After this extensive preparation, the board meeting requires a full four days. Generally, governance is assigned to the board of directors and accreditation decisions are assigned to an accreditation council. Each group meets twice a year. The five named professional groups will each appoint a director and these five directors will appoint the remaining four. Expanding involvement of various stakeholder groups is an obvious benefit of the new structure.
More realistic workloads expand the pool of potential board members.
Relieved of responsibility for making decisions about accrediting programs, the new board of directors will strategically focus on planning, fundraising and building productive relationships with the design community. For example, one such service is the well-attended workshop held immediately before the IDEC Conference to provide guidance about the accreditation process. An area of expansion being contemplated now is workshops on curriculum development. Other services may strengthen interaction between educators and practitioners. However, along with a booming economy, an increased rate of change must be recognized in the demand for relevance of education, suggesting a more flexible and frequent review of standards.