Why you belong in ArCH: Architects Creating Homes:

First, we understand that you may be busy, and that your family needs what spare time you have.  After all, you first need to earn a living doing what you do, and you are doing it so that you and your family can have a decent lifestyle.

ArCH understands that.

Now, you may say: “I don’t have time to join another organization; I’m just too busy and my family needs me.”
Let’s think about that for a minute or two.
ArCH exists to help Licensed Architects who design homes.
Architects just like you.  Most of our members are sole proprietors.  So: if you’re thinking ArCH is only for large firms, that really is not the case.  ArCH is composed of hard working Architects similar to you.  Even those who run the ArCH organization have their own practices and earn their living the same way you do: by designing residential projects.

ArCH exists to help Architects who design homes (similar to you).  So if you do not have time to participate; okay, that’s understandable.  However, you might want to at least consider joining ArCH and providing your economic support to help the only organization in the USA (and the world) that has your goals as theirs.  If you then say: “But I am not wealthy, I can’t afford to join,” let’s look at the cost:

$159 per year.
That’s it.
ArCH is the best value in architectural professional organizations in the world.

So what do you get for your money?  Well, if you don’t want to participate, you deny yourself the comradery of the world’s best licensed Architects who do what you do: design homes.  However, if you don’t want to do that, there are ArCHproducts in the ArCHstore that help you run your practice better than any other organization on the planet. There is no other resource on Earth that has products exclusively tailored to residential architects’ practices.  For instance: ArCHspec™, which are specifications created from scratch for residential projects, by real, hard-working experienced licensed Architects, who have as their specialty the design of homes.  It was not created as first a gigantic commercial system for hospitals and universities by theoretical administrative people, then changed.  No: it was made from the ground up, by Architects, for what you do: design houses.

Check out the ArCHstore.  You’ll find amazingly detailed specification systems for residential architectural projects (which also include various details), forms of agreement, Surveyor and Geotechnical List of Requirements, Marketing systems and other products that can help protect your architectural residential design company from liability while helping you do a better job of specifying and running your projects.

You are also permitted to use the designation: “ArCH” after your name, communicating to the world that you are a specialist in the architecture of residential projects.  And unlike some other organizations, only Licensed Architects may be a member of ArCH, so the designation actually means something more substantial.  You are paying your money to help what you do, not also supporting those who have no license who are in direct competition with you.

It’s galling that some other organizations who charge more than 4 times what ArCH does for membership, use your money to also assist unlicensed people who directly compete against you and allow them to also be members and to use similar designations after their names as you, confusing the public, making them possibly believe that those unlicensed people may have the same qualifications as you do, when they may not have degrees and certainly don’t have licenses to practice architecture.

ArCH doesn’t do that.  ArCH represents licensed Architects only.  When you join ArCH, you are helping your profession, which helps you.  ArCH also provides each member with its very own firm webpage on the ArCHwebsite and links this to the ArCH FIND AN ARCHITECT page, where your firm will be listed at least 4 times, linking back to your ArCH firm page.  This alone is worth the minuscule price of membership each year. No other architectural organization provides this services for Licensed Architects who are its members.

Here are some more advantages to being a member of ArCH:
https://www.archomes.org/avantages-of-arch-membership

But if all you do is join ArCH, that’s okay too.  At the very least, you’ll be giving yourself access to thousands of dollars of discounts for products that can help you run your practice and you will be helping to support the only organization on the planet that has as its focus: helping improve residential architecture and assisting Licensed Architects who design homes.