I saw a quote once that said “It’s not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.” As I sit down to write this message, I am reminded of that quote and the wisdom that it imparts. Several years ago, the Western District Board held a workshop to identify what messages the District wanted to send its members and how those messages should be conveyed. During the course of this workshop, attendees identified the District’s core values as being family friendly, professional, mentoring, collaborative, fun, and progressive. I have been fortunate to attend a number of the Western District’s Annual Meetings and I can attest to the fact that these core values are at the heart of every Annual Meeting the District holds.
The Las Vegas Local Arrangements Committee (LAC) lead by the very capable and unflappable Lindsay (Sundberg) Saner did an outstanding job with the District’s recent Annual Meeting in Las Vegas. Their family-oriented events, superb technical program, and sensational Annual Awards Banquet held true to these values and introduced another generation of students and young professionals to the ITE Western District Way!
Over the next six months, the Western District Board will be working hard to keep our momentum going from the Annual Meeting. We will be working on refocusing our student initiatives, developing new initiatives to support our young professionals, and continuing to explore new ways to communicate with our members through electronic and social media. The remainder of the year will be dedicated to establishing new Articles of Incorporation for the District, undertaking revisions to our Bylaws, and hopefully closing the final gap in our efforts to reach the $500k goal for the Richard T. Romer Student Endowment Fund (EF). As many of you already know, the EF is close to my heart having previously served as the Committee Chair for two terms. The District’s current EF Committee Chair, Kimberly Leung, will be teaming up with past International President Zaki Mustafa this year to try and reach the EF’s goal by 2016. I look forward to a fun and productive year working with Kim, Zaki, and the rest of our District’s dedicated officers and Committee Chairs on these and our other ongoing initiatives.
Cathy Leong, P.E.
Western District President
