AIGA Portland is ramping up their volunteer roster in order to create a more dynamic organization, and we need help to make it happen. As you know, AIGA Portland is an all-volunteer organization, so the strength of the design community relies on the support, genius, and sweat from generous folks like you.

We have many exciting things on the horizon including a new website developed by a local interactive company that will host member profiles, design case studies, work showcases, and a blog that is populated by articles from the community.

There have been some recent comments on Twitter about the Portland Chapter of AIGA’s RFP for a Pro-bono website. Most of these comments center around the AIGA Position on Spec Work (http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/position-spec-work).

As the local Sponsorship Chair, I would like to address the concerns I have seen, with the caveat that this is my opinion and doesn’t represent a collective view from the organization, local or national.

I wrote something several months ago about a city of Portland initiative that really got my hackles up. They are basically crowdsourcing the redesign of PortlandOnline.com, but not offering any compensation to the designers (other than the infamous “site credit”). This is particularly offensive to me in the current economic situation many designers now find themselves in.

When Kristin Rogers Brown -- Portland-based art director for the global consulting firm, Oliver Wyman -- began looking for ways to make her company's operations more sustainable, she knew there would be questions.