January 2020 - WTS NC Triangle News

WTS NC Triangle Express

January 2020

Happy New Year to all! The NC Triangle chapter is in planning mode to make this a great year for our members and partners. If you haven't done so, consider attending the annual planning retreat next weekend. Registration is open for one more day. See below for details.

WTS International has created a competition among all WTS chapters for the first few months of the year, and the NC Triangle chapter wants to be competitive, with your help. One competition is a membership drive - the chapter with the highest percent increase of members will win. The NC Triangle chapter will be offering incentives for joining WTS in the next couple of months, so stay tuned. And if you've been thinking about joining, now would be a great time!

The second competition is the social media challenge. If you haven't already done so, go to the NC Triangle chapter's social media site of your choice (buttons are below this intro) and follow us. When the chapter posts something with the hashtag #WeAreWTS, please like the post. Also, if you have a picture of yourself at work that you'd like to submit for posting, send it to Catherine Chestnutt, who will be coordinating the chapter's social media for the competition. The chapter with the highest number of likes will win the competition. Thanks for participating!

Visit our Website

Planning Retreat

Registration is open through tomorrow (Friday) for the chapter's annual planning retreat, which is open and free to all members. It will be held Jan. 31-Feb. 2 at a house near Lake Gaston, Va. Members have the option to attend the entire weekend or Saturday only. At the retreat, the members will make plans for the year, including developing programs and brainstorming topics. For those who might want to get involved, this is a great way to meet and get to know the other members in the chapter.

Partners Program

The WTS-NC Triangle Chapter is once again offering our annual Partners Program in 2020. Our goal is to build on our success and further the advancement of women in the transportation industry in NC in the upcoming year. Much of our success has been possible because of the support we receive from NC Transportation agencies and companies. The Partners Program offers multiple partnering levels, with a variety of benefits to the sponsoring companies/agencies. Get more information on the program and the benefits here.

Southeast Rail Forum Sponsorships

Southeastern States, Federal Railroad Administration and the WTS NC Triangle Chapter are jointly hosting a regional rail forum among the Southeastern states. We are currently looking for sponsors for the "Southeast Rail Forum: Ready to Build," (SRF) scheduled from March 25-27 in Raleigh. In addition to industry experts, local and state political leaders throughout the region have been, or will be, invited to speak. These will include Governors, Secretaries of Transportation, and State Legislators from the Southeast region. Get more information on how your firm can be represented at this event by clicking here.

Mobi Awards Sponsorships

NCDOT and its partners - WTS NC Triangle Chapter, NC Go!, and ITRE - will hold the 2nd annual NCDOT Mobi Awards program on April 1. This awards program recognizes projects that showcase the important and transformational role investments in multi-modal transportation - such as bicycle, pedestrian, rail, transit, ferry, and aviation projects - play in creating vibrant communities. There is an opportunity to provide a sponsorship for this program. For more information, click here.

WTS NC Triangle Book Club

This month's selection is Street Smart: The Rise of Cities and The Fall of Cars by Samuel Schwartz, a.k.a. "Gridlock Sam," who is one of the leading transportation experts in the United States today. Since the turn of the twenty-first century, a surreptitious revolution has taken place: every year Americans are driving fewer miles. And the generation named for this new century-the Millennials-are driving least of all. Not because they can't afford to; they don't want to. They have better ideas for how to use their streets. An urban transformation is underway, and smart streets are at the heart of it. They will boost property prices and personal fitness, roll back years of congestion and smog, and offer a transformative experience of American urban life. From San Francisco to Salt Lake, Charleston to Houston, the American city is becoming a better and better place to be. Schwartz's Street Smart chronicles the history of the struggle for control of American cities, and is an off-road map to a more vibrant, active, and vigorous urban future.

We will feature a book each month recommended by our members for our members. If you want to recommend a book for this space, send the suggestion to Leslie Tracey, newsletter editor.