f ro m t h e d istr ict d irec tor
Dear members, It is my privilege to write my last message as your District Director. I feel like I’ve reached the end of a long road, having served my first ITE executive committee back in 2002 at the University of Manitoba before serving the Southern Alberta Section and then the Canadian District Executive for the last ten years. Please indulge me to be a bit sentimental and remember some of the experiences, lessons, and gratitude I’ve felt along the way.
Jen Malzer, M.Sc., P.Eng. Canadian District Director director@cite7.org
First, I’m proud of the organization we’ve become. I first joined the CITE Executive Committee in 2011, being sworn in in Halifax at a wonderful Annual Conference chaired by Dwayne Cross and a stuffed Lobster named Murray. In this first year, I would learn about the financial challenges we were in. We had primitive technology, and our practices didn’t match our growth. It was a
serious situation that I would witness as a committed call to action. Dedicated members stepped up to develop a financial management practices plan and mentor me on what it meant. (Thank you, Andy Vandertol; I couldn’t have done it without you!) Our member organizations stepped up to make good on our accounts receivables. I saw first-hand the deep commitment members have to our organization. The willingness to step up, to train, and to fix without judgment. This culture is so powerful and will propel us as a profession to adopt best practices, to evolve our practice, and to continue to invest and improve. Other proud moments I’ve felt towards CITE is the flexibility of our organization. While rapid change is often at odds with large organizations, there are so many times where I’ve seen us onboard ideas quickly and run with them successfully. I’ve also seen us try ideas and let them run their course. All of the ideas, big and small, come from a dedicated member with a thoughtful solution. What makes me proud isn’t that our members have ideas, but that these ideas are normally about making meaningful spaces to better include a certain segment of our membership. Ideas like our conference mentorship program, the Jenn and Jan Voss Travel Bursary to reduce barriers for women in transportation engineering to attend conferences, the excite committee for emerging members and, most recently, Kate’s Career Connect. I’m proud that our Executive meets often and has a culture of carefully considering any and all ideas that we can help move forward.
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TRANSPORTATION TALK | FALL 2021
