TSITE Members,

The TSITE Board has been closely following the COVID-19 situation. Based on recommendations from the CDC and ITE, the Board has decided to suspend all TSITE functions until the end of April. This includes local chapter meetings and potentially the spring section meeting in May. The Board will reassess the COVID-19 situation in early April and decide at that point if the spring section meeting will be canceled.

• If there is a financial loss due to a meeting suspension, the local contact should let the Board know
• Also, due to March Madness being canceled, TSITE will not be hosting a bracket challenge this year.

Thanks,

Luke Dixon
TSITE 2020 Secretary-Treasurer

Are you ready for a little March Madness? Even if you aren’t a sports fan, you should still consider joining the fun. For the inaugural year, TSITE will be hosting a March Madness Bracket Challenge and all TSITE members & transportation folks are invited to join! Fun prizes will be awarded throughout the tournament, but you have to play to win!
The money raised from the bracket challenge will be used for travel assistance to help TSITE members attend the SDITE meeting this year in New Orleans.
Additional scholarship information will be released after March Madness is complete.

How Do I Join? 
You won’t be able to choose your bracket until after Selection Sunday (3/15/2020), but you can go ahead and sign up so you are ready for your bracket as soon as Selection Sunday is over. The bracket is being hosted through ESPN Tournament Challenge and, if you don’t already have one, you must create an account to join the bracket (see Step One below).

Step One: Sign Up 
If you don’t have a ESPN account, sign up for one – it’s easy

• Go to http://fantasy.espn.com/tournament-challenge-bracket/2020/en/
• Choose Log In (top right corner of the page) to create an account
• Under Log In, choose “Don’t have an account? Sign up” and sign up for an account

Step Two: Join the TSITE Bracket

• Click here to join the TSITE Bracket Challenge.
  • Password is TSITE2020Bracket
• Maximum of two brackets per registration.

Step Three: Choose Your Bracket

• Brackets will not be available until after Selection Sunday (3/15/2020).
• You should be able to reach your bracket here
• If you cannot reach your bracket at the link above,
  • go to https://www.espn.com/fantasy/
  • be sure you’re logged into your account
  • select TOURNAMENT CHALLENGE (top left of page)
  • go to MY GROUPS (left corner of page) and choose Join a Group
  • search TSITE Bracket Challenge > Join (Password: TSITE2020Bracket)

You must complete your bracket no later than Noon ET on Thursday, March 19, 2020, prior to the start of the 1st round of games. If you do not choose your brackets by this time you will not be able to participate.

Step Four: Pay to Play!

• Use the links below to pay for your bracket:
  • One bracket for $5
  • Two brackets for $10
• We will cap the challenge at 200 brackets.
• Emails will be updated throughout the tournament to reveal rankings and prize announcements.

Prizes
Prizes will be awarded for the Final Four® and the Championship.

Rules
This bracket will follow the rules that have been established on ESPNSports. The rules are only viewable once you have joined the TSITE Bracket Challenge bracket.
For questions regarding this event, please contact Lauren Gaines.

TSITE will be sponsoring an ITE webinar entitled “Engineering Liability, Discretionary Immunity, and the Duties of Transportation Agencies” at five locations across the state. This webinar training opportunity will be held on Tuesday March 10th from 2-3 pm eastern (1-2 pm central).

For more information about this webinar, click here.

Chattanooga – City of Chattanooga

RSVP Contact: Cindy Shell, via cshell@chattanooga.gov or 423-643-5960
Location: 1250 Market Street, Room 3B, Chattanooga, TN 37402 (map)
(parking in rear of building; room on 3rd floor)

Knoxville – Cannon & Cannon
RSVP Contact: Brian Haas, via bhaas@cannon-cannon.com or 865-670-8555
Location: 8550 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37919 (map)

Memphis – Barge Design Solutions
RSVP Contact: Peter Kauffmann, via peter.kauffmann@bargedesign.com or 901-244-5524
Location: 60 Germantown Ct, Suite 100, Cordova, TN 38108 (map)

Nashville – Kimley-Horn
RSVP Contact: Chris Rhodes, via chris.rhodes@kimley-horn.com or 615-564-2703
Location: 214 Oceanside Drive, Nashville, Tennessee 37204 (map)
(enter from courtyard, see office park diagram)

Tri-Cities – City of Johnson City
RSVP Contact: Tyler Morris, via tmorris@johnsoncitytn.org or 423-434-5813
Location: Johnson City Traffic Division, 209 Water Street, Johnson City, TN  37601 (map)

 Please reply back directly to the local RSVP contact listed above so that they can keep a head count for these locations since space may be limited!

For those TSITE members who need PDH’s, there is 1.0 PDH associated with this webinar. Special thanks to all host sites!  Please contact Peter Kauffmann (email) if you have any questions, suggested topics, or if you are interested in hosting a future webinar.

The Tennessee Section of ITE is pleased to announce and offer Travel & Registration Cost Assistance for student ITE members in Tennessee to attend the 2020 SDITE Student Leadership Summit! The Event will be held February 28 – March 1, 2020 at Georgia Tech University in Atlanta, GA. TSITE encourages student participation to this excellent event! Professionals are also welcome to attend this event, so check it out!

This event promotes leadership and professional development for transportation engineering students through leadership and technical presentations from distinguished speakers, networking with students and industry professionals, and the Southern District ITE Traffic Bowl.

Program Information can be found here

Register Here and learn more about location and hotel arrangements.

TSITE’s student assistance for this year’s conference is as follows:

• TSITE will reimburse any TN Section ITE student member’s registration cost who attends the Student Leadership Summit. ($65 per student)
• TSITE offers two (2) travel assistance stipends per student chapter (University) at $250 each. The TSITE Board encourages student chapter officers/leadership to request and utilize the travel assistance stipends or select a representative in their absence.
• Students who attend are responsible for registering for the event and making their own lodging and travel arrangements. Students should request travel and/or registration assistance no later than February 21, 2020 using the attached FORM. Send request forms to Brandon Baxter at bbaxter@ragansmith.com.
• SLS registration reimbursement is available for the TSITE Traffic Bowl Team. The traffic bowl team’s lodging and travel is accommodated through other funds of SDITE. Therefore, the traffic bowl team members will not receive the travel assistance stipend.

Act Fast, Students!
This event is quickly approaching, and you don’t want to miss your opportunity to attend!

TSITE thanks our membership and annual sponsors for allowing the Section to support TSITE Student Members in this way! We encourage TSITE members to consider attending the event also to network and learn from students from across the Southern District! And of course, cheer on the TSITE Traffic Bowl Team (to be determined at the Winter Meeting in Memphis on Wednesday, February 12th)!

TSITE SLS Travel Assistance Application
Applications are due February 21, 2020

The 2019 TSITE Awards were presented to the following very deserving individuals at the Summer Meeting held in Gatlinburg: (President Amy Burch & Vice President Nathan Vatter presented the awards)

The Robert Stammer Student Chapter Award was presented to the University of Tennessee.

Ed Watt Volunteer Distinguished Service Award: Chris Kirby (CDM Smith)

Tennessee Section Outstanding Individual Award:
Brian Haas (Cannon & Cannon Inc)

Jack B. Humphreys Young Member Award:
Lauren Gaines (Barge Design)

Past award winners can be viewed here.