The architecture advocacy group here in town, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) recently contacted us and encouraged BUILD llc to take up membership. We haven’t been members for several years and decided to do a little homework before making up our minds this time. There are probably many reasons to join (or not join) for instance the social aspect, the professional networking, the credentials, the representation they provide, etc. We’ve always been curious as to whether or not the AIA makes financial sense for a small firm like ours, so for today’s blog post we’re going to do a quick comparison between the AIA membership fees and the tangible resources they provide. For those of you who aren’t affiliated with a small architectural firm and/or don’t enjoy extremely dull blog posts, I’d pull the rip cord now…
Cost of AIA membership for a small firm
An individual membership is $442 per year and costs $600 each year thereafter to renew. Adding your firm of 5 or less employees costs an additional $100 per year. So for a small firm (like ours) a typical non-introductory annual fee would be $700 per year. Ouch.
A typical year of AIA resources for a small firm
Within a one year period, let’s say that you buy the basic contracts “necessary” for a small firm (A101, A114, A201, B141, B143), take AIA classes to fulfill the required 18 learning units (for pricing purposes we chose the next available classes which add up to 18 credits), attend the annual awards and submit one project for the awards. Here’s how it breaks down:
…………………………………………….AIA Member………………Non Member
Contracts………………………………..$35…………………………$50
(18) Learning Units……………………..$240……………………….$415
Enter (1) project in awards…………….$250……………………….$345
(4) Tickets to awards…………………..$54…………………………$60
Total………………………………………$579……………………….$870
This gives the members a $291 savings over the non-members, but this is after the hefty $700 annual fee. NOT joining the AIA saves a little firm like us about $400 per year. If we were members we’d be a little miffed that standard services, like the ones above, cost almost six extra bills a year above and beyond membership dues.
So from a financial and resource standpoint the AIA membership gets a big thumbs down from us at BUILD llc. Naturally the other factors mentioned above have varying degrees of importance depending on your firm and your goals. The AIA obviously has its merits though, and we’d be happy to hear other people’s thoughts…