 | |
| Volume 16, Issue 2 | Summer 2004 |
"In The Arena" Gary Hegland, Small Urban & Rural Transit CenterOne of the two-day intensive training sessions presented in Seattle by the staff of CTAA was "In the Arena." It was facilitated Monday and Tuesday, June 12 and 13, by Scott Bogren, communications director for CTAA. The four main focuses of the class were timeless values and mission, good communication and service efficiencies regarding finance, information technology, and a best practice session. The theme title came from President Theodore Roosevelt's 1910 speech before the Sorbonne in Paris and this well-known quote, "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory or defeat." This session and the Expo edition of the Community Transportation magazine was built on this theme. There were 11 guest speakers besides Dale Marsico, CTAA executive director, who gave a session welcome, and Scott Bogren. Mike Noel, of Lazaro & Noel, was the first presenter and talked about mission and values. Mike started with a quote from Proverbs 29:19, "Where there is no vision, the people will perish." Mike went on to talk about personal mission, core values, organizational mission, organizational values, and performance code. These codes, also explained in an article in the Community Transportation Expo edition, include: report to work on-time and fit for duty, practice safety in all work activities, demonstrate high levels of skill in your jobs, respect the property of the company and co-workers, treat co-workers with dignity and respect, treat customers with dignity and respect, and present a positive image of the company when performing job duties. Mike pointed out "principles" sometimes work better than rules for guiding behavior in the workplace. Effective and meaningful communication was the second highlight of "In the Arena." Scott shared his views and was followed by two effective communicators from Washington State - Martha Rose from Island Transit in the Puget Sound area and Karen Parkhurst from Thurston County. Scott talked about the importance of good communication for transit operators. He said, "if you don't tell your story, someone else might, and you may not like that story." The two women presenters shared how 'great communication' helped them overcome crises in their local communities. The importance of great communication with our internal and external customers, the community, all elected officials including county and city commissioners, and state and federal legislatures was strongly emphasized that day. Rex Knowlton, executive director from Wheels of Wellness, in his presentation "A Fresh Perspective" gave a new twist to efficiencies. He spoke of a never-ending effort to provide quality transportation and seek to expand community and public transportation services where there are none; government/public services are more about increasing services than improving the bottom line, as the private sector does, with efficiencies. In rural and small urban communities we are always looking for opportunities to improve efficiencies and provide one more ride to the young or old, healthy or sick, living in our rural or small urban communities. Expo Overview by Linda Linda Freeman, Kenmare Meals and WheelsKenmare, ND I truly appreciated the opportunity to attend the Expo in Seattle thanks to RTAP funding. I judged the "Judgment Stop" for the body-on-chassis division on Sunday with a transit director from New Jersey and a volunteer from Montana. It's a great chance to share methods and ideas on providing transit. It was really exciting to find that Denny from Souris Basin placed 1st and Dennis from Dickinson placed 6th out of 60 drivers in this division at the evening banquet. Of course, we had a variety of weather from cool & rainy in the morning to warmer & windy in the afternoon. We were prepared with our winter coats and rain gear this year. Also, CTAA provided us with umbrellas!! I attended a one-day intensive training session on Tuesday entitled, "Show Me the Money!" which covered both public and private funding sources along with grant writing procedures. The instructors where Charlie Rutkowski, Community Transportation Association, Washington, D.C., and Fred Schmidt, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont. Check the DTA website for specifics on this session. Federal Transit Administrator, Jennifer Dorn spoke to us at the Annual Conference Luncheon on Tuesday. She really understands transit, what we are doing and what our challenges are. She also urges all of us to work on coordinating with other agencies to make our services even better. Of course, the awards dinner was great. It was followed by 'gambling fun' where I learned how to play craps. I even got to be the "shooter." I attended two different sessions on Wednesday: "Innovative Transit Marketing" and "When and Where to Look Outside Your Organization for Help." Both sessions were packed with great ideas and solutions. Some highlights: 1) Planning and marketing are two halves of the same function and must work in combination to be successful. 2) No amount of marketing will sell service that doesn't meet the need. 3) Coordination with others can greatly cut marketing costs and increase service. One thing I did the minute I got home was put our services on the local access channels in my area. It's free and it's really amazing how many really small towns have this service. I can't believe I wasn't taking advantage of this before now! More specifics will be on the Web. On Thursday, I drug myself kicking and screaming to the session on "Maintaining an Effective and Compliant Federal Drug and Alcohol Program" which turned out to be very good. As usual, there are changes coming, but not until HHS has finished evaluating. There will also be more on this session on the DTA Web site. We had a marvelous time at the Experience Music Project and Space Needle on Thursday evening. As a multi-service provider, I am really pleased that transit agencies are serious about coordination efforts. It is true that seniors will only be able to stay in their homes if we are able to provide for their needs, and transit is a vital part of the effort! CTAA again, put on a great expo. Their efforts on our behalf are so beneficial to us. Do go to their website. Many of the PowerPoint presentations for our sessions will be available there. A special thanks to Bruce, the gang from the Small Urban & Rural Transit Center, and the Dickinson groups for inviting me to tag along for meals & fun. It was great!
|
In this issue...
 |
