Welcome!

          Fort Wayne Citilink and the ITA are proud to announce the date for the ITA’s 77th Annual Meeting.  This year’s meeting will be held on Tuesday, August 9th through Thursday, August 11th at the downtown Fort Wayne Courtyard by Marriott.  Follow the link to the hotel’s web page and lock in your reservation today.  This conference is one of the premier opportunities for public and private transportation professionals to get together and share ideas with your colleagues.  There will be no exhibition of equipment and services this year but this is still a great chance to meet vendors who provide goods and services that we all use to provide transportation service.

          This year’s annual meeting will focus on helping you find ways to save money on three of the expenses that take the biggest bites out of your annual budget: labor costs, fuel purchases, and insurance.  We are very pleased to announce that we will be joined by two of the pre-eminent labor experts in the United States: Greg Dash of John A. Dash Associates and John Bartosiewicz of McDonald Transit Associates.  We are also very pleased to announce that Jeffrey LeMunyon of Linwood Capitol LLC will join us to discuss the technique of investing in diesel fuel futures that can save you lots of money.  We have also put together a panel of local insurance experts to help you save on worker’s comp claims, general liability, and medical insurance.  See the agenda for complete details.

          Times are tough for public transportation.  We have been hit by reductions in local funding because of property tax relief.  Federal funding is being threatened by Congress because of concerns over soaring deficits and now after 30 years of a dedicated source of state funding, the source of the Public Mass Transportation Fund has been withdrawn.  We will also have updates from APTA, the FTA, and Taft Law on the latest on federal, state, and local funding and where we go from here.  It is more important than ever too be well-informed and to be a participant.  You can’t afford to miss the 2011 ITA Annual Meeting.

          Follow the link to our registration form where you can register and pay for the conference and also sign up and pay to participate in the ITA’s 4th Annual Dave Gionet Golf Outing which will kick off the annual meeting on August 9th.