Every two years we renew our advisory board and we are weeks away from the 2009 crop of advisers. Unlike the main board this is a gathering of folks that help to broaden the reach of Architecture for Humanity as well as bring in support in all the areas which our work affects or is influenced by.
Last week in an internal meeting we began to put together a shortlist of who we thought would be helpful to have on the board. Innocently I posted the same question on facebook today and within an hour received a dozen names. While we are going through this process I felt we should ask our readers who they felt should be on the panel. So shoot me your suggestion by December 27th 2008 (or add a comment below) and I'll pose it to the main board for inclusion.
One more thing. This is our 10th year so let's think big.
Cheers,
Cameron
The following have currently been suggested via twitter and facebook:
Rick Fedrizzi, CEO, USGBC
Fareed Zakaria, Journalist, CNN
Frank Almeda
Jeff Christian, Architect
Carl Bass, CEO, AutoDesk
Dr. Dickson Despommier
Toshiko Mori, Architect
Renzo Piano, Architect
Pierre Sartoux
Lior Hessel
Mitchell Joachim, Architect
In late January world leaders, both in politics, business and the social sector descend on Davos for the 2009 World Economic Forum. The event is like brain candy for the global citizen as one minute your in a conference room listening to Vladimir Putin and the next in an intimate coffee break discussing the future of Zimbabwe with opposition leader, Arthur Mutambara.
I'm fortunate enough to be invited as a Young Global Leader as I certainly not be able to make it otherwise. It turns out there is one other way to sneak in!
The folks at the World Economic Forum are offer a free trip. All you have to do is to do a You Tube video, many of which will be shown during the conference, and the best poster gets an all expenses trip to the event.
It has been three weeks since I've been back in my office and the inbox that read 406 unread messages is still pretty daunting. For those who are here after viewing the episode of Iconoclasts on Sundance - Hello, take a gander around and be sure to go to Architecture for Humanity and the Open Architecture Network.
A huge congratulations should also go out to Scott Fifer of TunaHAKI for hosting an amazing fundraiser in aid of the orphanage and performing arts center in Moshi, Tanzania. On November 21st Scott raised over $250,000 to construct tunaHAKI and other meaning full projects in Africa.
After three long years of working on the Gulf Coast our team has seen firsthand many well-crafted community led rebuilding projects squashed by outdated and poorly constructed policies. With funds yet to be distributed the health of families have deteriorated as they languish in FEMA trailers. Recently 7,000 of the 38,000 families in trailers were instructed to leave because of concerns of formaldehyde. This is considered a human carcinogen, or cancer-causing substance, by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. We began to try and understand why these trailers were seen as a 'the only viable solution' and during our initial research we hit upon something that impacts the lives millions of children.
