SA Update – July 2022
The ACA SA has had a strong focus on advocacy, mental wellbeing and culture, and has welcomed the return of BoSP.
Sponsors
We are thrilled to have Roussos Recruitment working with the team in SA for 2022. Anna Roussos is also involved with the Architects Mental Wellbeing Forum in SA and we value her unique perspective and input.
We would also like to thank Viewlistic, Event Sponsor for BoSP in May. Joe Keogh, it was a pleasure to have you at our event and thank you for your support. We look forward to working with you in the future.
Advocacy
The ACA SA has been involved in several different advocacy areas. These include:
The Construction Culture Initiative
The ACA has been invited to several events initiated by discussions with the Institute and the MBA regarding the often-toxic culture of the building industry. We believe there is an opportunity to change culture, and improve mental wellbeing, work/life balance and procurement expectations. It has been wonderful to be part of open and frank discussions about how the whole industry could do better. This initiative is gaining momentum through all facets of the industry.
Continued representation on SA Commercial Construction Industry Forum
Simon Thomson was the ACA representative for this working group, which has now completed its work. We are now waiting for a response from the department.
Other representations to DIT including meeting with new CE
We recently met with the Institute and the new Chief Executive of DIT, Jon Whelan. It was a positive meeting where he outlined some of his priorities and discussed the upcoming project pipeline. As noted elsewhere, DIT is keenly aware of the problems arising from steep cost increases in some materials, as well as materials and labour shortages. Their moves to introduce rise and fall clauses into contracts for the first time in 50 years is indicative of their concerns with the fallout from fixed price contracts. There is also a realisation that project timelines need to be more realistic, and workflows improved to match the government project workload with the capacity of the industry, and to avoid a boom and bust mentality. We hope this meeting is an opportunity for further open conversations with DIT senior management in the future.
Continued meeting with ACA, Institute, Arch Practice Board and Govt Architect
This has led to engagement with the board around reciprocal registration and suggested case study communication to members and also the current preparation of feedback to DIT on the operation of the SA Planning Portal in association with the Institute.
Lectures to UniSA
Each year the ACA presents a lecture to the final year students at UniSA about the the role of the ACA, some information on the Architects Award and a brief overview of some of the very different types of architectural practices, using our members as examples. We hope the recent signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Association of Architecture Schools of Australasia (AASA) will forge better connections between academia and practice, and we hope the constructive dialogue continues.
Events
The ACA SA Committee started the year a little later than usual with a breakfast at our favourite spot, Luigi’s. Members feasted at Luigi’s breakfast bar while taking the opportunity to catch up face to face for the first time in a long time. John Held, ACA SA Branch and National President, spoke about the work the ACA committee does behind the scenes, highlighting the hard work by our committee members in supporting the architecture community.
On Friday 1 April 2022, the ACA SA and WA hosted a joint webinar on Succession Planning with Daniel Bolt from Macquarie Bank. The session covered a range of areas related to this important aspect of owning a business. In the one-hour session, Daniel took us through topics such as identifying potential successors, valuations, obtaining finance, and transitioning to the future leaders of a business. The webinar included case study examples and was followed by an informative Q&A session with ACA practice members.
BoSP returned to Adelaide for the first time since October 2019. Warwick Mihaly from Mihaly Slocombe in Melbourne reflected on The Engine of Growth and the lessons learned from a decade of running and growing his architecture practice with his wife Erica. This was followed by a panel discussion with Warwick, Sally Wilson (archea) and Justin Cucchiarelli (Studio Nine) about their own practice growth and lessons learnt, moderated by Mario Dreosti. We were also joined by Nerissa Kilvert, South Australian Small Business Commissioner, updating us on what her office has been doing and plans for the future. Thank you to everyone involved.
In the second half of 2022, our next Practice Managers lunch on Cyber Extortion will be on Thursday 21 July, presented by Planned Cover and Blue Zebra Insurance. Join us at The Cumby for an in-depth look at the cyber threats that businesses face and how cyber insurance can be used to help manage this growing risk.
Our 5th annual Business of Design Lunch will be held on Thursday 18 August at the Adelaide Pavilion. This is a unique opportunity for architects to hear a prominent designer talk about their business. This year we will be joined by award-winning husband and wife architectural team, Kerry and Lindsay Clare from Clare Design in Queensland.
Stay tuned for more events later in the year, including our annual President’s Christmas Drinks on Wednesday 30 November.
Architects Mental Wellbeing Forum
The AMWF has had a slow start to 2022 as we all focus on the critical day to day. Recently restarting with a couple of meetings, the AMWF SA’s focus for 2022 will be on engagement with practice, members and the wider audience affecting and affected by what we do including the construction sector and educators. We look forward to working towards another round of the St. John’s Mental Health First Aid Course later in the year, and working with other branches to create a national program of events around the AMWF Toolkit. The AMWF SA will also be reviewing its successes and engagement from the last 18 months, to broaden what we can offer, and to determine who we can share it with.