Running for COTA BOD Position:

• Communication Officer (choice 1)
• Outreach and Membership Officer (choice 2)

Experiences with COTA:

......I have been actively involved in COTA activities since 2007. For instance, I served as a session chair in ICCTP 2010 and was an area editor of ICCTP 2011.

Commitments to COTA:

I am very excited about the potential of serving COTA as a member in the Board of Directors and contribute to the diversity of COTA with my cross-disciplinary background in transportation, construction, and information management.

If elected as the Communication Officer, my work plan will focus on COTA?s newsletter to facilitate the communication of up-to-date information to COTA members. My specific plan is to
(1) Sustain it as a quarterly circular in 2012 and increase the frequency to bi-monthly in 2013;
(2) Survey COTA members and restructure the framework of the newsletter to include items that are of most interest and value-adding to our members, for instance, COTA activities, member spotlight, vision on the research and career in transportation engineering, fellowship, education and career opportunities, and more; and
(3) New ways of bringing the newsletter to members via Facebook and Twitter.

If elected as the Outreach and Membership Officer, my work plan will focus on recruiting new members, retaining current members, streamlining the process of upgrading memberships, and adding value to COTA memberships according to the newly revised ByLaws via
(1) Upgrade the membership database so that members can create, access, and update their profiles that can serve as the base for a broad range of COTA activities and member interactions;
(2) Adding value to COTA memberships by making COTA the home for members to share ideas, collaborate on research, and exchange job and career information;
(3) Promote the image of COTA by leveraging on the geographical distribution of COTA members and friends; and
(4) Outreach to closely related communities such as the construction communities.

Candidate Informaton

Running for COTA BOD Position:

• Outreach and Membership Officer 

Experiences with COTA:

Dr. Liu has served as an Area Editor for the annual COTA International Conference for Transportation Professionals (CICTP) in China for the past two years and will continue to serve as an Area Editor for the 2012 Conference. He was also the academic co-chair of the 2011 COTA Winter Symposium. He is currently leading the effort to guest-edit a special issue in the IET Journal of Intelligent Transport Systems on Transportation Technology Development in China, for the selected papers from the 2011 COTA Conference.

Commitments to COTA:

If I were elected as the outreach and membership officer, I will make every effort to
(1) Promote collaboration between COTA and other professional organizations (such as TRB, IEEE, and ITS China);
(2) Expand COTA membership to other continents, particularly Europe and Australia, and
(3) Work with other transportation organizations to increase the institution membership.

More importantly, if I were elected to the COTA Board, I want to be your representative and help you realize your ideas. I will be always open to your suggestions.

Candidate Informaton

Running for COTA BOD Position:

• Outreach and Membership Officer

Experiences with COTA:

Dr. Wang is an active participant of Chinese communities. He started his COTA involvement as a student back to 2004 when COTA held the annual conference at Beijing Jiaotong University. Through his service as a student board member in 2008 and an associate area editor for ICTTP2011 at Nanjing, China, he developed a better understanding about the mission and scope of COTA.

Commitments to COTA:

He would like to challenge himself to apply the Outreach and Membership Officer who is responsible for promoting and managing membership of COTA, including registration and membership dues.

He hopes to contribute to COTA as an outreach and membership officer in the following manner:
(1) Maintaining and updating the COTA membership database, and conduct the annual membership drive, manage information about and communicate with the COTA community, for example, to ensure that COTA?s website is interesting, informative and fosters engagement among members of the COTA community;
(2) Managing the registration process for COTA events and communicating with COTA community on a regular basis, contribute significantly in carrying out tasks associated with the Annual COTA Conference and other events.

If I were provided an opportunity to serve COTA, I would like to make my contribution through working closely with other members to make every effort to achieve the goals and objectives of COTA. Particularly, I will devote myself to booster the effective communications and collaborations among COTA members and other transportation organizations.

Candidate Informaton

Running for COTA BOD Position:

• Chair for Student Affairs

Commitments to COTA:

As a Chinese graduate student in the field of transportation in the U.S., I am eager to make contribution to the transportation development in North America and in China. With the rich experience from research and doing student work, I am confident that I will be able to serve for the continued growth of COTA.

If elected to be the student board member, I will commit to, but not limit to, the following responsibilities:
(1) 1. Provide broad information about transportation development for students. Since most of COTA members are working in either government agencies, consulting firms, or universities in the area of transportation, they can provide a lot of valuable information for students. Information about job assistance and career development are usually students? top interests.
(2) 2. Enhance the academic and technology exchanges in transportation area between China and North America. I have a great interest in helping organize international conferences, workshops and other regional events that can provide our members an easy way to get involved in different activities and share their expertise with transportation professionals in North America as well as back in China.
(3) 3. Continue to enhance COTA?s public standing and member recruitment, with a special effort to recruit as many student members as possible. Given that in the U.S., there are a lot of Chinese students and professionals in the field of transportation who are still not COTA members, we can increase COTA?s reach by highlighting its existing activities, expanding the introduction about its missionary purposes and increasing students? interaction and participation.

Candidate Informaton

Running for COTA BOD Position:

• Communication Officer (choice 1)
• Outreach and Membership Officer (choice 2)

Experiences with COTA:

......I have been serving the COTA community, particularly for the International Chinese Conferences of Transportation Professionals (ICCTP) (now called the COTA International Conferences of Transportation Professionals (CICTP)), since 2009. I started as an English Editor for the ICCTP 2009 Conference Proceedings. I was an Associate Editor for the ICCTP 2010 Conference, helping review abstract and paper submissions. I served as the Area Editor for the ICCTP 2011 Conference, responsible for planning and scheduling review activities for all the abstracts and papers submitted under the area of Transportation Planning and Modeling.......

Commitments to COTA:

If I had the honor to serve as the Communication Officer, I would work coordinately with other COTA members on the following tasks to promote and facilitate communications among Chinese transportation professionals worldwide:
(1) To timely create and disseminate COTA newsletters (for example, on the quarterly basis), covering most recent COTA activities such as the annual COTA International Conferences of Transportation Professionals (CICTP), COTA elections, updates of COTA bylaws, TRB meeting receptions, COTA members? significant awards, publications and presentations, and so on;
(2) To promote networking and collaboration among COTA members;
(3) To exchange information with transportation professionals not only in the North America but also other regions such as European countries;
(4) To seek and communicate with potential sponsors to extend the scope of COTA activities; and
(5) To connect with other relevant institutes, organizations, and agencies to increase COTA?s reputation in the transportation field.

If I had the honor to serve as the Outreach and Membership Officer Position, I would work coordinately with other COTA members on the following tasks to promote and manage COTA memberships:
(1) To help the current COTA Webmaster to build the Online Membership Enrollment System so that interested professionals can join the COTA community any time;
(2) To constantly update and maintain the COTA membership list to ensure that all the members are included and receive the Association?s updates (such as newsletters) in a timely manner;
(3) To timely respond to membership enrollment requests and provide necessary information to smooth the enrollment procedure;
(4) To timely communicate with members regarding membership benefits, registration, and membership dues;
(5) To build the Membership Free Account (e.g., using Google Doc), and periodically communicate with other Board members about the number of enrollments, amount paid by each member, the balance, and so on; and
(6) To exchange information with transportation professionals not only in the North America but also other regions such as European countries.

Candidate Informaton 1 Candidate Informaton 2