ITS Georgia President's Message from Georgia Engineer Magazine

2012-02-08T08:50:00.000-08:00

Scott Mohler
ITS Georgia President

It is an honor and privilege to have been elected presidentof the Intelligent Transportation Society of Georgia (ITS Georgia) and torepresent this great chapter and its important work. Over the next two years, I plan on sharingwith you the many accomplishments of the chapter and our member organizations.

ITS Georgia is fortunate to have had quality leadershipsince its inception from the late Wayne Shackelford as founding chairman to myimmediate predecessor, Marion Waters. Marion has been a model President for thepast two years, and I want to extend an enormous thank you for all of his hardwork and dedication to the betterment of ITS Georgia. His leadership in ITS Georgia and in the ITSindustry are invaluable, and I’m thankful that Marion will remain a member ofthe Board during my presidency.

I also want to thank outgoing board members Marwan Abboudand Ron Boodhoo, and the new and returning officers and directors who are listedbelow.

2012 and Beyond –

Over the next two years we plan on turning our mission andgoals into facts and accomplishments.

Our Mission: Promote and educatepeople about ITS and encourage incorporation of ITS into transportationprojects.

Our Goals:

Provideforums to share and coordinate ITS Georgia member missions and experiences
Educateour members on national directions and technologies
Developa broader ITS constituency
Educatepolicy makers on benefits of continued operations and maintenance and how ITScan help

We did a great job in 2011 on Goals1 and 2 and an okay job on Goal 3. In 2012, we will continue to provide ourmembers with forums to network and learn about new technologies and lessonslearned from our colleagues from around the state and the nation. We also plan on reaching out to new memberorganizations and to increase participation from existing members, especiallyyounger associates and students.

Goal 4 has been a challenge and weneed to do more to get decision makers to understand the benefits of ITSsolutions and the value they bring to state and local transportationinfrastructure. To reach Goal 4, we are teaming with the Georgia SectionInstitute of Transportation Engineers and the TIME Task Force in a cross-organizationalPublic Officials Education Committee which I will chair. We plan on conducting a training class on thebenefits of ITS with county officials in April at the Association CountyCommissioners of Georgia Annual Meeting. GDOT’s Todd Long has agreed to be the instructor for this class. We think that is a good start. Next are city and state decision makers.

On an organizational level, we planon increasing chapter revenue so we can continue to fund scholarships andprovide our membership with access to the latest in ITS technology and forumsfor networking and professional growth. We also plan on expanding our membership outside the reach of ourtypical members to include the growing number of automotive and high techcompanies in Georgia that provide traveler and fleet information.

In addition to providingscholarships to students studying ITS, we plan on increasing their involvementin chapter activities to facilitate networking and learn more about potentialemployers in the area to keep and attract talent to Georgia.

As always, our monthly and annualmeetings will be packed with outstanding speakers and topics in 2012. We’lllearn about everything from how ITS solutions help move millions of tons ofcargo in and out of Georgia’s ports to creative funding opportunities, how wellour products and services stack up and what the future holds from our excellentresearch institutions.

Please visit our web site (www.ITSGA.org) for information about our monthly meetingsfor 2012.

ITS Georgia President's Column December 2011

2011-12-04T17:44:00.001-08:00


Marion Waters

ITS Georgia President's Column from The Georgia Engineer Magazine

It hasbeen a great pleasure being the President of the ITS Georgia Chapterduring 2010 and 2011. I have been honored to serve, and it has been greatworking with the other officers, directors and committee members. I havelearned a lot, and I look forward to assisting the new Chapter President, ScottMohler during his tenure in 2012 and 2013.. Scott has great abilities anda wonderful experience base to take on the challenges of growing theorganization during the next two years. Scott has been active in otherprofessional organizations and brings all of the lessons he has learned fromthose programs over to ITS Georgia. We should all look forward tosupporting him and working under his leadership.

My thanksgo out to the many folks who have worked to enable our Chapter’s outstandingyear in 2010. We have had an outstanding series of monthly technicalmeetings. Our membership has increased, and we have maintained agood student participation. In a very tight year, our chapter put forthan amazing effort to continue the funding of student scholarships at the samelevel as previous years. Our annual meeting was successful, with greatspeakers and a shared vision of the future of ITS (20/20). Best of all,the committees involved a whole new group of younger members to work on theprogram and lead in the Chapter activities. Again, I offer my sincerethanks to each and every one of the folks who participated in any way this pastyear.

Thestrength and value of our Chapter is based on its individual members and theservices we provide to the organizations that enable these individuals toparticipate. Please do not forget that our Chapter is built on thepartnership formed when public sector agencies, vendors, educators, andconsultants work together to advance the state of the industry. Intelligent Transportation Systems function to enhance the efficiency oftransportation infrastructure in all sectors of surface transportation. ITS does not create capacity in any of the transit or transportation systems,but it does enhance the most efficient and effective use of thesesystems.

There aremany challenges facing our nation in 2012 and our concern for the state of thetransportation infrastructure is just one. However, our Chapter can and should play a role in educating transportation system users, managers andleaders to the advantages of using the existing infrastructurebetter.

Please visit ourweb site (www.ITSGA.org) for information about our monthly meetings for 2012.