COMMITTEES

4-1: General

The District President shall solicit nominations for committee memberships from the Section Presidents. To the extent practical, the membership of the various committees shall be equitably distributed among the sections and areas not within a section.

4-2: Nominating Committee

The Bylaws state that the President shall, not later than February 1st of each year, appoint a nominating committee consisting of three voting members of Member or Fellow grade.

Not later than April 1st, the Nominating Committee shall submit to the Secretary-Treasurer the names of at least two nominees for the position of Secretary-Treasurer and at least one nominee for the position of Vice President. Every two years, the Nominating Committee shall also submit the names of at least one nominee for the position of District Board Member At-Large. Every third year, the Nominating Committee shall also submit the names of at least one nominee for the position of International Director. It is not necessary to nominate candidates for President since the Vice President is also "President-Elect" and automatically becomes President.

In selecting the Nominating Committee the District President should attempt to choose members who have been continuously active in TexITE for several years and, as a result, would be personally familiar with the majority of potentially qualified candidates. At the same time, the President should endeavor not to exclude potentially qualified candidates by having appointed them to serve on the Nominating Committee. In the interest of continuity, the President should attempt to appoint a member of the previous year’s Nominating Committee to chair the current year’s committee.

The committee shall have complete discretion to nominate any individual whom it considers best qualified. Nominating committees should consider the following when selecting a nominee:

  1. ITE Membership standing
  2. Previous activity in District, Section, or Chapter activities
  3. Previous experience holding office at the section or local area level or experience holding office in other professional engineering organizations
  4. Balancing representation of employment categories among officeholders (governmental, academic, or private consulting)
  5. Statewide geographic representation among officeholders

4-3: Audit Committee

Each year, the President should appoint an Audit Committee. At the winter or summer District meetings this committee is responsible for reviewing the Secretary-Treasurer’s financial records. The Audit Committee shall review the records to ensure that all revenues are accounted for and that expenditures have been consistent with the intent of the budget. The committee shall exercise good judgment and common sense. The audit need not, however, be performed to the detail necessary to ensure compliance with recognized accounting principles. During the business meeting, the President typically calls upon the Audit Committee to report its findings to the members.

4-4: E-Voting Audit Committee

The District President shall establish a committee of at least two members with proficient computer programming skills to review the on-line ballot and tally computer program. This committee shall review the program to validate that: 1) incoming votes remain secret and cannot be linked to the members name and 2) eligible members are allowed to vote only once. At the annual summer business meeting, the E-Voting Audit Committee shall provide its findings to the Tellers Committee. However, neither the E-Voting Audit Committee nor the Tellers Committee should divulge the specific number of votes received by any candidate.

4-5: Tellers Committee

Each year, as required by the Bylaws, the President appoints a Tellers Committee consisting of three voting members. The duties of this committee are to coordinate with the E-Voting Audit Committee to determine the number of electronic votes for each candidate and then to canvass the paper ballots, if any, to determine which are valid, count the valid paper ballots, and report the election results to the members assembled at the business meeting. Neither the E-Voting Audit Committee nor the Tellers Committee should announce the specific number of votes received by each candidate. However, if a particular contest were extremely close, it generally would be appropriate to announce that fact but not the specific number of votes received by each candidate. Unless a recount is requested, the President should solicit a motion and majority membership approval to destroy the ballots.

4-6: Awards Committee

The District President appoints an Awards Committee consisting of three or more voting members. At least one of the members should be a past recipient of the Transportation Engineer of the Year Award. In choosing the committee members, the President should endeavor not to exclude a winner of one of the major awards by having appointed him or her to serve on the Awards Committee. The duties of the Awards Committee are as follows:

  1. Publicize TexITE Awards for membership awareness in December
  2. Publicize and solicit entries/nominations for International (ITE) awards
  3. Solicit and review nominations for Transportation Engineer of the Year and Younger Member of the Year
  4. Revise nomination form as necessary
  5. Begin process in January/February for selection in May
  6. Solicit and receive nominations for Special Recognition awards and Distinguished Service awards. Then specifically refer nominations to the District Board for its consideration and direction back to the committee
  7. Develop standard formats for award plaques and certificates and maintain artwork accessible to membership (see typical plaque layouts in Appendix G, H, I, and J
  8. Prepare plaques and certificates for presentation
  9. Consider revision of existing awards, addition of new awards, etc. as brought forth from within this committee or as directed by the District Board
  10. Assist Technical Committee with the selection of the Outstanding Technical Paper
  11. Assist Student Chapter Liaison with selection of the Outstanding Student Award and Outstanding Student Paper
  12. Assist the District Board with the selection of Section Activities Award

Note that the University Student Faculty Advisor chooses the Outstanding Student for each Student Chapter. The Student Chapter Liaison will coordinate the selection with the Faculty Advisor.

4-7: Standing Committees

The District Board may establish (and disband) committees (as defined in the Bylaws) to focus resources on activities or issues of continuing interest to the membership. The Secretary-Treasurer shall keep a list of each active standing committees and committee-chair contact information. This information should be forwarded to the Webmaster to post on the Internet website and to roster manager to update the roster database file.

TexITE committees typically include a Technical, Membership, Legislative, Younger Members, Future Engineers, Student Chapter Committee and any other committees deemed necessary to address specific issues or special projects.

Committee chairs are appointed by the President for a one-year term and are eligible for reappointment. Although chairs should not serve more than four consecutive years as chair, they can remain a member of the committee for a longer period of time.

Committee chairs are responsible for soliciting interested members to serve on their committee, communicating with those members and holding semi-annual meetings at winter and summer meetings, submitting a semi-annual report to the District Board (approximately one month prior to the winter and summer meetings), and for attending District Board meetings at the winter and summer meetings. They also may be required to make presentations at the TexITE business meetings if committee activities, issues, and/or action items need to be brought to the attention of the membership.