Board Election Opens

The election for officer and at-large director positions on the ACT Board of Directors is now open. A link to the official online election ballot, including links to candidate statements, was emailed to eligible voters on August 18 from ElectionsOnline.us. Voting concludes September 12.

ACT members in good standing as of June 17, 2014, are eligible to vote. Members who joined after that date are precluded from voting based on ACT's election procedures.

This year, the officer candidates are running unopposed. Their names and statements are included on the ballot for informational purposes only. Per ACT's election process, when a board position is uncontested, the candidate for that position automatically begins service in that position January 1.

The officer candidates are:

President - Robert Henry

Vice President - Connie McGee

Secretary - Jim Barr

Treasurer - David McMaster

In the at-large director race, however, nine candidates are running for eight open positions. Voters can select up to eight of these nine candidates (listed below in alphabetical order):

Wendy Duren

Maureen Farrell

Rico Fleshman

Luanna Huber

Casey Jones

David Judd

Jon Martz

Frank Mongioi, Jr.

Diane Thorne

Contact Elections/Bylaws Chair Peggy Schwartz at pschwartz@nbtmd.org,  or Executive Director Mark Wright at 571-699-3064, wright@actweb.org, with any questions.

If you spoke at a general or concurrent educational session during the San Francisco conference, please convert your presentation materials to PDF format and email to TJ Cantwell at cantwell@actweb.org by August 29. Your presentation will be included in the online conference proceedings being developed by ACT staff. The URL for the proceedings website will be announced after the collection and upload process is completed. Please email TJ directly with any questions.

Conference Feedback to be Collected Online

A targeted email will be sent to registered conference attendees in the near future with a link to the 2014 ACT International Conference evaluation form. Rather than distribute reams of paper forms on site during the conference, ACT staff decided to go green and use an online post-conference feedback process. The email will be out before the end of the month.

Award Winner Spotlight

The annual awards breakfast at the ACT International Conference is a perennial crowd pleaser, as it gives attendees a chance to applaud colleagues for their excellent work. To help you get in on the fun if you were unable to be in San Francisco this year, we'll spotlight 2014 award winners in this and subsequent issues of the ACT Connections newsletter.

Maureen Farrell Receives Emerging Leader in TDM Award

GVF TMA Assistant Director Maureen Farrell has made a big impact during her six years in the TDM field. Maureen began her career in TDM with GVF, a transportation management association in King of Prussia, Penn., where she started as manager of operations.

Maureen Farrell, Emerging Leader in TDM Recipient

Maureen has been recognized locally, throughout Pennsylvania, and nationally for her dedication to TDM. In addition to her role as assistant director, Maureen oversees GVF's business development initiatives, project management, marketing programs, and sustainability initiatives. This includes managing GVF's 130+ private and public organizations and the GVF staff. Maureen also coordinates and manages GVF's signature events and programs as well as assisting the executive director with financial oversight.

Maureen manages all TDM initiatives with GVF's public and private partners. Her work with local, state, and national politicians has helped raise awareness of TDM in GVF's region, as Maureen also manages GVF's public policy committee, which is the organization's largest committee. Her work has been integral to GVF being named a Best Workplaces Gold level organization for four straight years.

Maureen also serves as the chief operating officer for GVF's foundation, Communities in Motion, which was established to educate the next generation about their mobility choices. Through the foundation, Maureen coordinates a sustainability job fair that brings in local high school students to educate them on opportunities that exist in TDM at universities and employers. Maureen also manages the foundation's Bike to Work challenge, which had enormous success in 2013 and has continued to grow in 2014.

She also serves on a variety of boards and committees in her community, including those of the March of Dimes, Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS) Philadelphia Chapter, DVRPC's Air Quality Partnership, Main Line Chamber of Commerce's government affairs committee, marketing committee for the King of Prussia District, and more.

This year, Maureen was a featured speaker at the SMPS Northeast Regional Conference. Her session focused on business growth through effective communication strategies and leveraging partnerships and was selected as one of the top presentations attendees wanted to attend. This enabled Maureen to present TDM to various industry professionals who aren't usually exposed to it.

Maureen was recently named chair of ACT's TMA Council and has already begun working to revitalize it. She has twice been recognized as one of ACT's top 40 under 40 TDM professionals.

On a Personal Note

Much to Celebrate

Six years ago this week, I was on the phone with ACT's then-president Jon Martz and 2008 treasurer and conference chair Brian Shaw to say, "You're not going to believe this, but I'm calling from the hospital after getting hit by a car yesterday when it crashed into a 7-Eleven. I was in the way-wrong place at the wrong time."

It was during my previous term as ACT's executive director, and we were four short days away from the annual conference. My tiny staff scrambled to pick up the pieces, while Jon, Brian, and other dedicated volunteers put their hearts into running the conference. It was a challenging time for all involved.

Today, as has been my custom since emerging reassembled from my August 17 encounter with fate, I'm headed off to Shenandoah National Park for a couple off-the-grid days of hiking to celebrate my ability to walk. And now that I'm back in the executive director role, I will also celebrate the opportunity to again serve ACT-an organization that has proven its grit and determination to survive and thrive over the decades.

While plenty has changed in ACT's universe since 2008, the dedication I have seen in our volunteer leaders remains as strong as ever. The board election currently underway promises to continue the can-do spirit and insightful leadership ACT has been so fortunate to attract year after year.

I hope you will join in my celebration by dedicating some of your own volunteer time and energy to helping your association blaze new trails toward an exciting future. You, as a member, are as vital to achieving that future as any of the fine candidates on this year's board ballot.

Here's to climbing onward and upward...together.

Mark Wright

Executive Director