Dalene J. Whitlock, PE, PTOE

Whitlock & Weinberger Transp, Inc.

ITE’s International Board of Direction met in Savannah, Georgia on March 12 and 13 in advance of the Technical Conference.  The Western District was represented by Zaki Mustafa, Ken Ackeret and Dalene Whitlock.  Following are highlights of the topics covered during the two-day meeting.

Financial Report:  Executive Director Tom Brahms provided an overview of current economic conditions globally and for the Institute.  Vice-President Robert Wunderlich presented the financial report for 2009, noting that the Institute had a $400,000 loss for the year.  He indicated that expenses were cut by about $100,000, but this was not enough to offset a decline in income of about $500,000.  He reported that we are currently maintaining our reserves at 75 percent of the operating budget, partially due to the fact that the budget has decreased.  International collects dues for Districts, Sections and Chapters, and is paying the fee levied by the credit card companies when members pay using a credit cards.  It was noted that consideration should be given to pushing these costs out to the Districts, Sections, and Chapters.

Headquarters Relocation:  A lease was recently signed for new office space to house ITE staff, and plans for the new space were presented.  The new Headquarters is being designed to take advantage of current technology, making on-line meetings and presentations easier.  The relocation will affect finances, so getting donations to the 80^th Anniversary Fund is essential.  At their Board meeting in February the Western District Board voted to make a donation .

Strategic Plan:  Tom Brahms noted that there has been progress made on the action items developed in 2009 despite the reduction in staff.  It was noted that we need to update our plan to ensure that we retain younger members and continue to attract students to the profession.  ITE should be seen as the premier organization for transportation, taking the lead role on transportation issues and getting our message out to the public.  We need to become more visible at the District and Section levels.  A desire was expressed to reach out more to policymakers, perhaps through the National League of Cities.  Traffic engineers need to ask the policymakers what they are looking for that they are not getting from their traffic engineers.  We need to show technical competence to the policy makers and workshops were noted as one way to do this.

The Board discussed at length the need to structure the Strategic Plan to raise safety and sustainability to the level of being goals.  Three goals under the “Quality of Life” to address safety, sustainability and efficiency were adopted after much discussion and committees were assigned to work on the objectives and strategies for each of the three goals.

The Safety Goal set by the Board is to be on the forefront to reduce fatalities, with an overall goal of zero deaths.  It was recognized that there is much more to be done to achieve lower fatalities than just making the roads safer, as driver behavior has a large impact on the number of fatalities.  It was emphasized that we cannot confine ourselves to consider only the street, and social mores must be changed before we can achieve the kind of improvement to eliminate fatalities.

Coordinating Council: Chair Pat Noyes noted that the Coordinating Council will be working to ensure that their activities are in line with the Strategic Plan.  The Council is also exploring ways to improve communication between the local chapters and International.

Annual Meeting Taskforce Report: Chair Peter McCombs highlighted some of the taskforce’s findings, including the potential to use outside organizers, the need to have places for people to sit when eating lunch, the need to keep activities in the vendor area, reinstating the Banquet, and the desire to reduce walking distance between hotel and meeting rooms.  The social effects of the meals and the need for this networking were discussed.  It was noted that having meetings at a conference center increases the cost, and there are higher transportation costs associated with traveling to smaller cities.  The hotel and travel costs are where we can have the most impact, and as such are where we need to focus.  It is difficult to get sponsorships for the International meeting as is done at the District level.  The need to balance participation against income is critical.  Tom Brahms asked for guidance on the handling of the Annual Banquet.  There was discussion about the Spring Technical Conference being in conflict with the Annual Meeting, but since it is usually topic specific and attracts non-members, this seemed not to be an issue.  The Board expressed a desire to scale back the Tech Conference to make it more affordable.

Sustainability Advisory Committee Report:  Ken Ackeret presented the status of the Advisory Committee on Sustainability’s  work on defining “sustainable transportation.”  A definition that encompasses the triple bottom line (social, economic, and natural environments) was adopted and the name of the Mega Issue of “Nexus of Energy, Environment and the Economy” was changed to encompass sustainability.

Honorary Membership:  The Board was pleased to offer Honorary Membership to Dennis Christiansen.  He was inducted on March 26 during a ceremony at the Texas Transportation Institute, where he is the Director.