from Victoria to demonstrate the latest version of the ACA Architects’ Time and Cost Calculatation Guide. This has a number of improvements and the feedback gained was appreciated. The new version will be released soon for a limited time to non-members and a version is being developed as a teaching tool for university departments of architecture.

Paul’s experience in government procurement was also useful- he attended the DPTI meeting earlier in the day and spoke of his role in negotiating agreed fee scales with the Department of Education in Victoria.

Next Roundtable – May – with ESD Consultants

Our next Roundtable will discuss the issues confronting architects when dealing with sustainability issues – from getting and giving the right advice to avoiding greenwash.

John Held is ACA – SA President and a director of Russell & Yelland.