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November-December Message
Over the past year or so you may have noticed
that the District 6 website and WesternITE carry more "Positions
Available" ads than they used to. In fact, most issues
of WesternITE now have 20 pages rather than the 16 that was
standard for years, primarily to accommodate the growing demand
for ad space. If your agency or company has had an opening
for a Traffic Engineering professional in the recent past,
you've probably experienced the shortage of traffic engineers
that has led to the increased number of ads as employers throughout
the Western District try, often unsuccessfully, to attract
new employees.
Because there just aren't
enough traffic engineers to fill all of the current job openings,
much less the increased number that is likely in the future,
ITE has for some time been emphasizing involvement at the
college level through a host of student initiatives. One way
we're doing this is to provide financial incentives to college
and university students to join ITE and attend meetings at
the Chapter, Section, and District levels. In addition to
deeply discounting the cost of participating in such activities,
there are also numerous cash prizes and awards for students
and student chapters, and the District oversees several data
collection projects each year for which the student chapters
are paid.
These measures have been successful in
getting students interested in ITE. An example of the extent
to which students are finding ITE membership value can be
seen in the extraordinary efforts undertaken by the Cal Poly
Pomona Student Chapter; they raised more than $13,000 so that
10 students could attend the Annual Meeting in Honolulu! Granted,
going to Hawaii is pretty good incentive in itself, but we
had 50 students at the meeting, and this shows that we're
doing something right when students are willing to shell out
that much money to travel to our meeting. I expect student
attendance at the 2007 meeting in Portland will again be substantial,
especially from schools within a reasonable driving distance.
For our industry to continue
to grow, we need to build on the success we've had, and continue
to expand our efforts to attract students to the field of
traffic engineering. As with all worthy causes, this comes
with a price, and thus far the District has been allocating
a significant portion of its annual operating budget to underwrite
the Student Initiatives programs. Because this funding would
become unstable in the event of a decline in membership, Past
President Zaki Mustafa started looking around for ways to
ensure that our Student Initiatives programs can be sustained.
Five years ago the Montana
State University Student Chapter decided that they needed
a dedicated funding source for future ITE activities, so they
started a fund-raising campaign to establish a $100,000 Endowment
Fund. This summer they received a donation that put them over
the top! Two years ago Zaki saw the success that MSU was having,
and appointed a committee to guide the establishment of an
Endowment Fund for Student Initiatives in District 6. We opened
an account with our first contribution, which came, not surprisingly,
from Zaki. Since then the Southern California and Riverside-San
Bernardino Sections have donated their award money at the
Kalispell and Honolulu Annual Meetings, and the California
Border Section contributed $1,000. Individuals, like Steve
Brown, have also contributed their cash awards from meetings.
A mini-golf tournament during the Honolulu meeting netted
more than $3,500. Finally, the dues increase enacted for 2006
has already provided more than $4,100 toward the Endowment
Fund, and will continue to generate additional revenue in
upcoming years.
But it has taken us more than two years to top
the $10,000 mark, putting us on a pretty slow pace compared
to the MSU Student Chapter at $20,000 per year. With an ultimate
goal of over $300,000, additional efforts must be made to
reach our goal so that we can provide for the future of our
profession. International Director Julie Townsend has stepped
up and is challenging the Sections that she visits by offering
to match contributions of up to $250. Our Endowment Committee
is currently working on materials to provide all the pertinent
details of the fund, at which point we will be asking for
your support. Contributors will be acknowledged at the annual
meeting, on the District's website and in WesternITE; various
contribution levels will be established to ensure that everyone
who gives is recognized. In the interest of sustaining the
industry that provides all our livelihoods, I hope that you
can give generously. After all, it's tax deductible! Thanks
in advance for your continued support.
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