By Ken Ackeret

Randy McCourt, Zaki Mustafa and I represented the Western District at the recent International Board of Direction meeting held on October 16 and 17, 2009 in Washington, D.C.  Your three Directors were joined by Dalene Whitlock, your 2010 International Director-elect.  Randy’s term will be completed at the end of this year and  we all need to thank Randy McCourt for his commitment to ITE and his valued representation of our District’s and ITE members’ interests as he completes his 3-year term in office.  Dalene will have a large role to fill in following Randy on the Board as she assumes her duties as our newest International Director on January 1, 2010.

Also in attendance at the meeting from the Western District was Coordinating Council Chair, Pat Noyes.  Pat was joined by Board meeting guests Ray Davis and Rock Miller, each of whom were interviewing with the Board’s Nomination Committee for the opportunity to run for next year’s International Vice President.

The meeting was opened by President Ken Voigt with the first order of business being the swearing in of our new International officers for next year:  Paul Eng-Wong, President and Robert Wunderlich, Vice President.  New incoming Board of Directors:  Dalene Whitlock, District 6; Robert Seyfried, District 4; Russell Brownlee, District 7 and Hugh McGee, District 2.

The October Board meeting serves as a transition meeting in which the four incoming Directors from across the Institute have a chance to observe the meeting and have on orientation of ITE Headquarters and its staff, along with an overview of the membership services that are provided by ITE.

The Board allocated a half day to the topic of sustainability.  At the August Board meeting in College Station, a scan report on the state of sustainability practices was commissioned.  Alan Pisarski presented the findings from this commissioned report.  Alan Pisarski is a well-known writer and consultant in transportation policy, travel behavior and statistics.  He is frequently invited to testify before Congress based upon his expertise.

Mr. Pisarski was joined by a panel of distinguished guests to discuss “sustainability” in the context of transportation.  The panelists included:  Dr. Anthony Kane, AASHTO, April Marchese, USDOT/FHWA, William Millar, APTA, and Tim Torma. EPA.  The presentations were very insightful to the Board and included such informational items as:

–        The cities of Portland, Seattle, and Honolulu (all in our Western District) have good case studies for advancing sustainability in transportation.

–        ITE’s future role in sustainability could be related to establishing the following:

• Methodologies/modeling applications for determining baseline conditions
• Climate or Sustainability action plans
• Provide a clearinghouse of case studies (a center for transportation sustainability excellence)
• Identify low cost Green House Gas (GHG) reduction measures

–        The presented keys to advancing sustainability in transportation include:

• Better fuels
• More efficient vehicles
• Transportation network operational efficiency
• Demand management measures

–        The “Triple Bottom Line” concept of sustainability was presented.  The three components are a set of nested activities that include the:

• Economy
• Society
• Environment

–        In general, we are seeing a verbiage shift from the tern “environmental” to “sustainability”.  Following the panel discussions, a Sustainability Advisory Committee was established by the Board to continue to advance the next steps for ITE.  The Committee is to be chaired by Jim Gough (Canadian District), with the initial committee members including Coordinating Council, Chair Pat Noyse and Director Ken Ackeret.

For the rest of the next two days, the following topics and actions were addressed by the Board:

Finances

The 2009 ITE operating budget was carefully reviewed.  Executive Director Tom Brahms is on top of the institute’s financial situation.  As income has fallen below annual budget projections this year, expenditure cost cuts have been made while maintaining member services.  It is expected that capital reserves will be used to address any budget offsets for 2009.  The 2010 budget was discussed in detail and was approved with a deficit of approximately $170,000.  A significant expense item of this budget is the planned relocation of ITE headquarters next year.  The current ITE headquarter lease is good through August 2010.  Capital reserves will be used as part of the 2010 budget to move our headquarters next year.  All agreed that this is the time to take advantage of the market and have Tom Brahms negotiate a new lease that will save money in future headquarter operating costs.

In reviewing and approving the 2010 budget, the Board recognized the strong Capital Reserves of ITE.  However, the Board was also clear that the 2011 budget will need to be developed as a break-even budget for operations.

International ITE Traffic Bowl

The procedures and funding to conduct the first ever International Student Traffic Bowl at our next Annual Meeting in Vancouver were accepted by the Board.  This means that the winner of the Western District Student Traffic Bowl at our meeting in San Francisco will advance to the Vancouver, BC competition.  The Board is expecting all 9 Districts of ITE to send student teams to the Traffic Bowl Competition.

Membership

Good news was reported with respect to membership.  As of September 30, 2009, paid voting membership as up by 4.76% over September 30, 2009.  At the end of 2008, ITE had 13,379 voting members.  As of September 30, 2009, there was 13,105 paid voting members.  ITE staff will be taking every effort to retain our existing membership as we go into 2010.

Climate Change Policy

Based upon the hard work from the Policy and Legislative Committee, the developed Climate Change policy, as presented and reviewed by membership, was approved by the International Board of Direction.

Student Initiatives

In an effort to further integrate students into the Annual ITE meetings, a Student Initiatives Advisory Committee was established by the Board.  Zaki Mustafa will be serving on this committee.

Your Directors were kept very busy during the D.C. meeting.  Please remember that as your District Directors, we present you and your interests at the highest level of ITE.  All three of us are available to attend Chapter and Section meetings throughout the District.  Do not hesitate to contact any one of us with your ideas on improving ITE member services.