From The Publisher September 1996 Welcome to Los Angeles . . . Home of the first Registered Landscape Architect in the country . . . . I sure hope we see a lot of you at the ASLA Show in Los Angeles. The word out of Washington is record, record, record. And since this is the most concentrated region of landscape architects in the country, one would expect to see at least 4,000 professionals attending with at least another 1,000 or so exhibitors. Of course, this is an election year and we haven't heard a great deal from the locals but I did hear they are still looking for volunteers so join the local chapter and make an effort to get to the show! The trade show is open Saturday Night, Sunday Afternoon and Monday Morning right downtown at the convention center and regardless of what you hear in the news, downtown LA has a lot of character and regardless of the cost you should all try to at least attend the trade show! I know that as of 9/18/96 you can still get a room at the corporate rate in the host hotel so get yourself to LA and join in the sun, fun and fellowship. Speaking about the Election year . . . Did you know that for the last Presidential Election LASN readers mirrored the National Election with roughly 43% for Clinton, 37% for Bush and 15% for Perot. How will you vote this year? . . . Speaking about voting . . . . Many of you know that I've been running an unofficial campaign to try and push the ASLA toward growing the profession. Currently the National ASLA management seems preoccupied with running an award winning society while licensure is being forfeit in California, the Architects are grabbing at your piece of the pie, the contractors have been told they don't count, and the public is simply unaware. Pete Kirsch, ASLA Deputy ???? ??????, tells us that they need a $5 million war chest to effectively reach the public. (Sounds like Washington . . . . doesn't it) I thought the ASLA had a $6million annual budget. Certainly some of your dues could be used in a clearly defined campaign. At LASN, we believe it takes less than $50.00 to add ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, WB, & CNN to the Fax Tree and mailing list. But if you're preoccupied with credit cards and shipping discounts you lose focus on setting the foundation of the profession in stone. Licensure begins to slip away, the Architects and Contractors take on more and more of your work and the Public, while they will lose in the long run, are unaware of the great impact you've made on their lives! There . . . finally got say something positive :-} . . . The truth is that landscape architecture should be one of the fastest growing professions around. You should be leading the environmental charge, meeting the needs of the developers while providing the essentials of publics cry for landscape. Landscape Architects should be at the forefront of the logging controversies, Landscape Architects should be the Master Planners for community development, landscape architectural principals should be applied to all forms of development and industry . . . Anyways . . . Whether you agree or not (and I really, truly hope those of you who do disagree cast your ballots as well . . .) you'll find a ballot on Page 11-12, on the Internet @ www.landscapearchitect.com or at our booth # 165 at the show. I believe that every time you take a step you are either getting closer to your destination or you're getting farther away. Whatever the results . . . it has been entertaining and enlightening running this campaign. We look forward to providing you with the results over the next few issues. See you at the show . . . . EarthManX