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November Message
As I sat down to write my first President's
Message, the only word that came to mind is "Wow!"
How can I follow in the footsteps of our past president Zaki
Mustafa. "Together we are the best." To be selected
by your peers to serve as your president is a great honor
and responsibility. We are far from seeing the last of Zaki,
as he will be helping the District collecting monies for our
newly established Endowment Fund for student activities. This
year, our efforts will be focused on putting money into the
Fund. So start planning now on making a contribution to the
District 6 Endowment Fund.
As you have probably heard by now, our District
6 WesternITE Editor for the past three years, John Kerenyi,
will be passing on this volunteer job to our new WesternITE
editors, Doug and Michelle Bitner. I hope every one will give
John a huge thank you when you see him next time for all the
work he has done to produce our award-winning WesternITE newsletter.
This publication is so very important to the communication
of our District activities.
Our new District Board was sworn in at the Annual
Meeting in Montana. I am very proud to have the help of Dalene
Whitlock as Vice President. She has done an excellent job
with the District's accounting this past year, making significant
improvements to our procedures in dealing with credit cards
and managing our accounts. I know she will continue to help
me out throughout this coming year. One of her current duties
is to update the District 6 Directory. So, please, when she
contacts you about the directory, be patient and help her
out with this tedious and thankless job. At the District level,
we are always trying to stay current on the ITE volunteers
holding section and chapter leadership positions throughout
the 13 western states that make up our District, so let Dalene
know your current leadership positions and/or any changes
as they occur.
At the end of October, the financial bookkeeping
was officially passed on from Dalene to our new Secretary-Treasurer,
Jennifer Rosales. I know with Jennifer's enthusiasm she will
do a great job keeping track of our District finances.
Soon after being sworn in as President, I had
the honor of representing our District at the ITE International
Annual Meeting, which was held in August in Melbourne, Australia.
A total of 878 delegates, accompanying persons and exhibitors
attended the meeting. From this number, 518 ITE members were
at the meeting, of which 84 were from District 6, including
nine exhibitors. Tuesday evening of the conference, I carried
on a new District 6 tradition, started by Second Past President
Randy McCourt, to host a District 6 social. About 40 people
from District 6 crowded into my small Melbourne hotel room.
Everyone had a great time sharing their Australian travel
stories and talking about the conference presentations. On
a more personal note, this was the first meeting in which
my daughter Rachel attended as a student ITE member. She currently
works at the Traffic Research Center at UNLV and is a civil
engineering student. I want to thank everyone who made her
and the other student members feel welcome.
As your President, I am looking forward to visiting
our local Section and Chapter meetings and recognizing our
District 6 volunteers. So far I have had the opportunity to
visit our New Mexico Section in Albuquerque and the Northern
California Section in Sacramento. At the New Mexico Section
luncheon meeting, I was proud to present a District 6 Presidential
Proclamation to Dr. Jerry Hall and announce September 1, 2005
as Jerry Hall Day. In Sacramento we followed up with a declaration
of September 15th as Bob Grandy Day. We cannot thank Jerry
and Bob enough for all the volunteer work they do for ITE.
Please let me know when I can visit your Section or Chapter
so that we can continue to recognize the importance of our
volunteers in making ITE the best technical society to belong
to.
The Mid-Year Board Meeting will be held on February
3rd in Las Vegas, on the UNLV campus near the airport. The
UNLV ITE Student Chapter, as well as all ITE student members,
are extended a special invitation. Just please let me know
your interest in attending for space-planning purposes. The
Mid-Year Meeting is when our District elected leadership and
technical committee chairs meet to report on our various activities
and plans for our forthcoming annual meetings. I am looking
forward to this important meeting and its success.
Again I want to thank you all for the confidence
you have given in allowing me to serve as your president.
P.S. Don't forget to mark your calendars for
our Annual Meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii June 25-28, 2006-"Au
i ke kai loa."
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