About NLTAPA
Work Plan and Budget

Proposed

• Budget Breakout
  • Jan. 2006 - Jul. 2006
  • Jul. 2006 - Jul. 2007
• Work Plans
  • NLTAPA Advisory Committee on Partnerships/NLTAPA Work Group
  • External Communications Work Group Work Plan
  • NLTAPA Internal Communications Work Plan
  • NLTAPA Training Product Needs and Resource Development (TPN&RD) workgroup
  • NLTAPA Professional Development Working Group

Over the past year, your association has been working to better define itself and discover the best methods to assist the LTAP Community. The membership has approved the creation of six workgroups, each of which is chaired by one of the members of the EC. Each of these work groups has developed a work plan to meet your needs as identified by you through your Region Representatives. Each of these work plans has tasks with completion dates, and some have funding needs.

The Executive Committee (EC) would like to be able to submit a yearly work plan and budget at the Summer meeting each year and to support the work groups and other administrative needs. This time, our work plan and budget will be for a total of 18 months (January 2006 to July 2007), with a planned review and update to be held at the 2006 Summer conference.

Work groups, their general roles, and specific tasks for the budget period are as follows. Detailed work plans for each of the groups are attached.

1. Program Strategies - Advisory role to FHWA and internal Program stakeholders to determine, devise and communicate Program improvement initiatives
2. Partnerships - Develop, nurture and evaluate national and international Association business partnerships that benefit Centers - Liaisons Meetings $5,100
3. Internal Communications - Ensure communication and collaboration between Centers - New members brochure $300
4. External Communications - Represent Centers to FHWA and external partners
5. Training Development - Identify course and instructor development programs - Telephone Conference Calls $300
6. Professional Development - Provide internal professional development and assistance to improve Center management and performance - Hire a Professional Development speaker for the 2007 Conference $3,000; Ray Griffith Awards and other awards (includes travel and per Diem for the recipient) $6,000

Budget Breakout - Jan. 2006 to Jul. 2006

Budget Breakout - July 2006 to July 2007

Work Plans

NLTAPA Advisory Committee on Partnerships/NLTAPA Work Group

Charge: The NLTAPA Advisory Committee on Partnerships was established in 2002 with the sole purpose to assist and guide Centers and NLTAPA when developing potential new relationships or expanding action plans with current partners. The ACP grew out of the Partnering Guidelines Subcommittee which was originally tasked with establishing partnering guidelines and standards for NLTAPA and Centers. A fundamental role of NLTAPA in the partnering process has been to nurture public, private and professional relationships/partnerships on a national basis in order to assist Centers in delivering, improving or expanding local client services. To nurture these relationships includes the requirements to recruit and support active NLTAPA liaisons to specific partnerships and to provide oversight to ensure accountability of the partnership relationships. The ACP is charged with monitoring the existing partnerships and evaluating the opportunities and requests for new partnerships. A process to evaluate potential formal partnerships is in place and methods to evaluate existing partnerships are being developed.

The 2006/2007 Workplan includes specific tasks to be accomplished within each partnership arrangement as well as an examination of the strategic nature of NLTAPA's partnerships at a national and Center level.

Support of Existing Partnerships

NLTAPA has four existing partnership agreements: American Public Works Association (APWA); American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO); National Association of County Engineers (NACE); and the Salt Institute. For each partnership the following tasks will be accomplished:

• Review of liaison guidelines with all liaisons and signature by new NLTAPA liaisons
• Review and update of existing workplan or tasks by the NLTAPA liaison and concurrence with Partners
• Development of process to evaluate the effectiveness of the Partnership agreement at both the national/strategic level and the Center level. Process will reflect specific needs of the individual partnerships and will be developed by the liaisons and the ACP.
• Evaluation of each partnership and preparation of report to the membership
• Development of Center "partnership participation" guidelines to assist Centers in leveraging the benefits from the partnerships and ensure that NLTAPA Partners benefit from significant Center involvement
• Participation by NLTAPA liaisons in national meetings of partner organization: AASHTO Summer Meeting; AASHTO TIG Meeting; APWA Congress; NACE annual Meeting

Evaluation of NLTAPA's Approach to Strategic Relationships

As NLTAPA has begun to grow into a more mature and active organization it has become more visible as the representative of the national program and of the Centers collectively. As such it has become the focus of more groups wishing to establish both formal and informal relationships with NLTAPA. There is also a growing recognition of NLTAPA of the need to establish and maintain a national presence in the transportation community not only to be able to better represent and serve our local customers but also to ensure the viability of the program into the future and through successive legislative and funding cycles. These issues underscore the need for a critical evaluation of NLTAPA's approach to developing future strategic relationships as well as managing the existing formal partnerships already in place.

Conceptual Evaluation of Strategic Relationships: It is proposed that the evaluation process include the following tasks:

1. Conceptual review of NLTAPA's need for strategic relationships with other organizations
2. Identification of organizations that represent key strategic relationships for NLTAPA
3. Development of plan to pursue development of new relationships or enhancement of existing relationships with organizations that have been identified as representing key strategic opportunities for NLTAPA.

It is proposed that the Executive Committee participate in the review or appoint a working group to conduct the evaluation. Current ACP members and active liaisons will be included in the review and evaluation process.

Consideration of Alternate Structure for NLTAPA "Partnerships"

In addition to the conceptual review of strategic relationships it is proposed that the Executive Committee consider an alternate structure for development of future relationships between external entities and NLTAPA. Such an alternate structure may include a limit on the type and number of formal partnerships that are entered into and allow more organizations to participate in NLTAPA as "corporate" or "associate" members. Such a structure would minimize the need for a time consuming process of reviewing requests of external organizations to become "partners" and also minimize the potential for conflict of interest type situations that some of the organizations represent to NLTAPA. The following tasks are proposed:

• Review of the current criteria for evaluating requests for partnership as contained in the NLTAPA document "Guidelines for Partnering."
• Development of more stringent criteria for potential partnerships and a process to more quickly determine potential eligibility. These criteria will necessarily reflect the decisions regarding NLTAPA's identification of strategic relationships or partnerships as discussed above.
• Consideration of an alternate structure to allow external participation in NLTAPA through a tiered membership process.
• Re-evaluation of existing partnerships against the new criteria and determination of eligibility under the new criteria.

Time line: It is proposed that the Executive Committee begin discussion of the strategic relationships and the alternate membership structure at the Executive Committee meeting at TRB in January 2006. These items will be added to the agenda of the monthly conference calls for a final decision to be made at the Executive Committee meeting in Sante Fe, New Mexico in June 2006. If a vote by the NLTAPA general membership is required the items will be presented at the 2006 International Symposium in Florida.

External Communications Work Group Workplan

Work Group Members

• Donna Shea, Chair
• Terry McNinch, Michigan LTAP, Member
• Kim Carr, West Virginia LTAP, Member
• Leonard Brown, Ohio LTAP, Member
• Kim Ferroni, Pennsylvania LTAP, Member

Purpose

Represent Centers to FHWA, our external partners, elected officials, national associations, and the transportation community

2007 Major Accomplishments

1. Developed LTAP Briefing Sheet that can be used to increase awareness and visibility of the LTAP program in support of reauthorization (available for distribution at TRB and electronically).
2. Communicated to LTAP Centers encouraging review of their existing mailing lists and the addition of current state and national legislative contacts and state representatives from our national LTAP partners.
3. Requested PowerPoint presentation templates from LTAP centers to prepare a single template for promoting the LTAP program.
4. Provided extensive feedback to the LTAP Clearinghouse on a series of new promotional materials that can be tailored to promote the national LTAP program as well as the LTAP program in each state.

2008 Workplan

NLTAPA Internal Communications Work Plan

Group Members

• Janet Leli, New Jersey LTAP
• Lee Cabeza de Vaca, New Mexico LTAP
• Kathy DesRoches, New Hampshire LTAP
• Bernie Alkire, Michigan TTAP
• Other members will be added as their expertise is discovered and recruited.

Group Tasks

Facilitate communication among Centers, and document best practices

• Create an NLTAPA online discussion forum. The communications group has worked with the New Hampshire LTAP Center to determine if the existing T2all email system can be used as the base of this forum. T2ALL is searchable only by going through the University of New Hampshire website's search engine by entering a key word or phrase. The communications group is working on creating a separate list serve on the Clearinghouse website specifically for LTAP personnel.
  • Projected Completion Date: April 2007
• Update Resources available through the Clearinghouse. Work with the Clearinghouse to update instructor lists, catalog best practices by topic or subject area, and grant opportunities.
  • Projected Completion Date: This activity will be ongoing, beginning February 2007.
• Roundtable Conference Calls for hot topics. Facilitate roundtable discussion conference calls (announcements will be made on T2All) on hot topics. Topics may include collaborative grant opportunities, best practices, working with University Transportation Centers, budgeting, etc.
  • Projected Completion Date: This activity will be ongoing, beginning March 2007.

Facilitate effective communication to and from NLTAPA

• Post the minutes of all EC meetings on the NLTAPA Web site, within 2 weeks of the meeting. Member centers will be informed of the posting by email from the President.
  • Update: This activity is ongoing.
  • Projected Completion Date: Will be reported at monthly conference calls.
• Utilize the Inside LTAP Newsletter to communicate information from the Association to the LTAP community. The communications workgroup will collaborate with the LTAP Clearinghouse to put pertinent information in the issues of the Inside LTAP newsletter.
  • Projected Completion Date: This activity will be ongoing beginning February 2007.

Expenses:
Workgroup Conference Calls: Monthly, from February-July $300.00
Roundtable Conference Calls: 2 likely, between March-July $100.00

NLTAPA Training Product Needs and Resource Development (TPN&RD) workgroup

Purpose

"Determine LTAP/TTAP training product needs, identify existing training product resources and recommend training product and resource development strategies."

2007 Major Accomplishments

1. Identify training & development needs
2. Identify funding sources
3. Identify Centers and organizations to develop the programs

The workgroup has decided to work with the Transportation Curriculum Coordinating Council (TCCC) to develop training matrices and fill the matrices with available training resources. This decision was made primarily to avoid duplicating our efforts. Working with the TCCC will allow the workgroup to fulfill the "identify training and development needs' activity. The other two primary activities, "identify funding sources' and "identify Centers and organizations to develop the programs,' can't be done until the training and development needs are identified. This year's planned activities, outlined below, are mainly directed towards identifying the training and development needs of LTAP/TTAP centers.

Planned activities of the TPN&RD workgroup

• Evaluate FHWA Office of Safety's "Safety Training Resource Database' and report at Regional Meetings.
• Obtain a list of training provided by LTAP/TTAP Centers over the past three years from the FHWA Office of Professional and Corporate Development based on the information submitted to them by the Centers in the PARs.
• Place an NLTAPA representative on the Training Curriculum Coordinating Council's (TCCC) Executive Committee
• Identify a replacement for Doyt on the TCCC's Training Development Committee since apparently he will be stepping down from this position soon. Most likely this will be someone from the TPN&RD workgroup.
• Perform needs assessments at each regional meeting and compile the results for presentation at the national meeting in Chicago.
• Work with TCCC to implement the recommendations from the needs assessment implemented.
• Work with FHWA and others to implement the recommendations from the needs assessment.

NLTAPA Professional Development Work Group Workplan

Work Group Members

• Laura Melendy, California LTAP, Chair
• Scott Bershing, Montana TTAP
• Charlie Goodspeed, New Hampshire LTAP
• Bill Kelsh, Virginia LTAP
• Richard Rolland, Northwest TTAP

Purpose

Provide internal professional development and assistance to improve Center management and performance and manage the associations awards program.

2007 Major Accomplishments

1. Served on the steering committee for the 2007 annual LTAP/TTAP Conference
2. Called for nominations and presented the 2007 National Achievement Award

2008 Workplan

Program Strategies Workgroup

Work Plan for 2005 to 2006

(Bruce Drewes, ID LTAP, NLTAPA President, Lisa Harris KS LTAP, Secretary, Evan Hong CA/NV TTAP, Cheri Marti MN LTAP, and the FHWA Program Manager)

The role of this work group is to identify Program needs, devise Program initiatives, and participate in program evaluation.

1. Serve as members of the Strategic Planning Committee (SPC).
   1. The SPC currently has two positions that need to be filled and the current membership continues with a desirer to continue working on the SPC.
      1. Contact current members of the SPC - Updates: Contacted all current members of the SPC and they are all willing to participate
      2. Provide FHWA with list of names for future membership to the SPC. When looking at new membership to the SPC criteria for recommendation is: Willingness to work on a national committee, ability to look at the issues at the local and national levels, and basic understanding of the current Strategic Plan and reporting methods. Updates: All travel to complete this task is paid by FHWA. A list of names was developed and submitted to FHWA in Oct. 2005
   2. Work with the SPC to review the PAR and CAR results for 2005 to improve the process. Update: Review to be completed by March 2006. Provide report to E.C. by Spring meeting.
   3. Request that the SPC reviews and makes recommendation for updating the six reporting tasks that are required by the Centers.
      Update: Review to be completed by April, 2006 with recommendation to the E.C. by the Spring meeting.
2. Work with FHWA to ensure implementation of the Program Strategic Plan.
   1. The Program Strategy, Funding and Evaluation Work Group will provide input and support to NLTAPA, FHWA and Centers that are developing management and reporting tools in support of the strategic plan. Ongoing [by request?]
   2. The NLTAPA President (or designee) will serve on the LTAP Clearinghouse Steering Committee. This is a one year term that starts at the LTAP Summer meeting. The President will make a recommendation to the E.C. by the spring meeting for this position. Ed Stellfox is the current E.C. Rep. on the Clearinghouse Steering Committee. Travel cost is currently paid by the Clearinghouse
3. Advise FHWA and other Program shareholders on Program and Center needs and recommend initiatives.
   1. By working with FHWA and other Partners, various funding sources will be identified and used as a Program Development Grant. Funding from this Program Development Grant can be used by Centers, other organizations and individuals to develop training materials and resources that will assist the LTAP community to meet their Strategic Goals. Update: Currently looking at NLTAPA standing with IRS regarding our 501.c.3 status and reporting requirement if our funding levels increase, will request that the Treasurer follow up on the tax exempt status of NLTAPA. Need to verify tax status as soon as possible before this can be moved forward. Duane Smith is working on this.
   2. The President will work with the LTAP Team Leader within FHWA OPCD office to identify meetings that will be held with other office of FHWA and/or partners organizations that will impact the goals of NLTAPA and the LTAP organizations, insuring inclusion into those meetings. The President or designee will attend said meeting and report back to the NLTAPA E.C. and provide appropriate information to the various workgroups.
      1. The President or designee will take an active role in NLTAPA partners and other associations as requested by Partnership Workgroup or appropriate i.e. APWA Congress, ARTBA InterTraffic Conference, ITE Conference. Ongoing, will require funding from the association to pay for travel, with approval of the E.C.
   3. NLTAPA will work with FHWA to develop resource allocation strategies for future Program funding and identification of additional resources for the Centers.
      1. Work with FHWA OPCD to develop stronger working relationships with other offices of FHWA, Associations and organizations to develop funding for the Program Development program and to become a value added organizations to those involved. Some travel has been incurred but has been paid by FHWA, but some funding should be set aside for this activity.
         • Work with the Program Manager to develop a list of prospective opportunities.
         • Develop a strategy to develop those opportunities. Update: Provide list to E.C. by TRB, Provide strategies to E.C. by spring meeting
4. In conjunction with other organization begin developing a strategy for the 2010 Reauthorization Bill.