The Mississippi Valley Conference of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) held its annual conference July 7 – 10th in Kansas City. The Mississippi Valley Conference is one of four regional AASHTO groups and it is representative of the states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin.

The purpose of the Mississippi Valley Conference is to foster the development, operation and maintenance of an integrated and balanced transportation system to adequately serve the needs of those states whose highways serve the upper Mississippi Valley

Kansas City Scout hosted members of the Mississippi Valley Conference when they toured the Scout Traffic Management Center on July 8th. The tours facilitated by Jason Sims, Manager of Kansas City Scout and Mark Sommerhauser, Project Manager of Scout, provided AASHTO members with the background and an overview of the Scout system.

Kansas City Scout held an open house for Kansas and Missouri Departments of Transportation employees on Friday July 11, 2008. Scout, a joint venture between both departments of transportation has always maintained an open door policy, but this was a special occasion for MoDOT District 4 and KDOT District 1 employees to stop in, get to know the Scout staff and see first hand how the Traffic Management Center operates.

Scout made many innovative and exciting changes, including a traffic management center and media room makeover as well launching a new website, as a result Scout wanted its MoDOT and KDOT employee ambassadors to celebrate the new look and feel of Scout with the staff. Tours of the Traffic Management Center were given to the guests providing them with informative information about the system. It was an opportunity for employees to come by and learn what Scout has to offer and accept an invitation for them to become a part of Kansas City Scout team. Many MoDOT and KDOT employees work in the field and deal with the public, they are the true face of both departments and they also represent Scout. As employee ambassadors, Scout wants all co-workers to be knowledgeable about Scout and to be comfortable when interacting with the public to educate them about Kansas City’s Traffic Management System.

The response to the open house was great with more than 250 employees coming by within a two hour period to enjoy the festivities. In addition to the tours, there were website demonstrations, sign ups for the "Traffic Jam Cell Cam" and Scout giveaways; bags, t-shirts, mugs, mini flashlights, refrigerator magnets and lanyards. The Scout staff also served refreshments along with their hospitality. Many who attended the open house expressed satisfaction and enlightenment about what Scout is and what is really does.

In a creative move to make Kansas City Scout better than before, Scout’s Traffic Management Center got a makeover which was completed in February 2008. The center originally had a hutch design on the back portion on each of the workstations, which did not allocate much space for the operators’ work areas. Additionally the hutch obstructed the view of the video wall which sometimes made it difficult for operators to see all of the monitors.

The remodel entailed having the hutches removed which opened up the workstations with more room and allowed better visibility of the lower tiers of the center and the bottom row of the video wall. Kansas City Scout strives to be a world-class transportation system and the makeover of the traffic management center moves Scout forward in achieving this goal.