ATSSA Signal July/August 2019

The Signal | July/August 2019 33 Member Engagement As part of ATSSA’s commitment to drive the future of roadway safety in- frastructure, a Young Industry Profes- sionals (YIP) task force has been formed. According to Courtney Neal, ATSSA as- sociate director of member engage- ment, the YIP initiative kicked off at ATSSA’s 49th Annual Convention & Traf- fic Expo in Tampa, Florida. Currently made up of eleven members, the task force has the goal of engaging individuals under 40 in the roadway safety infrastructure industry. At ATSSA’s 49th Annual Convention & Traffic Expo, the YIP task force held its first network- ing event, and set up plans to host fu- ture webinars and lunch and learns, as well as having a YIP on each of ATSSA’s committees and councils. “Research has shown with organizations and associations, that boards are more skewed to an older generation. Many of those individuals are retiring from the associations where they serve … so if the next generation of leaders hasn’t been brought in to help carry on the in- dustry and help serve the association, it can be a serious disadvantage to the organization,” said Neal. The YIP group can provide a lot of per- sonal and professional opportunities for its young members. “It serves as a launching pad to see what career options they can have, it helpswith creating long-lasting networking connec- tions that are forged when you’re joining an association … you can use those re- sources to further your career,” said Neal. Word of mouth about the program and bringing in younger members are im- portant parts of the initiative. Neal said that companies with full ATSSA mem- bership can have as many employees as they want within their company add- ed to their membership, and adding its younger employees to ATSSA’s mem- bership gives them the opportunity to get involved. For more information on the YIP initiative, con- tact Courtney Neal at Courtney.Neal@atssa.com . Driving the future of the industry ATSSA YIP initiative works to get young roadway safety professionals involved To foster the future leaders of the roadway safety infrastructure industry, ATSSA has launched a young industry professionals initiative, which kicked off with a network- ing event at ATSSA’s 49th Annual Convention & Traffic Expo.