A big welcome to all the city and county Parks Departments, Resort Hotel Developments, Amusement parks. New Landscape Architects and Erosion Control Specialists across the country who are now receiving LASN! You are now a part of about 24,000 commercial professionals who receivethe magazine every month. Our goal is to provide you with the most current and pertinent information concerning the commercial development of land for the public and private sectors. If you can't find it in the pages of LASN, try logging on to "www.landscapearchitect.com". There, you'll find the past ten years of editorial as well as industry contacts, vendors and other professionals working the commercial arena. In any event, we look forward to your readership and to hearing from you throughout the years ahead .... IECA Show Congratulations to the ASLA ... All Right!!! At least that was the feeling for about 5 mins when upon arriving at the IECA Show in Nashville, I saw a booth for the American Society of Landscape Architects . . . Then I saw someone take down the sign, who when asked told me that they would be no- shows!?!. Now, there were quite a few Landscape Architects at the event, but wouldn't it have been sweet to see a booth touting the benefits of using Landscape Architects to master-plan erosion sensitive developments . . . Did the engineer Director of the ASLA forfeit this market to his old corp.? We can only speculate, but let's hope he has more sense than that . . . By the way, LASN's Associate Editor Donald Gray co-authored a book with Robbin Sotir called Biotechnical and Soil Bioengineering Slope Stabilization: A Practical Guide for Erosion Control which seemed to be the hot item at the IECA Show. For those of you who work in the Erosion Control Arena, this book seems to be tremendous resource. For those of you who don't work in the Erosion Control Arena, you know . . . those of you who never work with a slope steeper than 2", nor anywhere near a river, body of water , etc., or in an area where it neither rains nor receives strong winds . . . those of you who fall into these categories may still want to take a look at the book, you may be surprised with the possibilities. Erosion Control is a strong commercial market, wide open for the Landscape Architects ... It could happen . . . Golf Course Show Also went to the Golf Course show last month, I guess Landscape Architects aren't involved in that arena either . . . No . . . from National's standpoint the Golf Course market seems to be better left to others . . . Maybe we'll see the ASLA at the Home and Garden Show coming up . . .Yea . . . Bird Baths, Antique Dealers and Landscape Architects .... That sounds more like the ASLA anyways .... After all, there are a lot more homeowners than there are Master- Planned Communities! So good, we'll see the ASLA at the Home and Garden Shows ... It could happen... Licensure Now it looks as if the Landscape Architects in California will be handed over to the Architects Board in a somewhat surprise move by the Department of Consumer Affairs. This event is being greeted with mixed emotions as some LA'S vehemently do not want to be a part of a joint board, especially with a minority status as is this case. Others however are overjoyed to become a part of the establishment and cite several other states where joint existence has proven successful. Hopefully this doesn't mean that the architects will be able to strong arm the LA'S into submission ... It could happen... Leadership Whatever happens, the lessons learned are that having a National Organization doesn't automatically equate to having a Strong or Focused Organization. As Landscape Architectural principles are being recognized as central to process-oriented design, other professions are actively and impressively taking away your piece of the pie. All the while the Nat'1 ASLA is making piecemeal progress, negotiating limits to the profession and ignoring the cries of the membership . . . Get aggressive, reach the client community and promote the profession to the masses. The Landscape Architectural Profession has the ability to become the strongest member of the development team... It could happen...