| May-June
Message
As many of you already know, District 6, (or the Western District as we're called on the website for ITE International) is the largest District in the Institute. We have more than 3,000 members spread among 15 Sections in 13 states, and comprise about one-quarter of ITE's membership worldwide.
When I started my year as President, I knew that I would likely be doing a lot of traveling, but I had no idea how much travel this year would entail. Given the size of our District, attending meetings in even a portion of the Sections means lots of highway and air miles! Much as I would have liked to make it to all of the Sections, it has been my privilege to attend meetings in eight Sections thus far, including my home San Francisco Bay Area Section, and I'm looking forward to visiting the Washington Section shortly and attending the Intermountain Section's renowned Jackson meeting in mid-May.
The reason for attending specific meetings has varied. In some cases, the timing has been set so that I could induct new officers, and I've been able to swear in the current Boards of the New Mexico, San Francisco Bay Area, Border, Central Coast and Hawaii Sections, and hope to do the same for the Intermountain Section. With most Sections electing officers either at the end of the fiscal year or the calendar year, June, September and December are big months for swearing in ceremonies, resulting in lots of potential travel during those months.
Some
of the meetings have been chosen because they are a significant event for the
Section. Though I'm relatively close by, this year I attended the Northern California
Section's biggest meeting of the year - their annual Vendor Night - for the first
time. In March I attended the Arizona Section's Spring Conference, a joint meeting
with the International Municipal Signal Association that included two days of
technical sessions and vendor exhibits. The Intermountain Section's Annual Meeting
is similarly a multiple-day event, starting on Thursday and ending on Saturday,
and drawing members from not only all over the District, but even from outside
the District. The final combination meeting that I'll attend as President will
actually be in conjunction with the District's Annual meeting when the Sections
from Oregon and Washington together with the two Canadian Sections hold their
annual "Quad" meeting.
I have
also had the honor of presenting Presidential Proclamations to members in the
Border, Hawaii, Oregon and Arizona Sections. This is probably the best part about
this position as it has given me the chance to recognize members who have really
contributed to ITE in their respective Sections, but most of whom I'd never met
before. The Border Section selected
Frank Yates for commendation and Frank, true to his nature, had a camera around
his neck and was busy snapping pictures to document the meeting when his name
was announced. Two outstanding Hawaii Section members received Proclamations;
Pete Pascua, a past officer, LAC Technical Tours Chair and founding Section member,
and Casey Yanagihara, the only ITE member on the Big Island of Hawaii and contributor
of a number of the old WesternITE issues to the archive project completed by SDSU
in 2004. Ed Fischer showed the humor and leadership for which he was known when
accepting a Proclamation during an Oregon Section meeting. Last of those already
presented, but certainly not least, Lou Lagomarsino was gracious and charming
in accepting the accolades of the Arizona Section. I still have at least a couple
more presentations up my sleeve, but will keep those under wraps for now! Thank
you to the Section officers who selected these recipients and then took the time
to prepare the text for their commendations, making each one personal and specific
to the honoree. Another red-letter
event of my Presidential year has been the establishment of a new student chapter
at UCLA. Eric Shen and Pat Gibson of the Southern California Section together
with District Administrator Jenny Grote were instrumental in helping current Chapter
President Alicia Kinoshitais negotiate through the process of preparing the Chapter's
Charter and Bylaws, and we're thrilled to have added this new Student Chapter. Over
the past nine months I have had the opportunity to attend numerous Section meetings
where I've met so many truly wonderful members. My thanks go out to everyone listed
in this article, as well as so many others that I wasn't able to mention by name,
for all that they've done for ITE; these contributions are representative of the
volunteer effort that makes ITE more than just a collection of professionals with
a common field of work. We are researchers, collectors of data, analysts, report
writers, public speakers, and technical experts, but also mentors and mentees,
teachers and students, and, for me, best of all, friends.
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