Monday Update... There are several items to update you on today:

1) NCITE is hosting their first section lunch meeting of the new year. The meeting will be held on Wednesday, January 17, 2007, at the Hampton Inn/Green Mill Restaurant in Shoreview, MN. The speaker will be Marc Goess, PE, from Mn/DOT, to discuss the impacts and planning for the full closure during construction this year of the heavily-travelled Trunk Highway 36 through North Saint Paul. For registration information, please contact Sue Zarling at 651-582-1282, or e-mail her at susan.zarling@dot.state.mn.us.

2) Rick Zygowicz from the Wisconsin Section sent out a meeting notice for the section's upcoming "Public Service Appreciation Lunch Meeting", to be held on Wednesday, January 17, 2007, at Rocky Rococo's East in Madison WI. For registration information, please contact John Bruggeman at R.A. Smith at 262-317-3353, or e-mail him at john.bruggeman@rasmith.com.

3) As I stated last week, the MOVITE is hosting the Midwestern ITE's 2007 annual meeting in St. Louis on June 13 -15, 2007 at the Hyatt in Union Station. You are encouragedto submit an abstract focused on their theme of a "multi-modal" adventure. The conference will include experiences on St. Louis's light rail system, bicycle rides along the Mississippi River, a segway tour around Forest Park; and even an evening riverboat ride on the Becky Thatcher. The deadline for our Call for Abstracts has been extended to February 1, 2007. Please limit abstracts to one-page in length. Send your abstract to:
Tom Ryan
2004 Highpoint Street
Springfield, Missouri 65810
thomas.ryan@hdrinc.com

4) Southern Illinois University Edwardsville students are looking to create a student chapter. Due to their proximity to St. Louis, they are exploring an affiliation with TEAM in St. Louis. Because student chapters are chartered by the district, not the section, they may be able to establish a relationship with the section they are most closely located. As a result, SIUE students and faculty may attend the Chapter meetings with TEAM, the Section meetings with Illinois Section or in fact, any member of ITE can attend any ITE meeting wherever they wish. On the other hand, MOVITE would not consider SIUE to be one of “their” student chapters since it is located outside of the MOVITE geographical limits. Therefore, the Illinois SEction may wish to establish Chapters within the state, and respect relationship the SIUE Chapter would have with TEAM in St. Louis. Stay tuned...