This address probably doesn’t mean much to most of you, unless you are a former Traffic Bowl participant. Then you probably know the correct answer to this Traffic Bowl clue: “What is the address of ITE Headquarters?” Since 2011, ITE Headquarters has been in the Army-Navy building in downtown Washington, DC, USA, just north of the White House. This is the home base for our 25 staff, where the ITE International Board of Direction often meets and where we collaborate with our many association partners. Each year during the Annual TRB Annual Meeting, our offices bustle with activity as the Board, Council Leadership Team, LeadershipITE, and many technical councils and committees all meet here. Many of our student members also join us for our annual student reception.
While our location works well for all of these activities, for some time we have had an excess of space. When our current lease was signed, various services once performed by ITE staff on-site are now provided by others under contract with ITE. We also recently moved to a hybrid work schedule due to COVID-19, with employees in the office two to three days per week and working remotely the remaining time.
Even prior to the current environment, where many businesses and organizations are looking to reduce their footprint and save money, ITE was looking for an opportunity to reduce our space and costs. Fortunately, another tenant in our building requested additional space, and we have reached agreement with the building owner to amend our lease to release one-third of our space and consolidate our offices in the remaining space. As part of this agreement, ITE will receive a refurbished office space, fully paid for by the building owner, along with some months of free rent. In exchange, we will extend our current lease.
This means that 1627 Eye Street will remain our home (and a Traffic Bowl clue) through at least 2030, but at a significantly reduced cost. It also means that we will be undergoing quite a bit of transition over the next nine months or so. This month, we are consolidating our operations into the reduced space. In March 2022, we will move to temporary “swing” space for 4 months while our space is being rebuilt. And, if everything goes according to plan—does that ever happen?—we expect to move back to our new offices in June 2022.
I wanted to share this good news with you so that you are aware of our continuing efforts to reduce operating costs and enhance the efficiency of our operations, and also inform you of the disruptions that will be going on this winter and into 2022. COVID-19 has forced us to learn many important lessons on how to provide strong member support from wherever we are located. With the technology and tools utilized by ITE, I am confident you will continue to receive high quality member service even during this period of disruption. I also ask for your patience if we have a hiccup or two along the way.
If you happen to be in Washington, DC for business or pleasure, we hope you will stop by 1627 Eye Street for visit. We always enjoy seeing our members in person, and look forward to showing you around our “new” ITE Headquarters next summer. As always you
can reach me on the ITE e-Community or on Twitter @JPaniatiITE.
This blog is from the director's message from the November issue of ITE Journal.