Business Meeting Minutes
July 24, 2007
8:30 to 10:30 AM
Millenium Knickerbocker Hotel, Chicago, IL

Call to order. NLTAPA President Lisa Harris called the meeting to order at 8:35 AM.

Roll call. NLTAPA Secretary Patsy Anderson recorded that the following Centers were present at roll call for this meeting: AL, AK, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WV, WI, WY, AK-TTAP, CO-TTAP, MI-TTAP, Northern Plains-TTAP, Northwest-TTAP, OK-TTAP. Absent at roll call: AR, IN, MS, NV, NY, WA, NV-TTAP

Welcome. Harris and Joe Toole (FHWA Associate Administrator, Office of Professional and Corporate Development-OPCD) welcomed NLTAPA members and extended a special thank you to international guests for attending.

Approve this agenda and Approve minutes of January 21, 2007 business meeting. Both were unanimously approved as written.

Year in review & what's ahead for NLTAPA. Harris summarized NLTAPA's accomplishments in 2006-2007. These included NLTAPA's recent LTAP-needs assessment and what it will be used for, a SWOT analysis conducted by the Executive Committee, initiation of small group discussion at member meetings, NLTAPA's experience coordinating its first national conference, actions that resulted from NLTAPA partnerships in the last year, the Association's increased focus on safety, NLTAPA's bylaws changes and officer structure, status of coordination with OPCD, and what's ahead for the Association for next year. (More information on these accomplishments can be found in the Association's 2006-2007 annual report, which can be downloaded at http://www.ltap.org/about/annualreports/.) Marie Walsh followed up with a few more points about partnerships and reported on recent ATSSA and Office of Safety visits. Janet Leli asked members to fill out a survey provided on their tables about topics they would like to see for future roundtable conference calls.

LTAP Needs Assessment Report. Ed Stellfox and George Huntington showed some of the results of the recent needs assessment and discussed possible next steps. They described how their workgroup compiled regional needs assessments into a top ten list of LTAP/TTAP needs. Further activities will be to compare information from the TCCC to assess which of these needs are already met by other organizations. Needs that are unmet will be identified and means of fulfilling these needs will be sought. Finally, they briefly described the ATSSA Work Zone Safety grant and the training through this grant that will be made available to local government agencies.

Report on the APWA Education Summit. Dan Cady and Patricia Kutt gave a presentation on who attended and what was discussed at the APWA Education Summit in Spring 2007. Two primary lessons learned were: 1) Many APWA attendees were not familiar with LTAP. We need to increase LTAP Center involvement and communication with APWA Chapters; 2) APWA members in attendance were impressed with what LTAP does, and valued LTAP's participation in the summit.

Receive and discuss suggested revisions for bylaws. Harris reported that she had received only one suggested change to the draft bylaws before the meeting. Linda Howe-Steiger (CA-LTAP) suggested allowing regions to consolidate or change without EC or member approval. After discussion, the majority of members favored keeping EC and member approval of these types of changes. Harris will draft further changes based on the discussion for consideration by the members on July 26.

Comments from the Roadway Safety Foundation (RSF). Greg Cohen, RSF Executive Director, talked about the RSF's relationship to the American Highway Users Alliance and about their annual award. He mentioned that winners of the National Roadway Safety Awards will be honored on November 7, 2007 at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. He encouraged NLTAPA to submit LTAP safety efforts for consideration for the award in the future. The Roadway Safety Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing the frequency and severity of motor vehicle crashes by improving the safety of America's roadways. RSF builds awareness through media campaigns and outreach activities, developing educational materials and forming roadway safety partnerships between the private and public sectors. Public sector members include FHWA, NHSTA, the National Transportation Safety Board, TRB, AASHTO, NACE and the state DOTs.

Treasurer's report. Harris asked if there were any questions about the Treasurer's report distributed at the meeting. There were none. All but one Center paid dues last year. Harris noted that the EC decided to spend down the balance last year, from $48,000 to $45,000. She also noted that NLTAPA's books will be changing hands soon, to Bernie Alkire, MI TTAP. Harris thanked Duane Smith in absentia for his service to the Association as Treasurer.

Preliminary NLTAPA election results. NLTAPA Secretary Patsy Anderson report that, pending member approval of the bylaws changes that establish new officer positions, Marie Walsh, Kevin Burke and Donna Shea will be the new officers for 2007-2008.

Thank-you's. Harris thanked OPCD staff, Clearinghouse staff, and the Executive Committee for their work on behalf of the Centers in the last year.

Remembering Dennis Rice (GA LTAP). Jim Burati, SC LTAP, gave a presentation on Dennis Rice's career with LTAP, and concluded with a video about LTAP produced by GA LTAP.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:30 am.

The second business meeting is scheduled for July 26, 2008, same location, at 10:00 AM.

Minutes by Lisa Harris. Approved for posting by the Executive Committee on December 5, 2007.