Profile: The passion of the Southern California Chapter shall be the advancement of knowledge, education, and skill in the art and science of landscape architecture as an instrument of service in the public welfare. To this end, the Chapter shall promote the profession of landscape architecture and advance the practice through advocacy, education, communication, and fellowship. The Southern California Chapter is comprised of over 700 members in the southern portion of California, south of the thirty-seventh (37th) parallel, including the counties of Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura.

As we slowly slip into the holiday season, ASLA Southern California looks back at 2019. The Chapter's current President, Pamela Brief, and Senior Principal with NUVIS Landscape Architecture in Los Angeles carried her 2018 theme of "Celebrating the Tapestry of Southern California" into the new year. Pamela continued to focus and highlight the various regions of the chapter at large and the diversity of the membership, as well as the great projects and work that all members and firms are doing throughout Southern California and beyond.

 
Looking to our 3-year strategic plan, the leadership continued the work of the chapter with four primary pillars in mind; 1) Communication; 2) Advocacy; 3) Engaging Membership and Future Leaders; and 4) Governance and Management. As it pertains to communication, the chapter focused on conveying the benefits/resources ASLA can provide to its members and looked at creating forum opportunities where people can post idea or questions. As we look forward to 2020, the chapter plans to be laser focused on the declining membership of students and emerging professionals who are the future of the profession.

Eighteen students received 2019 ASLA Student Honor and Merit Awards. Apart from the UCLA Extension program whose award program took place in early October, all other award ceremonies took place this past spring. Awarded students included six from Cal Poly Pomona; six from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo; four from the UCLA Extension program; and two from USC. For a list of the students, the awards, and photos, please visit the "Our Schools" page of the chapter's website at https://socal-asla.org/schools/.

A series of chapter networking mixers and small programs were held over the past year, including a recent webinar on the Shot Hole Borer, which was presented by Matt Deines, Senior Planner at UCI. The webinar presentation will be posted to the Professional Resources page of the website at www.socal-asla.org. Over 100 attendees including ASLA members, sponsors and others were in attendance for the 5th annual BBQ hosted by BMLA Inc. in Corona this past June. Also, this year, incoming President Elect, Carlos Flores, led the charge on a series of very successful sketching meetups (ASKETCHLA) in various locations around the chapter. Professionals and students participated in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Pasadena, Newport Beach, Claremont and other locations. The Chapter also participated in Cal Poly Pomona's Firm Day this past April.

In July, the chapter held their annual chapter elections ushering in some new faces to the Executive Committee leadership. In particular, these individuals are: Nicole Volpe from VERTiCA Landscape architecture in Orange County who moves into the role of Vice President of Membership; Ross Woodley from EPTDESIGN in Pasadena who will take on the role of Chapter Secretary; Brian Maddock, our new Programs Chair; and Corey Phillips from ANOVA, who will take on the role of Public Awareness. Carlos Flores from the National Park Service and instructor at Cal Poly Pomona, will take officially take his seat as incoming President Elect along with all new leaders following the 2019 Conference on Landscape Architecture in November.

Southern California leadership met for their annual 48-hour weekend retreat at the UCLA Conference Center on Sept 27-29. The annual retreat focused on team building and planning for the upcoming year.

Good news for landscape architects in California. The CAB/LATC sunset bill passed out of both houses in September. The Licensure Sunset Legislation (SB 608-Glazer), which affected all licensed landscape architects in the State of California, has been signed by Governor Newsom.

Lastly, the Chapter would like to thank our Sponsor Companies in 2019 who continue to support the chapter and allow us to bring great events to our members. For a list of this year's sponsors, visit us at https://socal-asla.org/sponsors/.

As seen in LASN magazine, December 2019.