Date: 21st January 2016, 6:30pm
Venue: KCSA Club, Bangalore

The meeting commenced with a resolution of condolence passed by the President Rohit Marol over the passing away of two of ISOLA’s founder members this year – Professor Prabhakar Bhagwat and Professor Mohammad Shaheer. They have left a void which may never be filled and the best tribute ISOLA could pay to them would be to walk on the path set by them and work towards the betterment of the profession.

The Secretary Shilpa Chandawarkar then apprised the members of some of the tasks achieved by the EC members since their term started in May 2016.

1. Memberships:

1. ISOLA now has a total membership base of 600+ members, including valid and non-valid memberships. The membership database has been consolidated and updated through verification by all members via email or telephonically. Unfortunately, more than 300 members are to renew their memberships. The general body was informed that every attempt was being made to contact these members and get them to renew their memberships. The members were apprised of the Amnesty Scheme and Discounted Membership Schemes that were valid at the moment in an attempt to bring back more members into the fold.
   The process is underway to apply/renew memberships online in the near future through online membership portal. Currently members can check and review their membership status and update their contact information through this portal.

2. Online Personal Database Access:

1. Nidhi Madan explained that the ISOLA website was now designed such that all members (with valid membership) could access their personal data and modify it in case of any error. All members were requested to access their data and check it. Members were also informed that they would soon be able to pay their dues and conference registration amounts online.

3. New Members:

1. Shilpa Chandawarkar announced that students of the Department of Landscape Architecture, SPA Bhopal (undergoing their 2 year post graduate course in Masters of Landscape Architecture) and students of CEPT, Ahmedabad (undergoing their 2 year post graduate course in Masters of Landscape Design) were now considered eligible for ISOLA memberships and welcomed them to ISOLA.

4. Newsletter:

1. Members were also informed that the latest edition of the ISOLA Newsletter was now uploaded on the website. Comments and suggestions were invited from all members.

5. Minutes Of The AGM And EC Meetings:

1. Members were once again informed that all minutes of ALL Annual General Meetings and EC meetings were available on the ISOLA website and all members (with valid memberships) could access them.

6. ISOLA Education Board

1. Members were apprised of the ISOLA Education Board meeting that was held earlier in the day. The members of the Education Board present at the meeting included Savita Punde, Deepa Maheshwari, Yogesh Kapoor, Sachin Jain, Nikhil Dhar, Shishir Raval, Abhijit Natu and Sandip Patil. The EB members expressed satisfaction with their earlier meeting and outlined a few of the points that they had discussed:

1. Continuing education programmes in partnership with education institutions
2. Entry level and Mid level training programmes for teachers
3. How to increase awareness and understanding of landscape architecture at the under-graduate level in architecture education
4. Hosting of student competitions among students of Landscape Architecture on the lines of NASA (National Association of Students of Architecture)
5. Professional internships for landscape students with ISOLA members

7. ISOLA Chapters

1. In answer to a member’s query, the Secretary informed that ISOLA currently had 3 local chapters – Delhi NCR, Gujarat and Mumbai MMR. Bangalore would be asked to hold their elections and formalise their chapter formation. Pune has been given time till end of February 2016 to intimate the centre whether they wish to form a Chapter. A formal request has also been received from members of Kerala to form a Kerala chapter. The same would be put up for consideration in the EC meeting scheduled to be held the next day, i.e. the 22nd of January 2016.

8. Recognition For ISOLA At Government Platforms

1. Some members expressed that ISOLA needed to work towards getting better recognition on governmental platforms. Ashish Patankar informed the members that the Goa government now had a clause that only landscape architects registered with ISOLA could work on government projects. Similar recognition was now awarded by the Andhra Pradesh government for their new development works. Certain organisations such as CDOS (Centre for Development of Stones) had also made ISOLA registration as a mandatory requirement for participation in their competitions.

9. Scope Of Work Of Landscape Architects

1. Many of the members felt that there needs to be clarity on the scope of work of landscape architects, based on the varying scales of projects. There is no such document available (except for what is inadequately defined by the Council of Architecture) as of now. Rohit Marol explained to the members that an attempt was earlier made by ISOLA to prepare a Professional Code of Conduct document which would include scope of work as well as recommended fee structure. However, this was not completed. He requested voluntary participation from members for help in putting this document together. Monika Nair Pillai from Kerala offered to help with this.

10. ISOLA Awards

1. The members were apprised of the recently concluded fifth cycle of the ISOLA Awards.
   The convenor Savita Punde shared her opinions on the same:

1. The projects submitted for the Landmark Award need to be visited by atleast one member of the jury to assess the current status of the project and its present cultural and social value.

One of the jury members, Nina Chandavarkar added the following points:

1. There should be an odd number of members on the jury so a vote could be taken in case of a mixed verdict.
2. A member participating in the competition should not be a member of the jury. (She was explained by the Convenor that this rule was already in existence)
3. The number of awards to be given and the criteria for judging should be made clear to the jury members prior to the jury.

Some of the members felt that accepting soft copy submissions for the awards may help increase the number of entries in the awards. It was decided to deliberate on these points before the next cycle of awards is announced.

11. Interaction With IFLA

1. Rohit Marol briefed the members that IFLA had been coordinating with ISOLA and had requested for a documentation of all ISOLA activities. This document had been put together by Neelima Soni and submitted to IFLA for their records.

Minutes of the Meeting prepared by:
Shilpa Chandawarkar
Honorary Secretary

LIST OF MEMBERS WHO ATTENDED THIS MEETING:

1. Rohit Marol
2. Ashish Patankar
3. Sachin Jain
4. Shilpa Chandawarkar
5. Neelima Soni
6. Nupur Prothi Khanna
7. Manguesh Prabhugaonker
8. Sreejith S.
9. Mohan Rao
10. Monika Nair
11. Vikas Bhosekar
12. Mahesh Paliwal
13. M.Amin Bhat
14. Syed Zahid Ali Akhtar
15. Abhijit Natu
16. Prakash Alvares
17. Ravindra Gavandi
18. Ranganathan
19. Vasanti Londhe
20. Shilpa Patil
21. Savita Punde
22. Savita Raje
23. Varsha Gavandi
24. Chhitiz Gupta
25. Pournima Kshirsagar Thote
26. Pramod Thote
27. Chitra Biley
28. S.Shanmuhananth
29. Kripa K.Baby
30. Beena Tindwani
31. Nikilsha S.
32. Swati Dahake
33. Sachin Ubbaradda
34. Bijoy Chacko
35. Deepa Maheshwari
36. Rahul Dev Patil
37. Nina Chandavarkar
38. Yogesh Kapoor
39. Nidhi Madan
40. Priya Rangaraju
41. Sushma Jeyakumar
42. S.Jeyakumar
43. Prasad G
44. M. Arunkarthik
45. Rajalakshmi Iyer
46. Vinod Morampudi
47. Karthikeyan K.
48. Basavaraj Uppar
49. Anusha Patil
50. Kalaivani K.M.
51. Shivalingegawda S.K.
52. Preetanshi Singh
53. Chhabi Mishra
54. Prashanta Bhat
55. T.M.Chengappa
56. Deepthi C.B.
57. Pallavi Dhomse
58. Aditi Raj
59. Swayamprakash Mohanty
60. Pooja Patil