Read the classifieds in this issue to learn about 7 bids & proposals and 7 transit job opportunities!

As the year began, APTA’s new governance structure was little more than a proposal that members would continue voting on for more than two months. When the vote finally closed in March, the bylaws changes were approved by a margin of almost 99 to 1 and APTA was on its way to a new approach to leading the public transit industry.

Changes have come quickly since then--APTA Chair M.P. Carter announced passage of the new bylaws on March 14. Nominations for officers and directors under the new governance model opened in June; the 2010 nominating committee met in August; and on October 3, less than seven months after the bylaws were approved, APTA members elected their first slate of officers and directors under this model. This Board of Directors held its first substantive meeting just three days later and immediately rolled up its collective sleeves to put the model into practice.

Our new governance model brought opportunities for leadership to APTA members from all parts of the industry. For the first time, 10 of our highest dues paying business members assumed seats on the board as designated business member directors, joining an unprecedented 30 directors-at-large from across our association and 27 chairs from APTA’s core committees.

Individual opportunities became enhanced as well. This model, designed to encourage APTA’s “best and brightest,” created opportunities for tomorrow’s leaders to start today. Included in the freshman class of the APTA board are several Leadership APTA graduates, small business men and women, and technical experts who may not previously have had the chance to step out in front under our prior system.

With this model comes a new emphasis on the primary role of the APTA Board of Directors in guiding the association’s strategic and policy initiatives. The board has already appointed a working group to chart out the board’s role, strategic initiatives, and collaboration techniques; that working group is expected to report its recommendations at the board’s Jan. 7, 2011 virtual meeting. That meeting itself will mark an accomplishment of the new board as it moves from a body with twice-a-year pro forma meetings to one with the agility to identify, explore, and react to issues in weeks rather than months or even years.

The future of APTA’s Board of Directors will be one of sustainable, consistent leadership—a system that takes full advantage of the unique strengths of all of the association’s members, grooms the next generation of our industry’s leaders, and draws upon the experience and wisdom of today’s senior leaders.

Meet Just a Few of the New Board Members

Kristen Joyner is executive director of the South West Transit Association (SWTA), a regional transit association dedicated to promoting and advocating for the public transit providers of Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. As a representative of small, medium, and large transit providers across eight states, she brings a full-spectrum perspective to the public transportation dialogue. She began her career in transportation as the assistant to the executive director for Central Arkansas Transit Authority in Little Rock.



Reginald Mason, a 2010 Leadership APTA graduate, is director of safety and training/chief safety officer for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency.  He currently chairs the APTA Bus Safety Committee and the Security Standards Emergency Management Working Group.  In addition, he is an associate safety professional from the Board of Certified Safety Professionals; a Certified Safety and Security Director-Rail, from the World Safety Organization; and an associate staff instructor with the Transit Safety Institute. He previously worked for Houston’s Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, the Chicago Transit Authority, Valley Metro Rail in Phoenix, and Ryder/ATE—all in the safety arena.

Evalynn (Eve) Williams is one of Dikita Enterprises’ founding principals. She served as the company’s executive vice president and chief financial officer for 26 years until January 2010, when she was selected as the firm’s new president and chief executive officer. She has more than 23 years of experience in public transit services and has headed the firm’s transit planning and data collection practice. She serves as vice president of the Dallas Chapter of the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials and is chair-elect and immediate past treasurer of the DeSoto Chamber of Commerce in DeSoto, TX.

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