Written By: Cathy Leong, Past President

Thanks to Jim Barrera, Paul Barricklow, and the rest of the Albuquerque LAC for planning a great Western District Annual Meeting this past month.  Their hard work and dedication culminated in a well-attended, well run, and thoroughly enjoyable meeting!  We would also like to thank all of our vendors and sponsors…without you we would not be able to keep our meetings affordable for our members.

We kicked the meeting off with the 6^th edition of the MiteY Race on Saturday afternoon.  Family/Friends and student teams braved the temperatures to race around Tiguex Park near Old Town with the MiteY Minions and Bear Transit teams emerging triumphant.  We were pleased to introduce this wonderful District event to our current ITE International President Paula Flores who competed in the race with our Student Endowment Fund Committee Chair Kimberly Leung.

The LAC followed up the race with a lively Get Acquainted Social on Sunday evening at Hotel Albuquerque.  Attendees conversed with vendors, mingled with peers, and met some honored red and green guests.  The Red and Green peppers were seen causing mischief, posing for pictures, and fighting over Cal Bear!

The following three days brought us a great technical program, interesting tours, exciting student/young professional sessions, and a Red or Green Fiesta!  The Annual Awards Banquet was a sea of red and green as attendees got into the spirit of the event!  Congratulations to the winners of the District’s most prestigious awards.  Steve Colman was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award, Erik Ruehr was awarded the Individual Achievement Award, and Devin Moore was awarded the Young Professional Achievement Award.  The awards ceremony was followed by a fun night of dancing and laughter…we even caught International Vice President Candidate Michael Sanderson cutting a rug with District International Director Alyssa Rodriguez!

We brought the meeting to a close on Wednesday with rounds of thanks to the Albuquerque LAC for a wonderful meeting and the District Board members for a successful year.  We welcome our new District Secretary-Treasurer Neelam Dorman and International Director Karen Aspelin, and look forward to the initiatives set forth by the incoming District President Mark Spencer.  This Annual Meeting was a great way to end the year and we can’t wait to see what’s in store for us next year in San Diego!