Dear Members, Partners and Friends,

I am honored to be serving as the President of our AMAZING IIDA Carolinas Chapter this year.

What an amazing year we have just accomplished!!!!

We held a wonderfully successful Amazing Spaces/Design Works weekend in April that was very well attended.

During the Summer Chapter Leadership Council meetings in Chicago, our Chapter received an honorable mention award for Excellence in GRA Activities.

Earlier this year a unique group of leaders from many of the design organizations in North Carolina established the Design Professionals of North Carolina, an alliance of ASID, IIDA, IDS, HPDC and NKBA to combat the issue of sales tax on professional services.Thru all our hard efforts, we are very pleased that a bill was introduced and signed by the Governor recently to prohibit any further tax on design services when products are sold as a result of the design fee.

As a result of this committee there has been ongoing talks regarding the collaboration of our organization with other Professional Design organizations and we have been asked to join ASID-Carolinas and the Design Center of High Point in participating in their Winter Design Conference in High Point for the first time.We will be hosting one of our Forum Events during the week's activities.

As we progress into the future…we are going "Back to the Basics" with our 2008-2009 Chapter goals by following three "R's"……Reflect, Refresh and Refocus….

Reflect on the past and look for new and creative methods to offer new and exciting activities, forums and programs to our membership.

Refresh membership drives and partnership sponsorships to increase awareness and participation.

Refocus our efforts during the year and search for ways to improve all aspects of our Chapter.

We are very pleased that our Professional Membership has seen a significant increase this year and that the UNCG Student Campus Center now has representation on our board.

We are fresh coming out of our Summer Retreat and are excited about some of the new and exciting events we will be offering for the coming year.

Some of the key events are as follows:

• Membership programs will be held in all of our Six City Centers in early fall
• The Charlotte City Center will hold a Design Olympics in the late fall.
• In November our Healthcare Forum will visit the Triangle, Charlotte and Coastal City Centers
• In December all six of our City Centers will hold their ever popular Holiday parties.
• We will be offering another Forum event in early February at the Winter Design Conference to be held in High Point in collaboration with ASID-Carolinas and the High Point Design Center.
• In April of 2009 we are planning a new and exciting ......"AMAZING" Annual Meeting and Tradeshow, to be held in Myrtle Beach, SC.

We would like to offer a huge THANK YOU to our 2008 Partners.Without them we would not be able to provide our membership the outstanding programs we offer and we are looking forward to another successful Partnership Campaign for 2009.

We continue to encourage you to volunteer and to help whenever you can as we look to continue offering quality programs, community service events and fun socials.

With the strong leadership of our Board of Director's, and your participation, we are looking forward to another AMAZING year!!!

Sincerely,

Bette Boone, IIDA, LEED AP, Associate AIA

2008-2009 Carolinas Chapter President