Business of Design Lunch & Industry Updates in SA
The ACA – SA provides a review of activity over the last month, with events, new members and industry updates.
Events
More than 60 people attended ACA – SA’s Business of Design lunch last week to hear Kerstin Thompson talk about her business. As the second in what we hope will be an ongoing annual event, our guests were interested to hear the relationship between good business practice and good design. Kerstin articulated the link between quality design outcomes and a sustainable and viable business model. She talked of design value and that design is like a contract for quality, and spoke of the processes and roles within the office to maintain that quality.
We will have the full presentation available soon on the ACA website.
Our next major event will be the Business of Small Practice (BOSP) evening in October with speaker Kate Fitzgerald of Whispering Smith in WA. We are also always looking for topics for our Roundtables – an opportunity for real dialogue with other related professions.
CPD for Architects
The ACA has commented to the APBSA on the introduction of compulsory CPD for Architects, and is keen to hear thoughts from members as to how the regulations should be structured. Consistency and transferability across states is another issue we believe is critical.
DPTI
Recently DPTI proposed to introduce Liquidated and Ascertained Damages on Government Projects to recover any professional services costs from project overruns. The industry sees this as a backward step, which will cause more disputes and is making representations to DPTI about this issue. There is also concern over the programming of the current school capital works programs, with concept phase work being shortened and what appears to be a major problem with many projects finishing at the same time in late 2021, leading to similar problems as happened with the BER program.
Shergold-Weir Report
ACA nationally has committed to monitor the state-by-state implementation of the Shergold-Weir report, with concerns that the States must be held accountable and regularly report on progress. We would appreciate your thoughts on how SA is doing in this regard. The effects of the crisis in confidence is being reflected in the PI market, and Cos Cirocco from our sponsor Planned Cover attended the most recent ACA Committee meeting to update us on the issues around insurance.
Keith Neighbour Study Group
A record number of graduates have attended the most recent Keith Neighbour Study Group, and we wish them every success in their efforts towards registration!
New Members
In other news, we welcome new members Planbuild and Mountford Williamson. We trust they will see the benefit of membership!
Thanks Sascha Byrne
A special thanks to Sascha Byrne for her tireless work as Executive Officer, as well as her national work on projects and membership.