By Pat Marnell, Western District President

What’s in a name? Shakespeare would tell you that “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”. To which Bart Simpson once replied, “Not if you called ’em stench blossoms.”

While Shakespear is technically correct, the best kind of correct, Bart Simpson’s stance may be a more pragmatic viewpoint. Anyone who has run a public meeting will agree that how we say something is an important part of what we say. 

When ITE was founded in 1931, we were established as the Institute of Traffic Engineers. In 1975, as our collective understanding of the industry evolved, the organization rebranded as the Institute of Transportation Engineers. More recently, we again rebrand as ITE – A Community of Transportation Professionals.

I, for one, welcome the idea of ITE as community. It’s easy to think of the ITE community as public & private, or planners & engineers. However, I encourage you to think big when it comes to our community. ITE includes policy professionals, academics, vendors, software developers, advocates, administrators, and many others. I would like to take a moment to shine a light on three people, who don’t fit into the typical engineer or planner box, but are valuable members of our community. 

• Jason Spencer is a territory manager for Sierra Transportation Technologies; that’s right a sales guy. He is also the President of the ITE Oregon Section. Jason works as hard as any planner or engineer I know, volunteering his time for ITE. Under his leadership the Oregon Section is off to a great 2025 as demonstrated by the excellent Winter Workshop I attended in February. 
• Rob Sanders is a transportation journalist. You may know him for his YouTube channel RoadGuyRob, where he covers transportation topics including high profile projects in the Western District like the Interstate Bridge Replacement or the Mid-Valencia Center-Running Bikeway Pilot. Rob also supports RSBITE as the section’s Webmaster. 
• Trisha Tunilla is Q-Free’s VP of Marketing. Having worked with Trish closely, I can say she is hands-down one of the best marketing professionals in our industry. In the past she has been a member of the ITE Industry Council and is currently a board member of ITS California. If you have been to the exhibition hall at a Western District Annual Meeting in the last 15 years, you have seen her handy work in person. 

All three of these transportation professionals play an important role in our community and communication is a key to each of their jobs. I have personally learned a lot about communication from the examples set by Trisha, Rob, and Jason. I encourage you all to seek out effective communicators in your life and learn all you can from them. 

Recently, ITE International released new branding guidelines. As part of that effort, the District, Sections, and Chapters will need to update logos and branding materials. While I know we have fond associations with our current logos, I ask that all of you approach this process with an open mind. The rebranding will give ITE, at all levels, a more consistent look and help us be more effective in our communications to people not familiar with the great work that ITE does. 

If you are looking for a way to get more involved with the Western District and want to sharpen your communications skills, there are a couple of immediate opportunities you should consider.  

• Western District Branding Lead: will support the District over the next year as we work to implement ITE International’s new branding guidance. 
• Western District Social Media Manager: will help manage the District’s social media presence to get our message out to more people through more channels.  

If you are interested in either of these opportunities, please reach out to me directly patrick.marnell@q-free.com or 541-758-8529.