PUG Chair Corner: Agents of Change

February 27, 2024

Change can be fun, but it also can be hard. Luckily, as a part of the Project Users Group Board for the last five years, I’ve had the privilege to watch this amazing User Group power through so much change. From being forced to move to a virtual conference in 2020 and making our way back to seeing each other in person in 2022, to dissolving TEA/PUG Inc. and transforming the way the User Group does business. It has been a wild and crazy ride.

During my time on the Board, and when the conferences were in person, our time was mostly spent planning conferences. This left little time to provide the support we would like to give to the User Group laid out in our objectives. AASHTO has stepped in and provided remarkable support in the planning process, and we’re excited to see what the future holds for our PUG Conferences. That has freed up the PUG Board to work on things like an updated Constitution and Bylaws, a ballot subgroup, and providing additional support to the Technical Advisory Groups (TAGs). We see it as our mission to do more to support the User Community and have used this as motivation for the updates made to our Constitution and Bylaws. The Agency User Reps will be voting on the Constitution and Bylaws on March 7, 2024.

This wouldn’t be the PUG Chair Corner if I didn’t remind you of our 2024 PUG Conference in Oklahoma City! We hope to see you from September 29, 2024 – October 3, 2024 at the Omni Oklahoma City Hotel. The Board has been diligently working in partnership with Oklahoma, AASHTO and Infotech to provide you with a valuable conference to attend. The User Group is a large part of what makes the conference so valuable. Because of this, you will be seeing a call for presentations within the next couple of weeks. The Board is seeking transportation agency volunteers to provide presentations or participate on a panel discussion at the conference. We would appreciate you taking the time to fill out the short survey with topics / presenter ideas. The survey will close on May 31, 2024. The Board will then review the submissions and finalize the agenda to be posted.

In the words of Agent K, “Imagine what you’ll know tomorrow.” – Men in Black

-Amy Sullivan, PUG Chair