A Note to Registered Landscape Architects. As we hit the summer months the profession and business in general seems to be flying toward the millennium at warp speed. From Kennebunkport to San Diego we're hearing only positives. At the same time almost everyone is painting the growth with a cautious brush, seeing steady if not overwhelming opportunities. Manufacturers are spending more to reach the Landscape Architect and Specifier, tree farms are running out of stock, new projects are popping up everywhere and everyone appears to be as busy as they want to be. Now, especially for the private sector RLA's, is the time to make money! It is certainly not the time to focus on the profession as a whole, licensure, or any of that political wagon wheel. No, damn it, that's for the ASLA to handle . . now is the time to make money!" And surely the profession is growing . . . ASLA says there are some 20,000 Landscape Architects out there, and well over 10,000 current, paid-in-full individuals in its overall membership. Anyways . . . this growth will surely last forever just ask the grasshopper. (For those of you without small children, ask someone who has about the story of the ant and the grasshopper.) Of course, this leaves LASN in sort of a dilemma. You see, we've contacted every state in the country and have only come up with about 16,000 Registered Landscape Architects, including the National Park Service and the National Forest Service, who are not required to be licensed, and also including what we can determine to be about 500 or so qualified professionals who live in the five unregistered states (mainly in Colorado). Also, our records show that only about 40% of the RLA's (approx. 6,400) are members of the ASLA. If this is true, who makes up the other half of the ASLA membership? ... or ... What does it take to be called a "Landscape Architect" in the eyes of a membership organization? Is Angela Lansbury a "Landscape Architect". I know Ted Kennedy is an Honorary member, ... is he a "Landscape Architect" . . . who knows. However, while all seems to be doing great out there and with business booming, the profession might actually be shrinking! It's hard to believe, but it is true. And this in the wake of Heisman Trophy winner and LA Graduate/ Eddie George, FDR Memorializer Lawrence Halprin and score upon score of recognizable projects designed by RLA's across the country. Remember the Annual Meeting in Los Angeles where a record number of booths exhibited to about the smallest attendance in the past 15 years? How can this be?? Where have all the LA'S gone? Well even a change of address won't hide the fact that the Association to Silence Landscape Architects is once again focused on other things. Heck ... we all know how much energy it takes to move your office, let alone take advantage of the market opportunities to advance the profession. But. . . you focus on what's important to you . . . and it looks like ASLA National needs new digs. The profession hasn't grown, staff has .... exposure hasn't grown, but you get great discounts . . . Does anybody remember Nero's Fiery Fiddle? That's right Ms. Lansbury, Rome appears to be on fire again . . . So, while the AIA is busy strengthening its position with Open Space Awards and the Architects' State Boards are "allowing" the LA'S to fall under their jurisdiction, the Good 'ole ASLA is packing boxes, moving across the street and letting opportunity after opportunity slip from their grasp. Now is the perfect time for the profession to grow .... Some 6,000 of you are paying more than $200.00 a year to make sure it happens. Of course, most of the other 10,000 have tried that route before and have learned the "good money after bad" lesson. Whether you are in the first group or the later, now is the time to get the Society moving in the right direction. The ASLA is more important today than ever . . . but a non-focused ASLA is the worst possible scenario. Now is the time to make money. It is also time to shape the profession. The leaders in the next millennium will be those who step up today and tell Nero that it's time to build a fire department.