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By Outgoing SDITE President Alison Catarella-Michel
Happy Holidays, Transportation Professionals!
Regardless of which holidays you celebrate, I hope that you spend them with family and/or friends, which includes fur babies for those who love or prefer animals! The past three years on the SDITE Board looked completely different than I imagined. I began 2020 with plans to attend at least three Section meetings in addition to mine. Also, planning for the joint meeting with International ITE in NOLA was starting to get intense. I was over-the-moon excited about the joint meeting and also determined to attend every Section meeting before my time on the Board was over. Then...COVID-19 came along, and the joint meeting in NOLA was eventually cancelled along with everything else. When things started to open up in 2021, I was registered with flights and hotel booked for the infamous “Summer Seminar” in Georgia! The Pandemic had other plans for me again, as I tested positive with COVID the weekend before I was supposed to leave. Stuck in my memory forever is that after I mustered the energy to sit up long enough to cancel my flights and hotel, I laid back down right before my fairly new Surface laptop slid to the floor off the bed and broke. My “not” attending Georgia Summer Seminar in 2021 was quite an expensive trip!
Luckily, 2022 has outshined the other two years. I enjoyed an amazing year and am still blown away by the Presidential Suite accommodations in Louisville, Kentucky! All the apprehension of planning a post-COVID meeting in a small Section on the edge of our District proved unnecessary as the meeting was a GREAT SUCCESS! This meeting was followed by the ITE International Annual Meeting and Exhibition in my hometown that I had been envisioning since I was a brand new Leadership ITE student in Washington D.C. in January of 2016. Seeing this come to fruition was literally a dream come true for me! Who knew the icing on the cake would be North Carolina winning Best Section and that the Southern District would win the Innovation Award for a mentoring program?
I decided this year not to introduce any new initiatives because as I have said many times, I believe the Southern District of ITE is super strong in every way – in numbers, as an organization, and financially, to name just a few. Being a group of ambitious engineers and planners, new initiatives began organically this year anyway. I am excited about the updated Annual Meeting and Operations Manuals that are now underway. With both professional assistance and “Kick-Off Meetings” for District Annual Meeting planning, I see a smoother road ahead for our valuable Local Arrangement Committees!
I try to extend gratitude every chance I get, but at risk of forgetting anyone, I won’t be specific. I just want to say THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for electing me and trusting me to serve on your Board. I could have done a better job in many areas, but we not only survived, we thrived. Many thanks to my fellow board members these past few years who’ve picked up the slack and/or offered their help. You know who you are.
I’m not going to give up on my goal of attending every Section meeting at some point. I hope to visit a few other Section meetings next year as your Past President.
Let’s welcome in 2023 with the hopeful anticipation of a child before their birthday, with faith that it will bring us the best gifts—ones that we’ll remember forever! Serving on the SDITE Board has been one of those gifts to me.
Stay well,
Alison
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