 | |
| Volume 19, Issue 2 | Winter 2008 |
DTA Conference PresentationsNorth Dakota Public Transit to Adopt a Regional Model Dave LeftwichNDDOT Local Government Division Engineer North Dakota transit projects will become regionalized within the next three to five years. The reasoning behind the move is to make the best use of resources-both financial and physical. "Funding under the next highway bill is uncertain across the board, not just for transit," said Leftwich. "Regionalizing transit will help to reduce duplication of efforts and free up resources to improve transit opportunities for populations that are underserved." Clients will also benefit from consistent rules, guidelines and fares, as well as better service not just to larger cities, but also within their own regions. "We need your help to make this plan work," said Leftwich. "Your input as to how the regions might look, what you see as essential to public transit during this transition, how you feel the new regions should operate, and any other feedback you may have is vital to this process." North Dakota transit projects are invited to submit their thoughts and recommendations to the Transit Office via email to dottransit@nd.gov, or by phone to (701) 328-2194. Managing People Effectively: Solving Human Resource Management Problems"Leadership is the art of accomplishing more than the science of management says is possible" from the book titled Powell Principles by Oren Harari, attempts to put into word the challenges of managing transit. This session addressed many issues relating to managing employees. Carol Wright covered hiring, firing, and interviewing; Gary Hegland shared an employee handbook template on a CD for transit managers to take home and use to develop or upgrade their own employee handbook. Securing Community MobilityThis four-hour training program focused on the specific security concerns of rural transit, human service transit, urban paratransit, resort transit, and other communitybased transportation operations. The program addressed threats and vulnerabilities related to workplace violence, dangerous passengers, criminal behavior, and domestic/ international terrorism. The seminar also provided practical strategies to reduce vulnerabilities and realworld methodologies for reacting to threats that occur within a community transportation environment. Community Transportation Mutual Insurance Company (CTMIC)Walt Diangson reviewed some reasons to insure with a captive insurance company like CTMIC rather than the commercial market. The commercial insurance market can be very unstable and availability uncertain at times. The insured has very little control, as the industry understands trucking, but has very little knowledge about transit. The insured is at the mercy of the big insurance company and their desire for profits and covering losses in different markets. CTMIC will be available in all 50 states, will be responsive to the needs of the insured, and truly understands the transit industry. Walt pointed out that CTMIC will provide auto, general liability, and physical damage insurance, and it will have one to five million for liability limits. CTMIC will insure private non-profit, private for-profit, public agencies, tribal and faith-based services. CTMIC's Board of Directors is pictured below. 
Teamworks: Learning From the Fun of It
Linda did a great job using humor and laughter to promote learning and improved effectiveness among teams. She used two exercises that were excellent illustrations of her theme. The first exercise required all conference attendees to divide into groups of nine and form a circle. Linda then provided animals for the group to toss around the circle and challenged each group to shorten the time it took to pass the animals around, even beyond what we thought possible. The next exercise required group participation to design a straw basket that would keep an egg from breaking when dropped from a six foot height to the floor. Linda emphasized seven elements of effective teamwork:
(Real Dream Teams by Bob Fisher & Bo Thomas) 
|
In this issue...
 |
Practical, experiential team-building focuses on bringing out the best in people, and leads teams to discover how well they can work together. Linda's presentation taught participants to create a corporate culture of effective communication and to increase and maintain morale while appreciating diverse contributions.