Becoming AIFD

Interested in becoming an Accredited Member of the American Institute of Floral Designers? We hope that the following information will help you prepare for this wonderful career pursuit. Click the chart on the right to view a step-by-step diagram of the steps to CFD and AIFD.

Membership in AIFD is selective. To be accepted, a candidate must fulfill rigid qualifications and demonstrate advanced professional ability. Applicants must first successfully complete the AIFD PFDE program and in doing so earn the coveted Certified Floral Designer (CFD) designation.

Before an individual can aspire to join AIFD as a leader in the floral industry and dedicate him or herself to working toward the AIFD mission of advancing the art of professional floral design through education, he or she must first have achieved the Certified Floral Designer designation and, in doing so, must also demonstrate advanced floral artistry by achieving a design evaluation mark of 20 or better with no one design scoring below 3.75.

Should a Professional Floral Design Evaluation (PFDE) Candidate demonstrate his or her superior design excellence with an evaluation score of 20 or better, his or her name will be presented to the AIFD Membership Committee. The Committee will contact the Candidate to inquire if he or she does wish to advance him or herself and become an AIFD member. If so, they will be asked to provide three letters of reference from the floral industry (at least two of which shall be from AIFD members) and complete a short biographic form.

Should a candidate submit the letters of endorsement and biographic form and be accepted into AIFD, he or she will be formally inducted during grand ceremonies at the next AIFD National Symposium. In addition to an induction fee, the new inductee will also need to pay annual membership fees for the upcoming year which are presently $275 (only $225 if paid by May 15 each year).

Should a PFDE candidate's evaluation results be good enough for him or her to have earned a CFD, but not sufficient enough to be invited to join AIFD, AIFD will continue to encourage the designer to advance his or her artistry through additional education and participate in a PFDE. AIFD will further grant any CFD designer in good standing a one time $250 discount off his or her participation in a future PFDE where the goal is AIFD membership.

 

Each year, immediately prior to its National Symposium, the American Institute of Floral Designers will conduct a Professional Floral Design Evaluation (PDFE) session for floral designers seeking to gain membership into the Institute and to earn their "Certified Floral Designer (CFD)" status.