ITE UPSTATE SECTION EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING MINUTES

 Sear Brown Offices, Dewitt, NY

July 13, 2001

Meeting Attendees:

Mike Schauer, Vice-President

Joe Tocke, Secretary

Andrea Koch, Treasurer

Paula Benway, District Delegate/ Immediate Past President

Shelly Johnston, District Delegate                                              

             

I.                   Call to Order

Mike Schauer called the meeting to order at 10:18 AM.  Mike Schauer mentioned that Cindy McCormick was on maternity leave.  Cindy and her new son, Mathew are doing well.

 II.                Approval of the Minutes

A motion was made by Shelly Johnston and seconded by Andrea Koch, to approve the minutes of the January 12, 2001 Board Meeting, as amended.

 III.             Reports of Officers 

Vice- President – Mike Schauer mentioned that District 1 had selected the University of Massachusetts at Amherst as their candidate for the National Student Chapter Award and the New England Section as their candidate for the National Section Award.  Paula Benway stated that the Upstate Section should continue to strive for National Awards.

She further mentioned that one aspect of selection criteria is membership participation, and that we need to get more of our members actively involved in Section activities. 

Mike Schauer mentioned that the Section would get back our $250 seed money for the

MUTCD Video Conference in Rochester from ITE National.  However, an additional RIT downlink expense is forth coming.  Another expense included the Section’s purchase of one copy of the MUTCD video.  Fifty- three (53) people attended the Conference and our revenues were  $630.  Mike Schauer indicated that Keith Mortimer was working on the final Video Conference report.

Mike Schauer indicated that the Technical Society Council (TSC) proposal to merge with the Engineering Society of Buffalo has been tabled.  TSC in March 2001 had asked our Section for a position of this merger.  Mike indicated that we had received the Dues Distribution check for $1532.50 from ITE National in April 2001. 

Mike Schauer mentioned that he had received an e-mail from Rush Houston indicating the availability of the HCM Presentation to ITE Members.  Mike indicated that fifteen minute to full day HCM presentations were available.  The only presenters’ cost would be for travel.  Andrea inquired whether this HCM Presentation should be considered for the Annual Meeting in Ithaca.  Mike indicated that Annual Meeting Agenda was complete.  Paula suggested that we consider this presentation for next year’s annual meeting. 

Secretary –Joe Tocke mentioned that he attended the District #1 meeting in Mystic Connecticut and rated it as a 10 both for technical merit and hospitality.  Paula mentioned that the Met Section District 1 Meeting Committee is composed of most of the same people that gave us Camp ITE at Bear Mountain; so, we can expect a great District 1 meeting on Shelter Island next year.  Shelly mentioned that according to the by-laws, if Teller Committee, Chairperson, and workers could not be found, the responsibility reverted to Secretary.  Paula indicated that Terry Rice volunteered for Chairperson of Committee, if none could be found.  It was agreed to accept Terry Rice as the chairman and Paula and Andrea agreed to help him.

 Treasurer- Andrea Koch presented a reformatted budget and the Treasurer’ Report (see attachment).  She mentioned that the reformatted budget placed the CD as separate item.  She mentioned that our cash flow was highly positive due to the increase in News Letter Sponsors.  She also mentioned that she renewed the CD for six-month period because of better interest rate.  Shelly Johnston moved and Paula Benway seconded the Treasurer’s Report as presented. 

IV.              Report from District One

Steve Gayle, International President – Michael Schauer mentioned he had not received anything.  Shelly Johnston mentioned that she and Rick Zabinski were candidates for International Director.

 Shelly Johnston, District Delegateindicated that the District 1’s Annual Meeting in Mystic, Connecticut, welcoming session/ party, and off-site activities were walkable or convenient transportation was provided.  Mike Schauer mentioned that the Upstate Section won the Traffic Bowl against an outstanding international group.  Dennis O’Malley, Chuck Huffine, and Tim Faukler represented the Upstate Section. 

Terry Rice, District Chairman – Paula Benway indicated that Terry Rice is developing a manual of running an annual meeting, including process, experiences, pros and cons, hotel agreement, legal agreements, etc..  Paula mentioned that Bob Miller had put together a booklet on setting up an annual meeting.  Shelly mentioned we should develop a supplemental to Terry’s manual indicating what has worked well in the individual Upstate Meeting Cities.  Such a manual would be great help for new volunteers for various meeting committees.  Shelly brought it to or attention, that we host the District Meeting in 2003.  We could consider another joint District 1 & 7 meeting with Lake Placid as a possible site.  Paula also mentioned that District Board Treasurer’s position comes back to our section this fall.  Those interested in running for this position should get in touch with Terry Rice.  Shelly informed us that the District is looking at the adequacy and repayment of seed money for the Annual District Meeting. 

Members At- Large – nothing to report

 V.                 Reports of Local Activities and Committees          

Local Activities  & Meetings-

 ·        Albany- Shelly Johnston mentioned that a joint ITE- WTS MUTCD Session is scheduled at FHWA Offices in Albany on July 24, 2001.  Jim Browney from FHWA would be there to answer questions and encourage dialogue.

·        Buffalo – Shelly Johnston indicated that Bob Miller is going to schedule an MUTCD Session in Buffalo in September after the Annual Meeting.

         ·        Rochester – Paula Benway indicated that she was assisting Chris Burnett of the GTC on a Context                    Sensitive Design session.

 Membership – No Report                                                                                               

Newsletter – Mike Schauer stated that the Upstate Newsletter, the Interchange would be the recipient of ITE National Newsletter Award for small section this year.  We should congratulate David Kahlbaugh for an outstanding job.

Web SitePuala Benway indicated that the North Carolina Section has a Web Page system that allows individual members to post articles, events of interest, etc. directly on the Web Page.  A lengthy discussion followed on this issue including member privacy, screening posted materials, non-member access, quick turnaround, costs, etc..  The board will solicit Cory Greene input on this issue and consider it in the future.  Andrea mentioned that domain costs have varied and we are billed about ever 2-1/2 years.  This item may be difficult to budget annually.

Technical

Senior Housing Trip Generation – Shelly Johnston indicated that ITE

international committee is also collecting data on Senior Housing Trips.  She suggest that if our firms employ interns this summer; we get them to take traffic counts during the peak hours; 4-6 PM weekdays.  In addition, the type of senior housing is important to know.  Shelly mentioned that she would try to get our Utica Student members involved in this traffic counting this August.

 Parking Studies – Paula Benway indicated that the parking study was on hold.

Paula further indicated that Sear-Brown was doing a national trip generation study for CVS and also a study on office building trip generation.  She hopes to use some of this data, if available in our overall parking study.

 Awards ProgramMichael Schauer placed an announcement in the Newsletter soliciting candidates for the Professional of the Year, Young Professional of the Year, Project of the Year, and the Carol Keck award.  His selection committee consists of Steve Cosilmon of Binghamton, Gary Gottlieb of Buffalo, Tim Trabold of Buffalo, Douglas Stansbury of Syracuse, Dave Tuttle of Rochester, and Dave Woodin of Albany.  He mentioned he would further target NYSDOT Regional Director for solicitation of possible candidates.

 VI.              Old Business

 Student Membership Yr. 2001 InitiativesThe discussion continued on using students on the trip generation technical project.  Shelly mentioned that we probably first should contact our large new student membership at Utica.  Andrea mentioned that she was developing a student/student contact database and it should be ready by August 2001.

Andrea suggested that we send an annual August mailing to College Contacts with ITE information including posters.  Joe Tocke suggested that with this data base we personally contact the student –faculty advisories and send them “why students should join ITE materials” and place them on our mailing list to receive our “award winning” Newsletter.  Paula thought we should offer students a subsidy on attendance at ITE Meetings and Conferences.  Mike Schauer moved and Shelly Johnston seconded the formation of a Student Membership Committee.  Mike Schauer asked Andrea to see if Mike Croc would be interested in chairing this Committee and also, to solicit his input on other ideas to encourage student participation by the next Board Meeting.  Mike Schauer would contact Hudson Valley to set up a contact.

 

Joint ITE/ APA 2001 Annual Meeting in Ithaca, NY, September 12-14The meeting will be held at the Ramada Inn- Airport, at 2310 North Triphammer Road, beginning at noon on Wednesday; (registration noon, 1 PM opening remarks) and ending on noon on Friday.  The Awards Banquet is scheduled for lunch on Thursday.  The registration fee is  $125 advanced and $140 regular after September 5, 2001.  Andrea mentioned that she had received a bill from the Hotel for the room for the Board Meeting.

 VII.           New Business

 Future Cities Competition Mike Schauer described the Future City Program, which RPI is heading up in Albany.  He mentioned that it was for middle school students, and consisted of 3 members per team, with a teacher advisory, an engineer/planner.  The purpose was to create an ideal city; the Sim-City Software package assisted in this development.  RPI was looking for financial support, and professional participation as a technical advisory/ mentor.  Paula Benway moved and Joe Tocke seconded to contribute $200 to the Future City Competition in Albany.  We will be listed as sponsor of this program.

 Membership Statistics – Paula Benway handed out a spreadsheet from National ITE that described the make up of the membership for the Board’s Information.

 Board Meeting­­­the next board meeting is scheduled for July 13, at the Annual Meeting in Ithaca, NY, on September 12, 2001, between 10 AM and noon.

 VIII.        Adjournment

A motion was made by Shelly Johnston and seconded by Andrea Koch, to adjourn the meeting at 12:16 PM.