Hi there I am the founder of the association and it's president, sorry to here the registration process was a pain. Launching the new site has been interesting to say the least. However we will continually make upgrades until, I hope, the site is a true asset to the architecture community.

I founded the association with the hopes of providing as many services to practicing architects as possible. The first of which was local community touchpoints in the form of chapters. That has blossomed into online content, newsletters, knowledge communities and working groups. In 2006 we are adding events, mentoring, linked-in groups and hopefully much more.

We are always on the lookout for any service that architects would find valuable as well as discussion on the services we already provide. The decision to start charging for membership has been highly discussed since I paid for membership in other orgs and received little value for it. However I believe we are getting to a value prop that makes it realistic and even necessary to start charging dues. However we always want to entice 'contributions' in knowledge and as such will take care of the dues for any architect who contributes 4 of the following in a single year:
- an article, pattern, template or other content item
- primary speaker at a meeting
- serves on the leadership of a chapter
- reports on an architecture event (EAS, Gartner, Microsoft, etc)
- a 500 word book review
- becomes a commiter to a knowledge community
- becomes a contributor to a working group
(other items will be added to the list as necessary)

These 'contributing members' will receive one free year of membership. If they've already paid dues (and it's still free so no worries) then the next year will be free.

If you have any other questions, Id love to answer or connect you with more 'local' resources.

Paul