By Edgar Perez, PE, Western District Secretary-Treasurer

The Western District Board of Directors met for its annual meeting on Sunday, July 12, 2009 at the Sheraton Hotel in Denver, Colorado. A total of 42 Western District and 3 ITE Int’l representatives attended the meeting. Attendees included Western District board members, committee chairs, chapter and section officers, International ITE President Kenneth H. Voigt, and ITE International Vice President-Candidates Hibbett Neel and Robert Wunderlich. Following are highlights of some of the topics discussed and actions taken by the Board.

President Monica Suter reported on her activities since the mid-year board meeting, which included visits to 26 District sections and chapters where she presented 16 presidential proclamations to District members. A list of presidential proclamation honorees is found at WesternITE.org. She also announced the appointment of the following committee chairs: reappointment of Jenny Grote as District Administrator, Zaki Mustafa as Interim WesternITE Managing Editor pending return of Rachel Donovan, and Advisory Committee Members Rich Romer and Rory Grindley.

Vice President Michael Sanderson reported on a proposed Western District’s financial audit which will review income and expenses for previous years to ensure compliance with non-profit organization policies. The board later voted to obtain additional quotes to conduct the audit and postponed it for consideration in the future. Michael also discussed the need to increase the travel budget for ITE Council Chair/Vice Chair/

International Committee Chair. This budget was discussed and increased to $2,000 during budget review.

Secretary Treasurer Edgar Perez reported the district’s finances during the 2008-2009 fiscal year up to June 10, 2009 and reported the total balances of the District’s checking, 2010 fiscal year which was reviewed by the board and voted on the following changes from previous savings and Student Endowment accounts. He also presented the proposed budget for the 2009- fiscal year:

Increased income and expenses for 2010 Annual Meeting in San Francisco which is estimated to be about $80K higher than previous years. Decreased revenue from WesternITE publication. Decreased from $45K to $30K. Reduced expenses for WesternITE production. Reduced from $38K to $22K. Increased travel budget for Council Chairs/Vice-Chairs from $1K to $2K.

Past President Jennifer Rosales reported on her work related to Lifetime and Individual Achievement Awards and the progress that the ITE Group on Facebook is having.

ID Randy McCourt highlighted several items from his written report and thanked the board since this is his last meeting on the Board. He also shared the vision that should drive the efforts of the District, “Where we are and where we go from here into the future depends on how we differentiate science and technology and how we take advantage of opportunities.”

International President Ken Voigt complimented Senior International Director Randy McCourt for a job well done. He discussed the different publications that ITE publishes and that public membership has remained steady despite the economy. Membership in general is higher than most other sister organizations. ITE international has had a 20% cut in staff but this should not interrupt services for the members. ITE Webinars have been reduced to $15 thanks to a federal grant. ITE has established a task force on Energy, Environment and the Economy. The Student Traffic Bowl is picking up momentum and there will be a competition in 2010 in Vancouver among all the District champions.

District Administrator Jenny Grote reported that about 25% of District members participated in the e-balloting election this year, which was similar to the previous year.

The Board approved a template for Student Chapter Bylaws and Charters and also approved the following Section and Student Chapter bylaws:

Cal Poly Pomona Student Chapter Bylaws

San Diego Section Bylaws and Charter

Northern California Section Bylaws

The Board discussed as to how to optimize our westernite budget and provide an quality information services to our membership.

Nate Larson, WesternITE Advertising Manager, reported that WesternITE advertising is down. Zaki Mustafa indicated that new interest is growing due to the new interactive electronic newsletter format.

France Campbell, Website Manager, reported on the efforts to accommodate the online registration for the annual meeting and recommended a maintenance/improvement budget for same.

Karen Aspelin, Technical chair, reported that a total of 9 section/chapter activity reports were submitted with the San Diego and the San Francisco Bay Area Sections winning the small and large section awards respectively. She also announced the Wayne T. Wagoner Award winner Xuan Wang and Data Collection contributors UCLA, Univ. of Nevada Reno, Univ. of Washington, Portland State Univ. and Montana State University.

Patricia Camacho de Cano, Career Guidance Chair provided an update on the Mentoring Program and distributed pass along cards for mentors and mentees to sign up for the program. The idea was well received to get more people to volunteer for the program. Patti will revise the criteria for Employer Recognition Awards to include big and small companies regardless of location. The recipient of this year’s Young Professional Achievement Award is Alejandro Angel from Tucson, Arizona.

Alyssa Reynolds, Student and Faculty Initiatives Chair, Alyssa Reynolds reported that this year has had the most student chapter reports totaling 23 reports out of 32 student chapters. Each of these chapters will receive $100. Wyoming was selected as the best Student Chapter. Grant Shultz from BYU was selected as the Outstanding Educator. Approximately 80 students registered for the conference.

Cathy Leong, Endowment Fund Chair, announced that the Endowment Fund website has been well received.  She reported that the Endowment Fund has had an increase of about 25% with a balance of about over $210,000 toward the goal of $500,000.

Future Western District Annual Meetings

Mark Spencer, 2010 LAC Chair, reported that the meeting will be at the San Francisco Palace Hotel.

The Board approved the 2014 Annual Meeting Location in Rapid City, South Dakota (Near Mt. Rushmore)—LAC Chair Appointment is Randy McCourt.

Anne Brookes and Joann Mitchell, 2011LAC Anchorage Co-Chairs distributed pamphlets, pins and buckets with the Alaska logo. They reported on the efforts to have a great meeting to be held at the Egan Convention Center and Hilton Hotel and encouraged everyone to visit www.alaskaite.org when it becomes available.

Other Business

The Board decided to postpone the hiring of a consultant to do the District’s Spanish translation. Edgar Perez shared that the Tijuana Student Chapter has been slow in coming to fruition due to interrupted communication with leaders and members in Tijuana. The San Diego Section will continue to work with a liaison/Professional Student Advisor to officially establish the chapter.

Annual Business Meeting Highlights

At the Annual Business Meeting on Tuesday, July 14 President Monica Suter, after the pledge of allegiance, led a moment of silence for those District members who passed away since the last Business Meeting, including: Chuck E. Haley, Gary N. Hansen, Yongyao Lou, William (Bill) Marconi, Melvin Meyer Peter B. Moreland, James C. Ray, Dr. Ed Sullivan, Warren S. Unemori and Art Corkey.

President Suter recognized District and International leaders present at the meeting.  She also recognized Nate Larson and Will Johnson and the rest of the Denver local arrangements committee for their hard work and successful meeting. She also presented the state of the District indicating that the membership of the District is at 4,858 Members (with 3,912 Voting Members), 16 Sections (Including 1 New Section), 6 Chapters and 32 Student Chapters.

Senior International Director Randy McCourt reported on his experience on the board and a look to the future of ITE.

Cathy Leong, Endowment Fund Chair, reported that the endowment fund has grown to over $210K and presented awards to the Sections (Colorado-Wyoming Section and Riverside-San Bernardino Section) and individuals (Bob & Barbara Crommelin and Julie & Clark Townsend) that have made significant contributions to the Student Endowment Fund during the past year.

Secretary-Treasurer Edgar Perez presented the proposed budget to the membership.  The budget proposed an income of $444,555 and expenses of $457,659 and was approved on a voice vote of the members.

President Suter announced future Western District Annual Meetings as follows:

2010 – San Francisco (June  27-30)

2011 – Anchorage

2012 – Santa Barbara

2013 – Phoenix

2014 – Rapid City, South Dakota (Joint Meeting with District 4)

President Suter accepted the tellers’ committee report and announced the newly elected District officers for 2009-2010 as follows:

President – Michael Sanderson

Vice President – Edgar Perez

Secretary-Treasurer – Alyssa Reynolds

International Director – Dalene Whitlock (3-year term begins          January 2010)

The meeting was adjourned until the Tuesday, June 29, 2010 Annual Meeting in San Francisco.