November-December
Message
District 6 Members,
New Mexico’s Section was the first place
I visited as President on the historic day of September 11,
2008. We took a moment of silence to honor the 9-11 victims
and the new officers were sworn-in.
The Section and its leaders were all very hospitable
and I was very pleased to be able to recognize Karen Aspelin
with a Presidential Proclamation. Karen was the former Local
Arrangements Committee (LAC) Chair for the District’s
New Mexico Annual Meeting, she’s a Past Section President,
and she currently continues her service as the District’s
Technical Chair.
New Mexico’s out-going President Steve
Eagan shared highlights from Anaheim’s meeting and in-coming
President Jim Barrera provided memorable photos of Karen and
I presented my newest presentation called “Engineering
Recommendations: Getting to ‘Yes’ With the Public
& Elected Officials.” In addition to being a passion
of mine, this topic relates to my vision and goal to improve
our profession’s communications abilities. With stronger
skills in this area, our well-founded engineering recommendations
are less likely to be overturned in the political arena.
There is much to achieve in my year as your
President. In sync with my goal to enhance our profession’s
communication and my new presentation, I am also in contact
with the International Traffic Engineering Council Chair,
Beverly Kuhn. Additional outreach materials and brochures
will offer helpful tools for transportation professionals
to better explain controversial topics to the public. Our
success in handling these challenges is significantly increased
when we communicate why our recommendations are actually in
the interest of those we serve. The ability to “sell”
the benefits of our profession’s practice is critical.
However, we don’t typically have training in this area.
In March 2007, I participated in ITE International’s
“Crisis Communications with the Media” training
taught by Craig Oscarson in San Diego, California. In addition
to the skills learned from various work and other experiences,
this class was one of the most valuable training seminars
I ever attended. Just four months later, I had the unexpected
opportunity to apply this training in the face of more than
50 protestors and an NBC on-camera news reporter. This occurred
in the City of Santa Ana and we later brought a similar version
of this class to the City.
I highly recommend this type of training, especially
for those who might generally avoid “softer-skill”
classes so that we can all become as effective as possible
in our engineering mission to safely serve the public. With
proper skills, our recommendations will be more readily and
even happily accepted by citizens who previously had misperceptions
of the true engineering facts. When stakeholders better understand
how the proper application of our engineering principles actually
serves their safety interest, we can obtain their “buy-in.”
In addition to our on-going student endowment
fund-raising, I have the goal to enhance our outreach to students.
Accordingly, Larry Wymer was recently appointed Student Initiatives
Vice Chair to further enhance the Student and Faculty Initiatives
efforts led by dedicated Chair Alyssa Reynolds. Also, to be
sure we are up-to-date in all states within our large Western
District, this fall I appointed Steve Eagan as our new Legislative
Chair along with Roberta McLaughlin as the new Legislative
Vice Chair. This also “merges” into my long-time
vision to increase state Department of Transportation (DOT)
and public agency involvement within ITE. Both of these appointments
help us to achieve this, since both Steve and Roberta each
work for their respective New Mexico and California DOTs.
This fall we had our exchange of records officers
meeting in Billings, Montana in early October. Also, I’ve
continued to attend my home ITE Section’s local meetings,
and several of my sister sections’ meetings. These included
the Central Coast Section’s October meeting, the joint
Southern California/Riverside-San Bernardino’s (RSBITE)
November meeting, and the newly named San Diego Section’s
November Holiday party and December officer transition meetings.
I also had the opportunity to visit and present my new presentation
to the Northern California Section this fall. In October,
I was invited to share my “Careers in Transportation
& Engineering” presentation with Cal Poly Pomona’s
Student Chapter which I had previously given to Cal State
University Long Beach one year ago.) In the same month, at
the Central Coast Section’s request, I presented my
“MUTCD Notice of Proposed Amendment Highlights”
topic, which I provided to other nearby Sections last year
in advance of last July’s comments deadline.
This newsletter showcases Anaheim’s International
Annual Meeting award winners from our region and we congratulate
all of you! You make our District proud! I appreciate Doug
Smith and Michelle Bitner Smith’s service as our WesternITE
Managing Editor as their three-year term comes to a close.
Much effort is involved in pulling together all the information
required from a number of people for each edition. On behalf
of the District, we thank them for their work and for winning
past newsletter award(s).
As winter and the holidays shed their cooler
air upon us, please be festive and safe with your friends,
family, and loved ones!
Season’s greetings to all!
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