By Kimberly Leung, P.E., T.E., Western District President

The Western District held its Winter Board Meeting on January 27^th with our District officers, Committee Chairs, and Section Representatives. I would like to take this opportunity to share some highlights from our meeting:

• Five of our Committee Chairs were appointed for new and extended terms: Jeanne Acutanza – Technical, Kayla Fleskes-Lane – Student Funding and Initiatives, Giancarlo Ganddini – Public Relations, Cathy Leong – District LAC, and Ryan Zellers – WesternITE Advertising Manager.
• The District is currently seeking volunteers to join our WesternITE Editorial Committee. This committee oversees all aspects of publishing the District’s monthly electronic newsletter and semiannual WesternITE. The spring 2023 WesternITE will be our final printed version; electronic copies of the WesternITE will continue to be distributed twice a year. Reach out to me at kimberly.leung@sfmta.com if you’re interested in joining this committee.
• Over 1,000 abstracts were submitted for the 2023 Joint International and Western District Annual Meeting. We expect this year’s technical program to be quite robust. We look forward to seeing you in Portland, Oregon from August 13^th-16^th.

This month, we virtually held our 2023 Western District Student Traffic Bowl. It was a competitive event with 12 schools, including teams representing their colleges for the first time. Oregon State University was crowned the champion and will be representing the Western District at the Collegiate Traffic Bowl Grand Championship in Portland this summer. Go Beavers!

At the end of this month, I’ll be attending the Western District Student Leadership Summit. This year is the 10^th anniversary of the SLS, and I know that the USC, UC Irvine, and Cal State Fullerton student chapters have been putting in a lot of work to make this a successful and memorable event. I’m looking forward to meeting in-person with over 100 of our student members!

ITE International recently sent out the ITE All-Member Survey. I encourage you to take 15-minutes to inform the Board of Direction and staff about your views on a variety of different topics related to your ITE involvement. The last member survey was conducted in 2019, so your feedback will be helpful in helping ITE better serve our members.