WARRENSBURG, Mo. — With less than a year to go before the school bus industry convenes in Warrensburg for the National Congress on School Transportation (NCST), officials are ramping up preparations for the event.

With the 2015 congress, the school bus industry will be celebrating 75 years of NCST, which first occurred in 1939. At the congress, held every five years, hundreds of state delegates gather to develop recommended practices for pupil transportation.

The result of each congress is a new edition of the industry manual National School Transportation Specifications & Procedures.

Utah state pupil transportation director Murrell Martin is the chair for the 2015 NCST, which will be held at the University of Central Missouri from May 15 to 21.

On Tuesday, Martin issued a number of announcements about the upcoming congress:

1. The NCST website is now hosted on the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services (NASDPTS) site. An NCST logo on the NASDPTS home page (www.nasdpts.org) links to the NCST site, or it can be accessed directly at www.nasdpts.org/ncstonline/index.html.

2. Each delegate to the congress will receive both a hard copy and electronic copy of the 2015 National School Transportation Specifications & Procedures document.

3. Registration will not be available until October of this year.

4. The state delegation chairperson selection process should be underway soon.

5. The "Chronicling Innovations in School Transportation" committee has been restructured to include the executive directors from NASDPTS, the National Association for Pupil Transportation and the National School Transportation Association. All three associations will supply the industry with information about committee functions and will work together on processes to chronicle innovations in pupil transportation.

6. A new committee called "Telling the School Bus Story" has been added to unite the industry in providing different formats for bringing greater public awareness of the contributions that school buses have made to America over the years. The steering committee is accepting nominations for a chair for the "Telling the School Bus Story" committee. The committee is open to all interested parties who may contribute in meaningful ways.

For more information on NCST, go to www.nasdpts.org/ncstonline/index.html. A schedule of activities leading up to the 2015 congress can be found by clicking on "Manual of Operating Procedures."