Leadership APTA is the American Public Transportation Association’s flagship professional development program designed to develop and support the next generation of leaders of APTA and the public transportation industry.
Each year, the Leadership APTA Committee selects 25 individuals from among APTA member applicants to participate in a year-long program that includes intensive workshops, conferences, class leader-ship projects, teleconferences, online meetings, and web-based events.
Please note that the application deadline for the Class of 2011 has passed. Application materials for the Class of 2012 will be available in early May 2011.
Program Highlights
Eligibility Requirements
Only employees of organizations that are members of the American Public Transportation Association are eligible to apply.
Target Audience
At the first meeting of the Leadership APTA Class of 2010, a member of the new class (right) is introduced to the rest of her class by a member of the outgoing Class of 2009 (left). The orientation workshop is held each year in October at APTA’s annual meeting.
Candidates can be general managers, assistant general managers, middle management personnel, and other individuals with strong leadership potential working for public transportation systems, private sector businesses supplying goods or services to the transit industry, or other organizations related to the public transportation industry. The program strongly recommends that individual organizations only submit one applicant.
What To Expect
- Highly recommended attendance and full participation at 2010 APTA Annual Meeting that precedes the program year; participation in Annual Meeting and program orientation programs; joint sessions with graduating class; and participation in committee meetings and conference sessions.
- Required attendance and participation in multi-day Leadership APTA workshop sessions in December 2010, March 2011, and July 2011.
- Required attendance and full participation at the 2011 APTA Legislative Conference.
- Required attendance at the 2011 APTA Annual Meeting & EXPO to present class team leadership projects at committee meetings and sessions and be recognized by the industry as program graduates.
- Full and active participation in class workshops, activities, assignments, presentations, team projects, teleconference and online activities, and other related program events.
One of the five project teams from the Class of 2009. Each Leadership APTA class splits into teams to work together on leadership projects, which are presented during the APTA Annual Meeting. This team’s project was titled “New Technologies: The Net Generation: Capturing Transit's Future Riders.”
Additional Benefits
Members of the Leadership APTA Class of 2011 also receive complementary registrations to attend the 2011 Bus & Paratransit Conference and the 2011 Rail Conference. (No formal Leadership APTA sessions are held at either of these modal conferences).
Being Sponsored
Leadership APTA participants are sponsored by the public transportation system, private sector business, or other organization where they are employed.
Sponsoring a participant, providing the monetary resources, and allowing the time necessary for the participants to be involved in all required activities are critical to the success of the Leadership APTA participant and the program.
Program Costs
Program tuition: $3,000, including Leadership APTA workshop sessions, related workshop books, materials, and some meals. Fee also includes complimentary registrations for the 2011 APTA Legislative Conference along with the 2010 and 2011 Annual Meetings.
Agencies and organizations sponsoring participants are responsible for the $3,000 program tuition; travel costs to and from the Leadership APTA sessions and workshops, Legislative Conference, and Annual Meetings; hotel expenses; some meals; and related miscellaneous expenses.
Sponsoring Organization Commitment
Leadership APTA Class of 2009 at the U.S. Capitol
General managers and CEOs sponsoring candidates recognize that sending participants to Leadership APTA is extremely valuable to their organizations. Since the first Leadership APTA Class of 1998, transit leaders have seen that the investments they have made in sending staff members to this program have returned great dividends.
The executive leadership of sponsoring organizations understand that their commitment and support means allowing their Leadership APTA participant to attend the 2010 APTA Annual Meeting (highly recommended, which introduces the incoming Leadership APTA class, provides orientation sessions to the program and joint sessions with the graduating class), and the following required sessions:
- the December 2010 Leadership APTA workshop,
- the March 2011 APTA Legislative Conference and related Leadership APTA workshops and events,
- the July 2011 Leadership APTA workshop, and
- the 2011 APTA Annual Meeting & EXPO, which honors the graduating class, and features graduates at committee meetings and conference sessions to present their leadership projects.
General managers and CEOs recognize that their Leadership APTA participants will spend time over the year working on a leadership project and will participate in related conference calls, online meetings, and web-based events. Upon graduation, Class of 2011 members will also serve as program coaches and mentors to the incoming Class of 2012.
One of the goals of Leadership APTA is to develop future leaders of APTA. APTA highly encourages and strongly recommends that each sponsoring organization actively support at least one additional year of APTA committee involvement from its Leadership APTA participant after he/she graduates from the program. In addition, APTA strongly suggests that general managers and CEOs leverage their Leadership APTA participants as valued resources within their respective organizations.