GBS Consultant and IDC-Oregon President, Alicia Snyder-Carlson attended the 2012 ASID National Legislative Symposium! She writes about the experience in the latest ASID 
Oregon Chapter newsletter.
Special Thanks to:
The 2012 ASID National Legislative Symposium, held in Atlanta, GA brought together leaders from ASID and IIDA, as well as various coalition leaders from all across the country to learn and share experiences around interior design legislation pursuits.
In a combined effort to better arm designers to help shape the future of the profession, the conference offered attendees an incredible and invaluable event for both novice and experienced individuals who are interested in interior design legislation.
As an ASID Member and the current IDC-Oregon President, I found myself somewhere in the middle, with just over two years of experience pursuing legislation in Oregon. I was selected to represent Oregon’s design profession this year, thanks in large part to the ASID Oregon Chapter.
The conference taught me valuable lessons regarding lobbying, providing testimony at bill hearings, how best to meet with legislators, and understanding the economic and professional benefits of licensing. The three most important lessons I learned were: 1) Efforts to pass interior design legislation extend far beyond our profession; 2) We all need to build better relationships with our legislators; and 3) We need to stick with it and keep showing up because if we don’t, our opposition certainly will!
With these lessons in mind, IDC-Oregon is now focusing its efforts on encouraging Designers to understand how far our reach extends to other professions: we support millworkers, carpenters, contractors, custom artists, vendors and other manufacturers in our daily work. We need to communicate to our legislators that a strong interior design profession leads to a healthy building profession.
We want to be advocates for our profession: when a bill hearing is scheduled, we need you, your clients, your friends and family to show up and get involved! Even if life prevents you from attending every event, you can write letters or meet with your legislator instead. We must tell our legislators why interior design legislation is important to us or they simply won’t know.
We are in this for the long haul. A bill typically takes more than three legislative sessions to get passed, and after is passes, we’ll likely always be fighting to keep it in place. So when you get tired of writing letters every year and feel like we aren’t getting anywhere, just remember that we can’t do it without you!
The ASID National Legislative Symposium refueled my passion to help pass this important bill in Oregon. I have become a “lifer” in pursuit of interior design licensing and hope you will join me, IDC-Oregon, ASID and IIDA in this important fight. I believe 100% in the power of Interior Designers to change the world!
Thank you again to the Oregon Chapter ASID for making the ASID National Legislative Symposium trip possible! I also thank IDC-Oregon for working so hard to show us the way, and to IIDA and the rest of the profession for making licensing for Oregon Interior Designers a priority. Stick with it – I know we’ll get there one day!
- Alicia Snyder-Carlson, Assoc. IIDA, Allied ASID, LEED AP ID+C. Alicia is a sustainability consultant at GBS where her focus is on commercial interiors, natural material selection, efficient lighting options and occupant well-being.
June 25th, 2012 at 2:46 pm
Alicia thanks for posting your thoughts on the legislative symposium. I also appreciate your passion for the profession and your efforts to advance it via regulation. It is a thankless job no doubt. My only comment on your post is that extreme care must be used as to how we pitch our effort to regulate. You said “We must tell our legislators why interior design legislation is important to us or they simply won’t know.”
I would say that we need to tell our legislators why interior design legislation is important to their constituents- the voting general public- not us. Of course ultimately it is about our right to practice but if we can justify that right via HS&W, money or votes your effort will have much more impact.
I also hope you have shared your efforts with Emily Moses of the IDCW- your neighbors to the North. I think your groups have a lot in common and it would be a shame to proceed without some exchange of experience.
Even though I am not actively engaged in the ID regulation effort, as a concerned ID professional, I am invested 100% in the outcome.
Best of luck with your efforts in Oregon- I know the opposition has a strong foothold up there.
June 25th, 2012 at 8:28 pm
Hi Michael, thanks for sharing your thoughts! It’s always helpful to hear how others are talking about interior design regulation as it helps IDC-Oregon shape our message and understand how that message may be perceived. We follow and share information with our neighbors to the north, IDCW, constantly. Thanks for the good luck, we’ll certainly need it as we move forward.