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| Volume 17, Issue 3 | Fall 2005 |
Recapping a Great Year of Progress Ron Baumgart, DirectorRiver Cities Transit Pierre, SD DTA Past President Hello everyone. It's hard to believe we have reached the holiday season of 2005. I hope this season is a safe and good one for all of you. I feel all of us involved in transit and DTA have many things to be thankful for. Certainly the passage of the transportation bill (SAFETEA-LU) on the national level and the legislation passed in both North Dakota and South Dakota will alleviate many of the funding issues facing public transit. The DTA board thanks all of you who attended the Roadeo and DTA Conference in Minot. It certainly was a great time to learn and get to know our fellow transit professionals. A special thank you to the vendors that participated in our vendor show at this year's DTA Conference. I hope all of you remember who supported DTA and in turn support their businesses. This will benefit all involved and will guarantee a great turn out of vendors at our conference in Spearfish next September. I personally thank the members of the DTA Board, Gary Hegland (Executive Director of DTA), and everyone involved in public transportation from the DOT's in North and South Dakota. I feel we make a great team and have accomplished a great deal by working together. I need to take a moment to thank my staff at River Cities Transit; their hard work and dedication has allowed me the time to spend on DTA issues. As I look forward to next year, there are many things to be excited about and objectives to be accomplished. Carol Wright was elected president of DTA. Carol certainly has the drive and conviction to keep us on track and advance what DTA has to offer its members. Carol and the rest of the board will have a very busy year working on the direction our members have given us. I am very excited to be moving forward and researching different types of computerized scheduling and dispatching software that could be offered through DTA membership and organization. Several of our people were trained to be trainers of Passenger Service and Safety certification in November at Oacoma, SD. We will then train drivers in both states to be PASS certified. CTAA's Passenger Service and Safety certification can help all of us manage our risk and reduce our insurance costs by having our drivers better trained. As our board looks ahead to the 2006 DTA Conference in Spearfish, we are very thankful to have the help of Barb Cline from Prairie Hills Transit of Spearfish. I know we will have a great conference next year with much more to offer all of you. Oh, just a reminder, we have a midyear DTA membership meeting planned in Bismarck, ND, in April 2006 - watch for details. As I close, I need to say thank you to all of you; it was a great privilege to serve as your president, and to work with a great group of individuals that care so much about the service we provide and the people we serve. Thank You!! From the President Carol Wright, DTA PresidentJames River Transit Jamestown, ND As your newly elected President, I would like to recognize DTA's strongest supporter and tireless advocate, our past President, Ron Baumgart. Over the last two years, Ron as President of DTA, has devoted a great deal of extra time and energy to promote DTA and the role public transit plays in providing a better quality of life for our passengers. An organization is only as effective as its leadership. Ron has led the board and the membership during an exciting time of growth. DTA has broadened its vision and expanded what it is able to offer our membership. On behalf of the Board of Directors and the DTA members, thank you, Ron, for building on the solid foundation of what previous leaders have accomplished, and for having the foresight to dream an even bigger mission for our organization to undertake in the years ahead. So, what does lie ahead for us in the coming year? The board of directors has identified a number of priorities based on your feedback from the 2005 DTA Conference. One of our priorities is to develop effective training programs not only for our transit managers, but our dispatchers and drivers as well. Hopefully, many of you sent someone from your transit project or area to the CTAA "PASS - Train the Trainer" class in Oacoma, SD, in November. DTA's goal is to have enough local trainers available so our drivers can become PASS Certified in their own project locations. We recognize how difficult it is to free up our drivers to attend training away from home. Watch for upcoming notices in our newsletter and on the website of available trainers who are certified to teach the PASS classes. We want to work at the goal of having all North and South Dakota drivers PASS certified. Another priority for DTA is the further exploration of computerized scheduling and dispatching software that can be tailored for the needs of individual transit projects. In addition to the process begun at our fall conference, we are also asking CTAA for their input on evaluating and selecting software. We are excited about our first annual Mid-Year DTA Meeting. Mark your calendars for April 10-12, 2006, and plan to attend. Our Mid-Year DTA Meeting will feature training, a DTA business meeting, and mandatory state break-out sessions. It will be held at the Best Western Doublewood Inn, 1400 E. Interchange Ave., Bismarck, ND. (Yes, we know that everyone just traveled to Minot for our last meeting, but we are trying to get on a rotation within a calendar year, so one meeting will be held in North Dakota and one in South Dakota.) The Fall 2006 Conference will be held in Spearfish. Thanks to Barb Cline, plans are already well underway for a fabulous conference next fall! Stay tuned for further announcements. Other priorities for DTA this coming year include further investigation regarding insurance pools/alternate risk financing. We hope to have a successful membership drive, and we plan to update our current brochure. I'm sure as the year progresses, other priorities will also surface. Most importantly, the board of directors wants to be responsive to the needs of our membership. Please let me or any other board member know if there is something you would like us to pursue as an organization. Go to www.dakotatransit.org/about/board.php for contact information. Meeting your needs is our top priority. We just finished a very successful fall conference. Our first vendor show was a wonderful accomplishment (especially thanks to the efforts of our Executive Director, Gary Hegland). According to an overwhelming majority of survey respondents, Robin Silverman was inspirational and a morale booster for all of us. The roadeo and driver training were terrific and well-attended by drivers from both North and South Dakota. The meal provided by Charlotte Zahn and her staff from the Minot Commission on Aging was delicious, and the entertainment at the dinner theatre was exceptional. A special thank you goes out to Darrell Francis for assisting with organizing the roadeo, and to many others involved in all aspects of the conference for your many efforts on our behalf. Your board left the conference inspired to accomplish our many existing goals and be ready to respond to our members' needs and requests. Scheduling and Dispatching Software Reviewed by DTAAt the Dakota Transit Association Conference held in Minot, ND, Sept. 19-21, four vendors presented information on software designed to automate scheduling and dispatching for demand-response transit. North and South Dakota are exploring the possibility of implementing such a software system that can be utilized statewide by all agencies. Presentations were made to the conference attendees. A panel of five was assigned to evaluate the software; this panel consisted of Dave Ripplinger (SURTC), Julie Bommelman (City of Fargo Transit, Fargo, ND), Melissa Shofield and Jackie Mattheis (SDDOT), and Kevin Disburg (River Cities Transit, Pierre, SD). Vendors included representatives from RouteMatch Software (Atlanta, GA), EnGraph (Lawrence, KS), Easy Ride Mobilitat (Green River, WY) and Shah Software, Inc. (Midland, TX). All products were evaluated for hardware and software requirements (what type of operating system, database management, and reporting features were included), availability of technical support, user-friendliness of the product (was the software icon driven, did pre-existing data populate when screens were pulled up), and the expansion capabilities of each system (mobile data computers). This project represents a joint effort between the states of North Dakota and South Dakota that could significantly benefit transit service providers and their clients. The panel submitted its report to the general audience Tuesday during the noon luncheon. The panel members said the presentations were extremely useful in helping them learn about the capabilities and potential applications of the software packages. That information will help the organization develop a request for proposals (RFP) to purchase software that can be used by many of the transit operators in the two states.
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