A note from the President:
To all current and previous members, thank you so much for your support of our chapter and community. Last year AIGA changed a few things on membership renewals. Previous auto renewals were lost in the transition to a new system. As a result many membership renewals lapsed, Maybe even yours. If you didn’t mean for that to happen and you still want to enjoy the benefits of being a member of AIGA I’d like to personally invite you to rejoin the community. Auto renewals and recurring charges must be opted into every year. Be sure to add “Asheville” to your cart to select us as your chapter. Click here to Join.
If you intentionally chose not to renew, We would love to hear from you to help inform how we can ensure our chapter is providing relevant support, programming and opportunities to our community. Even if you opt to not be a member, we still appreciate that we are in the creative community together. You and your opinions matter to us. I would really appreciate it if you took this brief 5 question survey, or email us directly at communications@asheville.aiga.org with your thoughts.
I also want to be transparent that another change that occurred is related to how your membership dues support our chapter. AIGA national uses some of those dues to provide various platforms, discounts and other support to our chapter to keep us running and legal. We used to also get a portion of those dues as cash payments and as of this year we actually do not anymore.
The membership model is switching to one where the individual chapters can set their own additional dues on top of the national dues, bringing us more in line with the practices of most chapter based organizations. This year our board unanimously voted to not add additional chapter dues at this time and to focus on adding more local value to our membership. This is a decision that will be revisited annually.
We rely heavily on donations and sponsorships from our community to thrive and serve. Tax deductible donations to our 501c3 nonprofit chapter, which benefit us directly 100% are always welcome. Here’s a link to donate.
You may be wondering what we do with the money we raise. Our chapter is currently 100% volunteer run. Our board members, committee members and community of volunteers all give freely of our time to support the design and design adjacent professions to elevate our community to make more money, meaning and memories together. We use funds raised to cover the overhead costs of operating a chapter, produce relevant programming including signature events like Creative Hangouts and Design Weekend, pay for speakers, some advertising and support our community through initiatives like our Dream Fund that awards technology grants to historically underserved students.
Our community continues to amaze me and I look forward to continuing to co-designing our future together.
In community,
John Hornsby – Chapter President
