(WASHINGTON)— The American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) today announced the launch of a “Transportation Investment Advocates Council™” to provide a home for a national network of business professionals and public officials who share a common interest in building support for transportation infrastructure investments in their state or local community.

The Council, an arm of ARTBA’s Transportation Investment Advocacy Center™ (TIAC) (www.transportationinvestment.org), offers national and regional forums for sharing of intelligence and “best practices”—campaign strategies, tactics, messaging, opinion and economic research, legislative and ballot language, “what’s worked and what hasn’t”—in order to help participants meet their objectives.

Council members learn from others who work for national, state and local better transportation groups and coalitions, chambers of commerce, state legislatures and civic bodies, public agencies and other interested firms and organizations.

The Council is co-chaired by Maria Fuentes, executive director of the Maine Better Transportation Association; Craig Thompson, executive director of the Wisconsin Transportation Development Association; Juva Barber, executive director of Kentuckians for Better Transportation; Scott Haywood, president of Move Texas Forward; and Seth Millican, director of the Georgia Transportation Alliance.

Membership is free, and participants receive:

  • Free access to the TIAC email listserv where you can post questions, share information and relay news to your peers;
  • Free participation in regional conference calls and webinars;
  • A free email push subscription to the Advocacy Center blog;
  • A free email push subscription to the monthly “State Transportation Funding Initiatives Report;”
  • Free subscription to the digital ARTBA Newsline, which provides updates from Capitol Hill on issues impacting transportation development; and
  • The opportunity to network face-to-face with your peers at the TIAC “2015 National Workshop for State & Local Transportation Advocates,” held July 15 in Washington, D.C.

To join the Council, contact ARTBA’s Carolyn Kramer at ckramer@artba.org or by phone at 202-289-4434.

TIAC operations, including the Council, are supported by ARTBA’s “Transportation Makes America Work!” program.

TIAC is an online educational platform that features detailed case studies of recent transportation funding campaigns—both successful and unsuccessful—mounted in numerous states. It includes television, radio and print ads, polling, an overview of state and local funding and finance mechanisms, and an ongoing blog detailing new developments across the nation.

 

Established in 1902, Washington, D.C.-based ARTBA has been the “consensus voice” of the U.S. transportation design and construction industry before Congress, federal agencies, the White House, news media and the general public.