SDITE 2011: Lafayette in Review

The Kentucky Section was well-represented at the SDITE 2011 Annual meeting in Lafayette, LA.  This included a total of 17 attendees, including 12 professionals and 5 students.  

Our delegation could be found nearly everywhere during the meeting, including:

Promotions Table:  One responsibility of hosting the 2012 SDITE / GLITE Joint Annual Meeting is promoting the meeting a year early.  With a promotions table very close to the registration desk, the Kentucky attendees made sure all were aware of our meeting next year.  That included distributing Ale-8-One samples, bourbon balls, and blue horse stickers.

Board Meeting: 3 attendees from Kentucky attended the Board Meeting on Sunday afternoon.  The Board Meeting is important as it reviews the progress of the District and sets the course for the future of the organization.

Presentations: The technical program was full of presenters from the Commonwealth.  A total of nine attendees from KY either presented or co-presented during the technical program.

Traffic Bowl: Three students from the University of Kentucky participated in the William Temple Scholarship Challenge. The team was in contention through the final question and fell a bit short at the end.  Congratulations to Tony Fields, Rebecca Franke, and Billy Garrison for their participation in this exciting competition.

Annual Banquet: In addition to the awards noted below, we were also given the opportunity to talk about next year's Joint Annual Meeting during the Annual Banquet.  This included a small presentation and video about Lexington. The highlight, however, were the door prizes.  Thanks to Buffalo Trace, Keeneland, and Ale-8-One for their donations.

Congrats to SDITE Award Winners!

We are excited to announced that two of our members were presented with SDITE awards during the Annual Banquet in Lafayette.  A full list of previous award winners for the Kentucky Section can be found here.

Bill Seymour was presented the Marble J Hensley Outstanding Individual Activity Award.  Bill is a longtime member of both the Kentucky Section and the Southern District.  He most recently chaired the District's Strategic Planning Committee. 

A video of Bill accepting the award can be found on the KYSITE website (please note that Window Media Player is necessary to view the video).  

Bill Seymour (left) and Craig Hanchey (SDITE Past-Past President)

Lafayette:  The Students' Perspective

Left to right:  Billy Garrison, Allison Westcote, Rebecca Franke, Jonathan Hill, and Tony Fields)

Students are a very important part of KYSITE as we encourage them to be active members of our organization upon graduation.  Through your membership fees, silent auction donations, and golf outing, we are able to provide opportunities for students.

The Kentucky Section was able to take 5 very deserving students from the University of Kentucky to the SDITE Annual Meeting in Lafayette.  Each of the students took time out of their busy schedules last Fall and early this Spring to practice for the Traffic Bowl competition.  They were rewarded with this trip.  All had a great time, as summarized by each student below: 

Billy Garrison: "...I want to thank you guys for the opportunity to attend the conference.  I had a really good time.  I felt the conference was really informative."

Allison Westcote: "I had so much fun this week, it was definitely hard having to come back to reality and work."

Tony Fields: "Lafayette was my 4th and final Traffic Bowl appearance and I have nothing but good things to say about the experience...I truly appreciate the opportunities I had to attend as a student, and am excited to attend as a professional.  I also look forward to helping with the planning and execution of future meetings so I can try to give something back to the organization that has given me so much."

Thanks again to KYSITE members for supporting our students.

Great Lakes ITE District Meeting

Our friends to the north hosted the Great Lakes District ITE Annual Meeting on April 14 / 15 in Columbus, OH.  This District consists of Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan.  Leaders of this District can be found in the picture below:

The meeting featured the DOT leads from each of the three states.

Scott Walker was given the opportunity to pitch next year's Southern District ITE / Great Lakes District ITE Joint Annual Meeting to all in attendance.  This included a brief summary of the meeting along with a short video highlighting Central Kentucky.

We look forward to hosting the District next year in Lexington.

Golf Outing Details

Hate Mondays?  Love Golf?  KYSITE has a solution for you. 

We are working on the final details for the golf outing and wanted to share them with you:

Date: Monday, June 6th

Time: 12:00 (Lunch) / 1:00 (Golf)

Location: Juniper Hills in Frankfort, Kentucky

Costs (Golf and Lunch): $40 (a portion goes toward scholarship fund)

RSVP: Tony Lewis by May 30, 2011

Prize: Bragging Rights (is there anything else more important?!?!) AND prizes for winning team and individual best shots.

For more details, including the option to pre-pay, please go to our website.

SDITE: 2011 Elections Results

      In the Next Edition...