On December 7, 2011 the Baton Rouge Chapter of the Society for Design Administration held their annual party, and the newly elected SDA leaders took their oath of office with BBI Architect’s own, Karen Lopez, serving as Past President for 2012!

Karen served as the SDA’s President in 2011, and she is looking forward to her continued involvement in 2012. 2011 was a big year for SDA and Karen is extremely proud of their achievements. One of the biggest achievements was the creation and successful launch of their website, http://www.sdabr.groupsite.com. The website serves as an interactive tool for member communication and event postings as well as a place for non-members to learn more about the Baton Rouge Chapter of SDA.

In June of 2011, Karen represented the Baton Rouge Chapter at the national SDA convention in South Carolina. The Baton Rouge Chapter was honored and received a Certificate of Appreciation for their hard work at the national AIA convention held in New Orleans. The Baton Rouge Chapter was approached by the National SDA and asked to help staff the SDA booth and prepare items for free handouts during the convention.

The Baton Rouge Chapter also kicked off a new sponsorship program in 2011 and participated and assisted, for the first time, in the annual CANstruction event in September. CANstruction 2011 was organized by AIA Baton Rouge and is a charitable event where teams from local design firms and/or architecture students create structures from non perishable food items (primarily cans) that are donated to feed the hungry. In Baton Rouge those donations went to the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank (who also had volunteers that assisted AIA with the event).

SDA is an affiliate of the American Institute of Architects.