| I hope all of you enjoyed the holiday season and are ready for a great new year in 2004. It seems like each year brings more changes and challenges than the last year. Ken Ackeret and I were talking (like dinosaurs) about technology when we got out of school - things like slide-rules, punch card decks, eight track tapes and a 13-cent postage stamp. Neither of us would have jobs if that is all we used today. If we didn't learn anything in our careers, we sure have learned how to change and adapt to it - sometimes at a blistering pace. The euphoria of some changes (like email) evolves into hope that more changes are forthcoming to manage the tide of communication (like eradicating spam). One constant with every new year is making resolutions or plans for the future - the hope and visions that we can set for ourselves and our profession.
In January the District 6 Board will be doing
just that. On January 29-30 in Portland, OR at our mid-year
board meeting we will be setting out a strategic plan for
our future. For a group that many of our members struggle
to understand, District 6 can play a constructive role in
promoting our profession, sharing information and developing
our younger professionals - making sure we attract the brightest
and the best engineers and planners into transportation. All
three of these roles are essential to our profession. I grew
up in rural Oregon with numerous son and daughters of loggers,
fishermen, paper makers, lumbermen and cannery workers. Many
of them figured those jobs would be there forever. I can tell
you many years later - they are not. Without a clear vision
for your future combined with that of your profession - together
- the future could deal some very harsh lessons. Without taking
the time to build their professions, providing clear vision
of how to adapt to change or being more concerned about the
future more than a paycheck - all those professions have withered
in the past 25 years.
We have a great profession in transportation
- one that allows us to make the world a better place every
day we go to work. But I can assure you; our future will not
be secure unless we plan to make it so.
I would encourage you all to consider how we
can take the path to the future and strengthen our profession.
I believe that path lies in the three areas I noted above:
promoting our profession - making sure the public has
a higher perception of transportation engineers and planners
than they sometimes see only in newspaper articles or hearings;
sharing information - we work in a profession dominated
by empirical information needs that cannot be met by one person,
firm or agency… We must share information to advance
our profession; and developing young professionals
- through initiatives that attract and retain the best and
brightest in transportation. Please think about the future
of our profession and share your thoughts with me this year
and with the District 6 Board. As long as we keep looking
to our future, change will be our asset rather than our assassin.
Coming Events
- All student chapters and section reports
are due April 1. Since Southern California Section and Montana
State University from District 6 both won the international
awards for best section activity report and best student
chapter report, we have a legacy to live up to. We have
placed the past reports on the District 6 web site for your
review along with the sample report forms. Each student
chapter receives $100 for submission of their report and
the student chapter faculty advisors of those chapters will
receive a $150 voucher towards ITE International dues and
free full registration (including meals) to the District
6 Annual Meeting. Section reports go to Karen Aspelin and
Student Chapter reports go to Jennifer Rosales.
- If you somehow missed it, the 2003 MUTCD
came out in late November and FHWA has an outstanding html
web site that is very easy to navigate (beats walking down
the hall to grab the book). Go to http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/HTM/2003/html-index.htm
While most states will not have adopted this version yet,
the web site is loaded with great information, including
the changes from the millennium edition.
- Take the time attend a section/chapter meeting
this winter. Many of the sections in District 6 have significant
meetings in the winter and early spring and these meetings
are enhanced by your attendance.
- It is not too early to plan ahead for the
District 6 Annual Meeting June 20-23, 2004 in downtown Sacramento.
An outstanding technical program is planned with some new
training opportunities for younger professionals.
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