After much consideration, we have made the difficult decision to pause the individual Design Community (DC) design competitions for 2023 and only feature the Celebrating Design Texas Awards, the design competition open to the entire Texas Chapter.

Let us emphasize again that this is a pause and not a complete cancellation of the DC awards programs.

We realize this decision may disappoint some of our Designer members, especially in the Dallas DC, which has the largest Designer population and the longest history of DC competition. For this reason, we want to be completely transparent about the reasons behind the pause.
 

1) Participation

We have struggled to attract the number of entries we would like for truly healthy competitions in some DCs. Here’s a breakdown of the number of entries over the past few years:

Austin Design Excellence Awards

• 2020: 79 entries
• 2021: cancelled due to lack of entries
• 2022: 72 entries

Dallas Design Ovation Awards

• 2020: 176 entries
• 2021: 133 entries
• 2022: 99 entries

Fort Worth Shining Star Awards

• 2020: N/A (competition did not yet exist)
• 2021: inaugural competition cancelled due to lack of entries
• 2022: 57 entries (note: competition also open to non-ASID members)

San Antonio Pinnacle of Design Awards

• 2020: 40 entries
• 2021: 63 entries
• 2022: 41 entries

2) Funding

Design competitions and awards events cost money. Due to the financial disruption of the pandemic, not only were we determined to keep competition entry fees as low as possible, but we also suspended annual sponsorships in some DCs in the effort to be sensitive to our Industry Partners’ uncertain financial circumstances and due to our initial lack of - and eventually limited - ability to hold events.

Though our leaders have done an admirable job over the last three years cutting back on expenses and being responsible financial stewards of our members’ money, the dip in revenue caused us to reach into reserves to fund several events, with awards celebrations traditionally being the most expensive of the year.

Right now the world is still grappling with inflation, and the country could quite possibly soon head into a recession. Therefore, just like all design firms, manufacturers, and service providers for which our members work, we, the leaders of the ASID Texas Chapter, are trying to be the best financial stewards possible.

Our current financial goals are to:

1. Build back reserves in order to ensure a healthy, sustainable future for our entire Chapter, which includes our crucial DCs, as well as those residing in more rural areas. All together our Chapter members are a team, and we must support each other as a team because we are only as strong as our weakest component.
2. Fund those programs and activities that most closely align with ASID’s Vision Statement: “ASID advances the profession and communicates the impact of interior design to enhance the human experience.”
3. Find ways to give our vital Industry Partners even more value for their sponsorship dollars - i.e., have the opportunity to gain even more exposure around the entire Texas Chapter for the same amount of money they were paying to sponsor a single DC. For this reason, we have developed a new 2023 Chapter Sponsorship package, which we encourage you to learn more about HERE.

3) Volunteer Leaders

Just like many other volunteer organizations, whether within or outside of the interior design industry, the pandemic has strained our ability to find members willing to invest the time to step up and volunteer for leadership on all levels.

Please understand that volunteer members are the reason any and all Chapter and DC programming occurs. Yes, we have a part-time Chapter Administrator, but her function is helping to keep the leaders on track and ease the volunteer burden with day-to-day operations, reporting between the Chapter and Headquarters, etc.

Running design competitions and planning awards events take a significant amount of volunteer effort, which can be intimidating and daunting when there are fewer and fewer volunteers with whom to share the required tasks.

Therefore, temporarily pausing the DC design competitions will allow us to:

• Make volunteer leadership more attractive and accessible.
• Free up valuable volunteer time to rebuild and establish new relationships with our members.
• Identify new leaders as to ensure the viability of and grow our Chapter’s future endeavors as to service our members even better.

Looking Forward to 2023

This year we are focusing on rebuilding our relationships with members, establishing strong leadership secession planning, providing strong education and professional development opportunities, and implementing our new sponsorship program as to benefit all of our Chapter members.

The Board wants to build an even more solid foundation for the Texas Chapter so we can be sustainable for many years to come. We want to spend time developing our Students and Emerging Professionals, nurturing our current Designers, Educators and Industry Partners, and growing all membership types, making everyone fully aware of the many benefits both the Society and the Chapter has to offer.

It is the Board’s intention to do all we can, with our members’ support and volunteerism, to have a successful 2023 that allows for reinstating the DC’s individual competitions for 2024.

Since we will not be having our individual design competitions and awards events in the DCs this year, we are going to work to make our annual ASID Texas Chapter conference - Celebrating Design Texas: Education, Expo & Awards (CDT) - even bigger and more special this year.

The CDT23 design competition, which will be open May 1-31 and is open to all ASID Texas Chapter members, will...

• See the return of all but one of the 30 Designer categories. (See next bullet point for details.)
• Have three new Residential categories take the place of the Residential Individual/Unique Space category: Bar/Entertainment Space, Home Office, and Utility Space.
• Again feature two Student categories (Commercial and Residential).
• In addition to our annual Overall Best in Show in both the Commercial and Residential categories, we will also feature three Best in Show winners within each of our Design Communities: Commercial, Residential, and Industry Partner Collaboration. (Note: Even if you live in a rural area, you are still part of one of the DCs and are eligible for these new DC-centric Best in Shows.)
• Find the complete list of 2023 CDT categories HERE.

Lastly, though we are still finalizing dates for the CDT23 conference, we are planning on adding some new components to it and elevating the Friday evening awards event. We realize this will be our Chapter’s sole design awards celebration - our Academy Awards, if you will - so we aim to make it more special and encourage even more of you to join us in Dallas for it so that we can truly celebrate our members’ accomplishments - both as design professionals and volunteers - together as one cohesive Chapter.

Thank you for your understanding, and if you have questions about anything relayed here, please reach out to ASID Texas Chapter President Kathryn Nelson, Allied ASID at president@tx.asid.org.

Respectfully,
The 2022-2023 ASID Texas Chapter Board