As we wind down the final days of 2024, I am reminded once again that this has been an eventful year for our LAI Chapter. In many ways it was a year of planning and preparation. From the start, our board framed a bold and visionary agenda of continued organizational growth. As part of this, we developed and recently adopted a new Five-year Chapter Strategic Plan. We continued the launch of our Member Engagement Committee. And we stood up a new Finance Committee to help ensure our Chapter’s continued financial health.

But in the best LAI fashion, this was also our year of exploring the ways we work together to bring big plans to life. A theme that played out in numerous ways through our packed year of programs – varied and always fascinating, exploring some of the best ideas and projects that our land economics disciplines offer.

And now more than ever, it seems big ideas and big plans are needed to address the challenges we face within our communities and across our nation. It is by now a seemingly intractable truism that we are a nation of divisions. Divisions that have the power to stoke fear and anger and that at times feel like they might tear our communities apart. And when we give in to fear and anger, and rather than working together to solve our problems, retreat into isolation and intolerance, our challenges overwhelm us.

But I remain hopeful. Because when we bring big ideas and big plans to the table – when we plan together and build together – we achieve great things. We see this all around us in the work we do in our fields of land economics.

My hope is that we find ways to move boldly forward together, building dialogues across communities and bridges across our divisions. And that we engage in honest exploration and in the pursuit of truth – the founding values of our LAI society.

And because of this, I look forward to seeing what we can do together in 2025.

Sincerely,

Zach Lowe, LAI Chicago Region Chapter President