Published On: July 31st, 2024

By Doug Smith, P.E. Western District President

I hope everyone is having a fun and productive summer of 2024! This summer is going by fast. Since attending the ITE Alaska section meeting in May I have had the opportunity to attend a lunch meeting with the Central California section where we discussed the benefits of ITE membership and future of the Section. I had the great opportunity to preside over the 2024 Western District Annual Meeting in Sacramento, CA. Finally, I was able to attend the ITE Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, PA and represent our District at the events! There is so much to report but I will try to give you the highlights.

Thank you to the 400+ attendees who joined the ITE Western District Annual Meeting in Sacramento! It was a meeting packed with a robust technical program, Young Member events, and social and networking opportunities. Our Annual Meetings also serve as a venue to highlight the accomplishments and contributions of our members throughout the year, and I would like to recognize just some of the awards presented during the meeting in no particular order:

  • Young Professional Achievement Award – Kayla Fleskes-Lane, DKS Associates
  • Transportation Project of the Year – SFMTAs Mid-Valencia Center-Running Bikeway Project – San Franscisco Municipal Transportation Agency
  • Annual Meeting Best Paper Award: Jonathan Howard for Shrinking Operational Circles: Visualizing Compact Geometry Effects on Roundabouts
  • Mentor Award – Patrick Marnell, Q-Free
  • Individual Achievement Award – Keoni Wasano, Goldwings Supply Service Inc.
  • Lifetime Achievement Award – Chris Kinzel, TJKM

Congratulations to our own board member Patrick Marnell who was recognized with the Mentor Award. As part of our awards presentations, our Public Relations Committee produced videos recognizing our Individual Achievement Award and Lifetime Achievement Award winners. These videos can be viewed on the Westernite.org website.

I’m proud to report the State of the District is strong and we are a financially sound organization with great programs and amazing Student Initiatives funded by the SFIC. We have continued progressing our programs and activities as we emerge from the pandemic and get back to business in spite of the challenges all professional organizations are facing. One of my focuses this year is to support your local sections and find new ways to get back to pre-covid levels of activity and stability. This can only be done with involvement and volunteer leadership from all our members. The programs the district promote and the size of our organization can only be successful with a full slate of volunteers and we have some of the best in the industry involved and supporting our district. The private sector, public agencies, industry vendors, academics and student chapters all work together in the western district to make us the best district in ITE.

The District held our Summer Board Meeting on Sunday, June 23rd, which marked the midpoint of our current Officer and Section Representatives terms. We are encouraged to hear that our Sections are connecting with our members in new and different ways using in-person and hybrid meetings. We will continue to work with all the sections in the district to improve our offerings to membership and work on strengthening all sections through the Section 101 program.

Our student initiatives have continued with a successful Student Leadership Summit in January at Cal Poly SLO and we are continuing to build on that success with stronger more active Student Chapters.

We continue to work on our WesternITE advertising program to encourage more sponsorships by providing more value and exceeding income expectations.

Lastly, our Sections and members have been hard at work as was reflected during our annual meeting in June. I want to thank everyone involved in the LAC as well as sponsors and vendors who made the Sacramento meeting such a successful event.

Election results were announced during the Annual Meeting. Please join me in congratulating our incoming 2025 Western District Officers:

  • President – Pat Marnell
  • Vice President – Josh McNeill
  • Secretary-Treasurer – Cameron Shew
  • International Director – Kimberly Leung

Finally, after a short two-week side trip to England to attend my daughter’s University graduation (I had to mention it), I was off to Philadelphia for an amazing 2024 Joint ITE International and Mid-Colonial District Annual Meeting and Exhibition with a theme of “Creating Safer, Smarter Mobility”. It was very rewarding to join my fellow District board members, co-workers and peers from around the US in a meeting which attracted more than 1400 attendees. There were many highlights but one I will remember is representing the District in receiving an award as the winner of ITE’s 2024 District Innovation Award for the District’s Section 101 Program which focuses on providing more resources for section leadership to utilize for success.  I want to congratulate and thank Randy McCourt, Cathy Leong and many other district leaders for their involvement in the very worthwhile effort to help our sections improve!

While our District meeting marks the culmination of the last year of work and effort, I remind myself and you that we still have five months left in the calendar year and WE have much to accomplish. Please continue to check your e-mails for the e-News and the Westernite website for more information and updates as the year progresses. I look forward to seeing everyone at section meetings in the fall.

As always, if you would like to talk about the ITE Western District, please reach out to me. I’m never too busy to make time to discuss ITE.

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