By Doug Smith, P.E. Western District President

As the end of summer approaches and we enter the final quarter of 2024, I am reminded of what a great year it has been so far! Again, I want to thank all the attendees who joined us for the ITE Western District Annual Meeting in Sacramento! I especially want to thank all the LAC members, Sponsors and Vendors who made this successful meeting possible. I want to thank the ITE International staff and leadership for holding such a great Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. It was a busy meeting that allowed our District Leaders and members to get to know our national organization much better. As we enter September, I look forward to attending as many ITE Section events as possible and will focus on supporting the sections in their efforts to serve our membership. There are a couple of on-going activities that all our section and district members should be aware of which include: 

1. The ITE International Board has a branding consultant working on the branding initiative. They have been reporting back to the ITE board and District, Section and Chapter (DSC) leadership with recommendations to improve our organizational branding. They have prepared a summary of branding by District and Section. There has been feedback provided during the engagement sessions in May and June of this year. Next steps include a meeting on Tuesday, September 17th to provide a review and provide another opportunity for our DSC leadership to give feedback on the branding initiative. I encourage all sections and chapters to participate in this effort. The ITE International Board will be meeting on October 3rd to start to consider recommendations from the consultant. I would encourage all sections to participate and pay attention to this initiative since it could very well impact how you brand your sections moving forward and could require changes to our logos and other ITE branded assets. 
2. The 2025 Student Leadership Summit (SLS) will be held at UCLA on January 31st through February 2nd. ITE at UCLA is looking for sponsors and professional involvement. This is an amazing student-run event that our industry needs to support. Please look for the emails that provide information on the upcoming SLS. 
3. Finally, it is not too late to start planning for our 2025 ITE Western District Annual Meeting to be held on June 29th through July 2nd in Long Beach, CA. We should expect to see the Call for Abstracts towards the end of the year and sponsorship opportunities are already filling up. START YOUR PLANNING FOR NEXT YEAR! 

We still have four more months left in the calendar year 2024 and WE have much to accomplish. Please continue to check your emails 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.