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Save the Date!!! | |
March 30, 2014 - April 2, 2014: 2014 SDITE Annual Meeting
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| 2014 Executive Board | |
Kirsten Tynch
Bill Seymour
Secretary / Treasurer
Hollis Loveday
International Director
Rick Day
Past-President
Martin Bretherton
District Administrator
Craig Hanchey
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| Social Media | |
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Archive(s)
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Available Editions
October 2013
November 2013
December 2013
January 2014
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SDITE Apparel | |
Don't forget to visit the Lands' End Store to get your SDITE Apparel.
Lands' End Website |
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Future Annual Meetings | |
2014 - Greensboro, GA
2015 - Biloxi, MS
2016 - Nashville, TN |
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Newsletter Staff | |
Reviewers
Becky Malenke
Radha Swayampakala
Lindsay Walker
Social Media
Jeff Stephenson
Add Your Name Here Next Edition! |
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Hello all!
Even though President's Day was on Monday, it never hurts to learn a little bit of Presidential Trivia:
- The smallest President was James Madison (Presidential term 1809-17). The fourth President, Madison stood 5 feet, 4 inches tall and weighed less than 100 pounds.
- Benjamin Harrison (1889-93), the 23nd President, was the first President to attend a baseball game. He saw the Cincinnati Reds beat the Washington Senators 7 to 4 on June 6, 1892.
- Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) is the only U.S. president who was also a licensed bartender. He was co-owner of Berry and Lincoln, a saloon in Springfield, Illinois.
- Martin Van Buren was the first to be a United States citizen. All previous presidents were born British subjects.
- Every member of Teddy Roosevelt's family owned a pair of stilts, including the first lady.
- Herbert Hoover was an orphan whose first job was picking bugs off potato plants, for which he was paid a dollar per hundred bugs. He also was a mine worker.
- Calvin Coolidge liked to have his head rubbed with petroleum jelly while eating his breakfast in bed.
- William McKinley was the first to ride in a self-propelled vehicle-the electric ambulance that took him to the hospital after he had been shot.
Have a great month!
- SDITE Newsletter Committee
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Vice President's Perspective
Vice President: Bill Seymour
I look forward to serving as Vice President
of SDITE this year, and working with Kirsten, other Board members and committees. It has been a learning experience attending board meetings the past several years. By the way, the Secretary/Treasurer's job is made much more manageable (especially the financial part) by Craig Hanchey's serving as our District Administrator. We should all thank Craig often.
Many may think the Vice President has a fairly easy year. And, some may not know exactly what the Vice President's responsibilities are. So, let me share some information on that. The Vice President:
- Performs duties of the President when the President is unavailable
- Performs any assignments given by the President
- Serves as Chair of the Membership Committee
- Submits the VP Report and the Membership Committee Report
- Prepares resolutions for the LAC, the ABD and Consultants, shares at the Annual Banquet
- Makes appointments for the following year's committees, and
- Presents those appointments and a proposed budget to the Board for review/approval
For the Vice President, this year should also be a year of preparation. During this year, I plan to develop and refine the focus areas for 2015. While I have some thoughts on this already, I intend to gather input from a cross section of the membership and perhaps some external customers as well. Our Strategic Plan is our roadmap to the future, getting us where we want to go. We need to continue working and following our Strategic Plan. SDITE is becoming more of a data-driven organization, managed by fact. I believe we can find additional organizational improvement by better measuring results. We can also ask ourselves, "How can SDITE become more of a leader in our communities, more of a servant, more of a provider, more of an attractor?"
I look forward to working and serving with you in 2014. And, I hope to see many of you at the Annual Meeting in Greensboro, Georgia, in the spring. By then, this winter of Polar Vortexes will be in our rear view mirror.
2014 SDITE Vice President
Bill Seymour
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SDITE 2014 Meeting: Updates
By: SDITE 2014 LAC
The planning for the 2014 Southern District ITE Annual Meeting in Georgia is still going strong. You can learn all the meeting details by going to the meeting website, www.sdite2014.org.
A few quick notes:
- Early registration ends on February 21, 2014.
- The tentative program can be found here.
- The FAQ page is a great way to learn about apsects of the meeting, especially if you haven't been to a District meeting before.
- A shuttle service from Atlanta has been arranged. If interested, click here for more information.
See you next month!
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SDITE Website Image Solicitation
By: Mike Reese (SDITE Webmaster)
SDITE Members:
We need your help showcasing the great transportation innovations across the South! The current SDITE website (www.sdite.org) has been in place for three years, and it's time for an update.
If you have any photos of new transportation projects or modern innovations from across the District that we could showcase on the website, please send them to Mike Reese (mikereese@ncdot.gov) and Craig Hanchey (craig.hanchey@neel-schaffer.com) with the subject line "SDITE Website Images."
We need four images for the menubar, and up to eight images for the homepage animation. All menubar images should be 109x138, and all animation images should be 245x200 in medium resolution JPG format.
Thanks! 
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Strategic Plan Update
From: Cindy Pionke, Strategic Planning Chair
The SDITE 2014 Annual Meeting at Lake Oconee, GA is about 7 weeks away! The tentative Technical Program has been posted and is full of great technical learning opportunities.
The SDITE Strategic Planning Committee would like to encourage you to consider attending a couple of sessions that have been targeted by our Team as technical areas that are important to our membership, especially younger members in our profession. These include:
- Session 1A: You Spin Me Round and Round - a session focused on roundabouts, including planning guidance, design considerations, and a case study.
- Session 2B: Doing the Safety Dance - a session focused on safety, including roadside safety and the implementation of a couple of road safety programs.
More information on these sessions, including abbreviated abstracts, can be found here.
Please note that both of these sessions are on Monday (March 30).
See you in Georgia!
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From the Sections...
Virginia
VASITE recently migrated to a new website platform that will offer its members improved access to membership and chapter information while also providing a means to pay affiliate membership dues via credit card. This new platform will help to significantly streamline many of the Board's functions relative to communicating with the members and managing day to day information and operations. Visit our new website at www.vasite.org
VASITE's annual conference will be held June 25th through June 27th at the beachfront Sheraton Hotel and Conference Center at Virginia Beach. The program's chairperson will be taking a new direction with advertising for speakers. This year, we will move to a "Call for Abstracts" format which should help to streamline the process while providing for another outstanding speakers program. Please keep an eye out for our "Call for Abstracts" which will be placed on our website and send to the VASITE members. Save the date and join us at the beach for networking, professional development, and fun in beautiful Virginia Beach!
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Candidates for 2015 SDITE Officers
Listed below are the candidates that have been nominated for SDITE officers for the 2015 calendar year. Instructions for voting will be sent to all eligible voting members via email in late February.
President:
Bill Seymour, P.E.
Vice President:
W. Hollis Loveday, P.E.
Secretary-Treasurer:
Jennifer T. Bihl, P.E.
Jonathan Kiser, P.E., PTOE, PTP
International Director:
(2015-2017)
James A. (Jim) Meads, P.E.
Bob Murphy, P.E., PTOE, RLS
Note: In accordance with the District Bylaws, additional District nominations for any office may be made by petition, signed by not less than eight members eligible to vote. Each such petition shall be accompanied by the written consent of the nominee to run for the office for which he/she is nominated and must be received by March 1st. Please send any additional nominations along with the required supporting materials to: Hollis Loveday, CDM Smith, 1100 Marion St., Suite 200, Knoxville TN 37921. Petition documents may also be submitted electronically to lovedaywh@cdmsmith.com. If submitted electronically, please confirm receipt.
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Candidate Interviews
We'd like to introduce you to some of the candidates for 2015 officers. You probably know them already from their years of SDITE involvement. Their full bios and resumes will be sent out separately this month to our voting members. But here are some fun facts:
Candidates for 2015 SDITE Secretary-Treasurer:
- Name: Jennifer Bihl
- Place of Employment: Bihl Engineering, LLC
 Place of Birth: Richmond, VA- Current Location: Charleston, SC
- Day-to-Day Responsibilities: Client meetings, preparation of analysis, running the business... Every day is different.
- Hobbies: Fitness, reading
- If I was not a transportation professional, I would be: a Veterinarian
- Five Quick Questions:
- Email or Telephone? Email
- Coke or Pepsi? Water
- Sun or Snow? Sun
- Pen or Pencil? Pen
- Apple/Android/Blackberry?: Android
- One random fact: Jennifer has lived in four of the states in the Southern District.
- Name: Jonathan Kiser
 Place of Employment: Neel-Schaffer- Place of Birth: Monticello, MS
- Current Location: Jackson, MS
- Day-to-Day Responsibilities: Client manager for coordinating all of our City of Jackson projects. Attend Council meetings, meet with City staff to facilitate design and construction projects. Provide traffic engineering support to our satellite offices.
- Hobbies: Hunting, fishing, camping, hiking, scouting
- If I was not a transportation professional, I would be: A charter boat captain in the Bahamas
- Five Quick Questions:
- Email or Telephone? Telephone
- Coke or Pepsi? Diet Coke
- Sun or Snow? Sun
- Pen or Pencil? Pen
- Apple/Android/Blackberry?: Apple
- One random fact: Jonathan and his wife have lived in three different time zones in 20 years of marriage, and their four children were born in three different states.
Candidates for International Director (2015-2017):
- Name: Jim Meads
- Place of Employment: Sain Associates, Inc.
 Place of Birth: Birmingham, AL- Current Location: Birmingham, AL
- Day-to-Day Responsibilities: Principal in Charge of Company Operations and a number of transportation-related projects
- Hobbies: Spending time with family, Small Group leader for community Bible study, bass fishing, and watching baseball and football games
- If I was not a transportation professional, I would be: Coaching baseball
- Five Quick Questions:
- Email or Telephone? Telephone
- Coke or Pepsi? Pepsi (Diet Mt. Dew)
- Sun or Snow? Sun
- Pen or Pencil? Pen
- Apple/Android/Blackberry?: Apple
- One random fact: Jim was the MVP of his high school tennis team.
- Name: Bob Murphy
 - Place of Employment: RPM Transportation Consultants, LLC
- Place of Birth: Nashville, TN
- Current Location: Nashville, TN
- Day-to-Day Responsibilities: Leads a team of 15 very talented traffic engineers and transportation planners and is actively involved in projects, along with management activities
- Hobbies: Running marathons, cycling, swimming, reading, and travel
- If I was not a transportation professional, I would be: A bike racer (...although Bob humbly claims he isn't nearly good enough, nor does he want to train that hard)
- Five Quick Questions:
- Email or Telephone? Email
- Coke or Pepsi? Neither
- Sun or Snow? Sun
- Pen or Pencil? Pen
- Apple/Android/Blackberry?: Apple
- One random fact: Bob has run marathons in 34 different states.
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Have You Seen This?
Ever wondered what the world record is for the number of T-shirts worn by one person at one time? Didn't figure you did. However, if you are wondering now, here you go!:
 | | Guiness World Record for Most T-Shirts Worn at One Time. |
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We hope you enjoyed this edition. Stay tuned for another edition in mid-March.
Sincerely,
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Scott Walker, Editor
Southern District ITE |
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