Advocacy
Legislation
Interior Design legislation helps establish and maintain professional standards that protect the health, safety and welfare of the general public. IIDA firmly believes that legal recognition, achieved through licensing, registration, and certification brings uniformity to the profession, defines responsibility, and encourages excellence in the Interior Design industry.
Currently, Interior Designers who are trained and qualified to work in a code-impacted environment are restricted from practicing to their fullest abilities. As the only major, unlicensed participants in the construction industry, these Interior Designers lack the ability to independently stamp and submit their work for building permits as required by the building code.
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Why license Interior Design?
...to provide accountability for consumers
...to enable Interior Designers to act as primary contractors on jobs and eliminate the need to pay architects or engineers to redraw, stamp and sign their work
...to encourage economic development by allowing a greater number of business to compete for commercial design work
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How does legal recognition protect the public?
It will safeguard the public by creating accountability. Consumers will know they're working with qualified, responsible professionals utilizing the latest information regarding health, safety, and welfare, and who have met specific, nationally accepted standards of minimum competency, including education (university and continuing education), experience and examination (NCIDQ).
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Would regulation within the profession put non-registered designers out of business?
No. Registration would be optional for those who wish to work on qualified projects. For those who want to continue practicing within the guidelines of the current legislation there would be no change.
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Would legal recognition of Interior Design create unnecessary regulation?
No. The registration of Interior Designers does not create any new regulation. It would allow qualified professionals to increase their scope of practice and work within an already heavily regulated industry.
Resources
Part of being an advocate is knowing your local legislation.
Massachusetts: Bill S.2408
Connecticut: Chapter 396a
Maine: Title 32
Industry Specific Concepts
When speaking with legislators and the community-at-large, it is important as an advocate to be able to explain these industry specific concepts.
What is Interior Design?
as defined by the Council for Interior Design Qualification, Inc.
What is Commercial Interior Design?
According to the Council for INterior DesignQualificiation (CIDQ).
STATE INFORMATION
Contact the Advocacy Committee
If you would like to become more involved, have questions about current legislation, or want to learn more about advocacy efforts in New England, contact Krista Easterly, Vice President of Advocacy, at keasterly@sasaki.com
NEWS
IIDA VP of Advocacy, Krista Easterly, here on behalf of the hardworking IIDA Advocacy Team.
Where we are: ——- Krista to rewrite this part and send back to me.
Our Bills are sitting in the Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure waiting to be reviewed and approved by an Executive Session of the same Committee. If they are approved in this Session, they will move on to the Ways and Means Committee. In July we had a productive hearing with the JCCPPL where a group of individuals from IIDA, ASID and CIDQ testified about the importance of our bills and how the lack of an option for a path to licensure for Interior Designers is limiting the career growth for many individuals in our industry and is creating road blocks for progress. Over the coming months we will be calling on YOU to pitch in and help us out in these efforts. We will need letters of support written and we will ask that you reach out to your local legislatures when the time is right to ask them to support our Bills on your behalf.
Please stay tuned for updates!
Sincerely,
Krista Easterly, IIDA
IIDA New England VP of Advocacy
Contact the Advocacy Committee
If you would like to become more involved, have questions about current legislation, or want to learn more about advocacy efforts in New England, contact Krista Easterly, Vice President of Advocacy, at keasterly@sasaki.com
The Advocacy Fund is a campaign to raise awareness and resources for Interior Design Advocacy in the New England Region. By adding a nominal charge for each event hosted by IIDA NE, we remind ourselves that advancing our profession and giving back to our IIDA NE community is the core mission of our Organization. Small individual contributions throughout our community can make a large impact and promote the value of our profession.*
*At the conclusion of each calendar year, all funds raised will be distributed throughout our Chapter to fund legislative efforts, help assist members that are seeking professional licensure and support efforts to build awareness about the profession of interior design. The initiatives that this fund will support is organized and executed by the IIDA NE Advocacy Committee.
REBRANDING ONE BILL AT A TIME