There is a special wall in the national office of the Design-Build Institute of America. Most people who visit the national office never see that wall; it’s in the rear, away from the public areas where visitors normally congregate. On the wall there are 16 pictures of some very special individuals; the pictures show people who thought enough of their country, their peers and their industry to selflessly expend a great deal of time and effort on their behalf. For the most part, they labored in obscurity. They weren’t showered with accolades, honored by a grateful nation or otherwise lionized. To the contrary, they were occasionally criticized harshly and publicly because they had the temerity to support a vision. They supported a vision of an industry that was finer, and better, and more capable and more effective than the industry that existed at the time. These are the very special people who have, starting in 1993, served as chairs of the board for DBIA. Starting with Preston Haskell, and currently claimed by Tom Porter, if there is a pantheon of heroes in this industry, surely they rate a place within it.
Five years ago, in June of 2004, I became the Design-Build Institute of America’s president and CEO. By that time, DBIA had already accomplished a great deal toward expanding the use of design-build and furthering improvements in the design and construction industry. My predecessors (among them Jim Broaddus, Jeffrey Beard and Craig Unger) each worked long and hard to grow the organization and expand its reach. Each of these individuals inherited a DBIA much smaller, less capable and less accepted by the industry community than the DBIA that I inherited. It is because of their hard work that our organization has done so well.
And make no mistake, DBIA is doing well. Our numbers have grown with an ever-increasing velocity. The amount of design-build being accomplished across the nation has similarly grown at a constantly accelerating pace. The number of DBIA designated individuals has recently grown exponentially and is exploding beyond our wildest dreams. Our conferences are more successful than we had thought possible and our education and training courses increase in numbers and impact each year. Each year, more legislation is passed that expands the opportunity for design-build.
But, back in that DBIA national office, along with the 16 pictures, there is a small group of people who are terribly important. There, back in that office, are 17 individuals who have made it all possible. It’s the DBIA employees. DBIA isn’t a mega-association with hundreds of employees available to share workload. We are a small organization that has taken on the slightly challenging task of fundamentally changing our design and construction world and making it a better place. These 17 individuals each have multiple roles and overlapping work assignments and challenges that often make them wonder if they can ever get everything done. These are the people who help DBIA members look up their passwords, who lead in the development of the new Manual of Practice, who sign students up for classes, who plan and conduct the DBIA conferences, who select and sell the publications, who contact and inform legislators, who represent the design-build community across the nation and who labor each and every day to give you the very best organization they can deliver. Within them beats the heart of the Design-Build Institute of America, and within them lives the spirit of your organization.
So, as I take my leave from DBIA, I know that I am leaving it in good hands. I have worked side-by-side with these wonderful people for half a decade. They, represented most ably by Lisa Washington (who has been at my side for almost every day of that half decade), have the will and the intensity and the drive and the ambition that it will take to see this DBIA continue to flourish and to grow into an organization greater and finer than anything we have yet perceived. Under Lisa’s steady hand and with her sure guidance, they will make your DBIA a source of justifiable pride.
Walker Lee Evey