November
- December Message
Western District Members,
Over the last several months my presidential
duties have given me the opportunity to travel to a number
of local section and chapter meetings including: New Mexico,
Arizona, Northern California, and Montana. During these visits
it was my privilege to meet many ITE members for the first
time, and what I consistently found were members who are active
and engaged in ITE. These individuals confirmed for me that
ITE’s real strength is at the local level. While ITE
is a large international organization, the real progress is
being made by members who are engaged in their communities
on a daily basis solving the real challenges of mobility and
traffic safety, and planning the future of our transportation
infrastructure. I can say that the future of our profession
is brightened by the knowledge, skill and character of ITE
members that I have been fortunate enough to witness firsthand.
An ITE member that embodied these traits and represented the
best of ITE was Bill Kloos. Bill, who retired after 25 years
as the signals and street lighting division manager for the
City of Portland, recently succumbed to cancer after a long
battle. Bill was a problem-solver and an innovator who contributed
significantly to the field of traffic engineering and mentored
many young members of the profession. In honor of his contributions,
the Western District Board of Directors recently voted to
name the Western District traffic bowl the “William
C. Kloos Traffic Bowl.” This is a significant honor
that will be officially dedicated at the 2010 Annual Meeting
in San Francisco.
Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to know Bill having
only met him in passing once or twice. It was only recently
that I learned of some of his many contributions to the profession,
and learned that Bill was a native of my home state of Montana
and fellow alumni of Montana State University. There was much
I could have learned and I cannot help but wonder how many
other accomplished and distinguished members are in our local
sections and chapters waiting for younger members to tap into
their vast knowledge and experience? Attend your local meetings
and make a point of reaching out to the wealth of knowledge
and experience that is all around you. Take advantage of one
of the greatest services that ITE provides, the opportunity
to network with professionals of the caliber of Bill Kloos.
I am looking forward to meeting more ITE members as I travel
and to learning about the interesting and exciting things
our members are accomplishing in their communities. In the
meantime, your board of directors and technical committee
chairs are working hard. One of the projects we are working
on is updating the District’s strategic plan. We will
be discussing the plan and mapping the District’s future
at our mid-year board meeting, which will be held February
5, 2010, in Las Vegas. To prepare, we will be soliciting input
from the membership via an electronic survey that you will
receive in the coming weeks. Please take the time to respond
and provide us with your thoughts. This is your opportunity
to participate, but as always, if you have comments, concerns
or suggestions, please email me at msanderson@sandersonstewart.com.
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