Membership

Member Experience

Membership

The membership activities of each District, Section and Chapter are crucial to the member experience and to ITE as a whole. Implementing membership activities demonstrate that elected leaders are focused on providing services that meet the needs of the members of their respective regions. To accomplish this you should consider: 

  • Creating a membership chair and committee to focus upon membership recruitment, retention, and welcoming new members (ambassadors). 
  • Making sure communication tools are accessible to members and non-members, website structure, social media groups.
  • Establishing membership growth and retention goals.
  • Reviewing Section practices in line with ITE diversity, equity and inclusion practices to make sure the Section is as welcoming as possible to ALL transportation professionals.
  • Spending time at the Section’s Student Chapters to inform graduating students (who may have had free annual dues) that for young members in ITE, dues are graduated until the age of 30.
  • Encourage members to share ITE events with coworkers and to bring nonmembers to meetings, to get involved.
  • Reviewing all key public transportation agencies in the Sections boundaries and making sure they are taking advantage of ITE’s Public Agency Membership
  • Spending time at your local meetings to talk about the value of membership and share the marketing materials developed by ITE Headquarters.

 

Accessing Membership Lists (including new members)

 

Welcoming New Members

  • 1-2 days after a new member joins ITE, ITE will begin sending them a series of welcome communications.  These email communications highlight key areas for the new member to explore, including reaching out to/connecting with their District and Section
  • These email touches go out every 10 days over the first two months of them joining
  • Districts and Sections are encouraged to create a welcome email to send to the new members as well. Make sure you are regularly checking your membership list (at least monthly) to incorporate new members into your regular communications.
  • In addition to the series of emails, new members are encouraged to connect on ITE e-Community and are sent a mailing with a new member certificate and welcome letter.
  • ITE holds quarterly new member orientations to help answer questions, points out new or popular resources, and help new members connect with each other.

 

Ideas to Integrate Planners

We want to create a welcoming and supportive experience for our transportation planning professionals. We are encouraging all Districts and Section to increase programming for planners and our Planning Council helped us to develop this menu of ideas for ways to accomplish that: Ideas to Integrate Planners

 

Councils and Committees

More than 18,000 members of ITE are on the leading edge of issues through their participation in ITE’s special interest councils. There are currently 6 technical councils for members to subscribe and participate in the ITE Community website. 

In addition, ITE has 3 organization-based employer councils designed to engage with senior level respresentatives and for these organizations with the opportunity to provide input on ITE’s programming and policies while also demonstrating their commitment to leadership in the transportation industry.

Councils can help provide technical content to Districts and Sections, either in-person or virtually, as they are most often the groups producing Quick Bites, Technical Briefs, Informational Reports, Recommended Practices and webinars. You are encouraged to visit the New Resources tab under Resources to see if there's a topic or resource your Section may be more interested in hearing about locally. You can also visit the Speaker Directory on ITE e-community.

 

Encouraging Diversity and Inclusion

Leadership should strive to make sure that all participants are able to contribute, nurture strong social connections, and express their views. These resources can help leadership develop programming and forums where everyone has a chance to fully participate.  

Visit the ITE Diversity and Inclusion Web Page: https://www.ite.org/membership/diversity-and-inclusion/

Diversity & Inclusion 2024 Cultural Holidays and Observances (listing)

Diversity & Inclusion Checklist for DSCs

DSC Survey Guidelines

ITE Equity Committee and Resources Including Glossary and Case Studies

Women in ITE Committee and Resources

 

Develop a Listing of Prospects

We recommend comparing your communication and meeting lists with your membership lists so that you know your members and nonmembers.  Building prospect lists will assist in efforts to attract new members, help you communicate with a broader audience, and increase attendance in meetings and activities. 

Prospective members include: 

  • Colleagues (private sector, state and local government agencies, university professors); 
  • Employees (young professionals and those in need of professional development); 
  • Up and coming young professionals in your organization; 
  • Soon-to-graduate university students; 
  • Non-member meeting attendees; and 
  • Retirees. 

Consider the needs of the prospective member and how these needs can be met by ITE. Consider how you can: 

  • Develop a relationship with your prospective member. Talk about why you joined ITE and what you consider to be the professional and personal benefits of ITE membership. 
  • Help deliver ITE's message. Share copies of ITE publications (such as local newsletters, ITE Journal, council newsletters, notes from ITE e-Community) with your prospective member and talk about ITE's other benefits, including technical products, professional development opportunities, networking opportunities and technical conferences and annual meetings. A listing of the ITE benefits can be found here.
  • Offer open invitations to meetings or issue invitations to meetings when a high-profile speaker is presenting. 
  • Develop a list of organizations(public/private) along with key contacts(champion) for each one. Reach out to those champions to push the ITE membership cause. 
  • Encourage members to bring a non-member to a meeting and make sure younger members are aware of the graduated dues structure.
  • Introduce nonmembers to more members, help them see the value of expanding their network.
  • Distribute copies of communications and meeting announcements to prospects to familiarize them with the benefits of membership. 

 

Student Chapter Support

Transportation students are the future of the profession and ITE. Internationally and locally, recent focused efforts on Student Chapters, scholarships and awards have helped to increase the number and quality of students enrolling in transportation engineering. It is important that Districts and Sections designate a member to be a liaison to the Student Chapters within their area. The Section should have assigned duties for Student Chapter Liaison and have them develop a student initiatives and outreach plan. Please notify ITE headquarters of your liaison. 

Soon-to-be graduates of local universities are prime prospects for ITE membership. To encourage transition from student to full membership, be proactive. Consider some of the following activities: 

  • Hold chapter meetings at university sites. 
  • Provide ITE technical presentations to students. 
  • Waive registration for student members to participate in DSC meetings. 
  • Host a pizza event on campus, free to students to discuss current transportation trends and job opportunities.
  • Include students and student programming in annual meeting programs. 
  • Have local elected leadership attend Student Chapter meetings.  
  • Provide professional career development programming such as mock interviews, a local career fair, and mentoring programs. Make sure Student Chapters are aware of possible upcoming ITE Student Leadership Summits in your area.

 

Reactivation and Retention

Contact with past members is a productive outreach activity. Each spring, a list of members who have not paid their current year dues is provided to Section presidents. ITE encourages Sections to divide the list among several volunteers to telephone each person on the list and encourage them to continue their membership by paying their dues. You may also find persons who work closely with the former member to do the outreach.

Reinstatement of past members requires only that the person rejoin online, call ITE or email membership@ite.org. ITE does not charge past dues or assess penalties to reinstate a membership.   

For all retention, recruitment and reactivation activities, follow-up is the key to success: 

  • Use a spreadsheet to manage contacts. 
  • Report changes of address, job status or position, or any dissatisfaction with their membership to ITE at membership@ite.org. 
  • Share successful retention, recruitment and reactivation campaign results by emailing membership@ite.org 

ITE headquarters maintains an extensive computer database of members, past members, and prospective members. Should prospect lists be developed locally, we encourage you to send them to ITE headquarters for inclusion in the database. From time to time we do mailings to these lists to acquaint prospective members with meetings, publications, and other programs of ITE. 

 

ITE Agency Memberships

ITE has a Government Agency Membership, which provides gives agencies, with five or more members, the option to join ITE at a reduced rate. The affiliating agency receives a discount on the dues of its individual members. 

There are two ways that agency membership works:

  • Traditional Agency Membership – The agency agrees to sign up at least 5 members and ITE provides them a discounted membership per person
  • Flat Fee Agency Membership – The agency agrees to pay a flat fee, based upon the size of the city, county, or state in which they are located, for a large number of members at one price.  This option provides much more flexibility for the agency to add members.

Current agency pricing options and members can be found here: https://www.ite.org/membership/agency-members/ . 

In order to encourage agency participation in ITE, staff will work with District and Section leadership to create specific topic focused benefit pieces to present to the agency. Agency membership can take time and so we recommend beginning a conversation with ITE advocates within the agency and ITE can help support your efforts in any way.  We are available for calls, creation of specific benefits packages, flexible invoicing, trial memberships, and more.  For more information contact Colleen Agan at cagan@ite.org.

 

Resources


 

Stream this webinar hosted by the Women in ITE

 

Learning Hub

As a transportation professional who is now a leader in your District, Section or Chapter, you know that maintaining your skills is critical to your professional development and career success. Your role is to be a conduit to available opportunities for your members.  ITE is committed to providing you resources for these educational offerings so you can perform your job most effectively. Access the Learning Hub which lists all of these opportunities.

 

Group Pricing Opportunities

 

ITE Calendar

ITE asks that all Districts, Sections, and Chapters help in the creation of a consolidated calendar across ITE.  We ask the following:

 

ITE Logo Wear

ITE has a program with Lands End where you can upload your logo and purchase logo wear for your Districts, Sections, and Chapters.  You can access this store front here: https://business.landsend.com/store/ite/