Executive Committee Meeting Minutes
August 8, 2005

NLTAPA President Bruce Drewes called the meeting to order at 2:35 PM Eastern Time.

Attending: Bruce Drewes, ID LTAP, Lisa Harris, KS LTAP, Linda Howe-Steiger, CA LTAP, Chris Adhmadjian, CT LTAP, Ed Stellfox, MD LTAP, Terry McNinch, MI LTAP, Duane Smith, IA LTAP and NLTAPA Treasurer, Lisa Pogue, LTAP Clearinghouse, Al Alonzi, FHWA, Gib Peaslee, FHWA.

Absent: Marie Walsh, LA LTAP, Jim Burati, SC LTAP, Ken Skorseth, SD LTAP, Evan Hong, California-Nevada TTAP

Lisa H. moved and Linda seconded to approve the agenda as written. The motion passed unanimously.

Continuing Business

1. Fall EC Meeting Dates - The EC agreed to meet for two full days--November 30 and December 1--and possibly part of December 2, as well. The fall meeting schedule will be fleshed out in the next month or two.
2. EC Orientation Packet - No report this month. An update and timeline for completion of this project will be provided by Evan and Lisa H. at the September conference call.

Regular Reports

1. EC Work Group Reports - Group leaders reported on EC group progress.
   • Leadership - Bruce: This group will include Bruce and Lisa H. as the NLTAPA president and secretary, another EC member and a NLTAPA member at large. Bruce will provide more information about the group's work plan to the EC later this week, with proposed action items, and would like feedback.
   • Partnerships - Marie (report submitted by e-mail). The Association's Committee on Partnering (ACP) will review the partnership request process and begin steps to evaluate the request from the Portland Cement Association. The ACP will request volunteers for the APWA and NACE liaison position and possibly assistants or "committee" members to assist the liaisons as warranted. The ACP will also develop a way to evaluate the success of each partnership. The ACP needs an additional member to replace Gib Peaslee.
   • Internal Communications - Chris. The group shared 12 action items to increase communication between the Association and its members, and among the Centers themselves. They are, in brief: 1) create an online LTAP discussion forum [with archiving functions]; 2) collect and share LTAP best practices, searchable by topic; 3) Post NLTAPA and EC minutes in a timely fashion; 4) Have NLTPA reps contact their member centers on a regular basis; 5) Improve the Association's Web site; 6) Present a thorough annual report to the members at the LTAP annual meeting; 7) Market NLTAPA to the Centers; 8) Ensure that regional meetings include discussion about NTLAPA activities; 9) ensure Centers provide feedback to the Association; 10) Work with FHWA and the LTAP Clearinghouse to focus the agenda of the national LTAP meeting on the needs of the centers and their customer base, and key Program issues that require Center education and feedback; 11) Welcome new staff members to the Association; 12) Provide a thorough orientation for new Association representatives.
     
     One goal of some the action items was to create ways for the Association to get consistent input from the Centers regarding NLTAPA activities - current and proposed. Another focus was providing NLTAPA members ample information about what NLTAPA is doing. The group plans to complete most of its work by TRB in January 2006, with some tasks to be completed in the Spring, closer to regional and annual LTAP meeting times. The group's members are Chris and Lisa H. They will ask other LTAPers to join in as needed. They are looking for someone new to LTAP to help with several of the items, to provide a newcomer perspective.
   • External Communications - Terry. The group plans to send thank-you notes to partners that supported LTAP during reauthorization. LTAP "branding" is a priority; a focus group may convene on this issue prior to the Association's January meeting at TRB. The external communications group will flesh out more of its work plan at the Fall EC meeting. Group members are Bruce, Lisa H., Terry and Chris, so far.
   • Training Products and Resources - Ed. This group will draw on the personnel and work of the LTAP Clearinghouse's current product development committee. The group is also looking for a few more members. Doyt Bolling, UT LTAP, has volunteered. The group would like TTAP representation; Evan is helping identify someone. The group will coordinate with FHWA, primarily interacting with the Program Manager (when Bill Evans's position is filled).
   • Professional Development - Linda. This group will include members from 5-7 LTAP Centers. They would like a diversity of members and at least one person from a DOT-based Center. The group will develop a process, procedures and policies for peer mentoring and a list of core competencies for Center staff. Lisa Pogue suggested drawing on information on LTAP Center roles currently available in the Clearinghouse's LTAP Handbook. [Linda noted her phone number has changed. The new number is 510-665-3630.]
2. LTAP-National Update - Al Alonzi commended the EC on its progress in the last year and thanked them for supporting the Roles and Responsibilities (R&R) process in their approach to the Association's new operational plan. Al noted that LTAPers he talked with in Dubuque expressed gratitude to the R&R group for documenting who does what in LTAP. Priorities for that group are regional and annual meeting planning, professional development, and re-designing the Program's Web site. Al plans for the R&R group to have one more face-to-face meeting to flesh out plans for these. Al also noted that the following Clearinghouse Steering Committee members are now in place: Ed Stellfox, MD LTAP, Donna Shea, CT LTAP, and Jim Self, OK TTAP. A charter for the Strategic Planning Committee (SPC) has been drafted and circulated to the SPC for comment. This committee will proceed with their work in the coming year.
3. LTAP Clearinghouse Update - Lisa Pogue reported that 65 people attended LTAP 101 at Dubuque, which also included its first session for new directors. The program had a mix of fun and useful information. The Clearinghouse Advisory Committee created and hosted four communications and marketing sessions at the 2005 LTAP Conference, as well. The Clearinghouse Advisory Committee had its last meeting in Dubuque; the new, smaller Clearinghouse Steering Committee is formed and under way. Ed Stellfox is representing the Association on the steering committee. Lisa P. said she looks forward to talking about what we can do together in the next year.

New Business

1. 2007 LTAP Conference. It will be Region 5's turn to host the conference in 2007, and Illinois would like to host it, in Chicago. EC members thought this was a good location. Marie Walsh will ask Kevin Burke, IL LTAP, to participate in the LTAP 2006 agenda planning committee, for continuity.
2. FHWA Think Tank. At the request of Joe Conway, the EC identified a few LTAPers to send to FHWA Advanced Research Think Tank Forums Sept 20-21 in Minneapolis, MN, and October 26-27 in Berkeley, CA. FHWA is interested in exploring research topics and concepts that are not yet being extensively applied to surface transportation, but which could bring major benefits to this field in the future. The EC recommended Linda Howe-Steiger for the California meeting and either Cheri Marti or Ali Selim for the Minnesota meeting. Bruce will follow up.
3. Reauthorization. Al noted that the Centers will be getting roughly a ten percent increase in the new transportation bill for federal fiscal years 2005-2009. FY 2005 has just six weeks left. Al will be sending the last 40K due to each Center for 2005 shortly. He asked the EC for advice about whether to hold back the extra ten percent for the last 6 weeks of FY 2005, and apply that amount to future years, with the idea that the money will be needed by the Centers even more in the years to follow. Several EC members said they thought that would be helpful, and no one disagreed.
4. LTAP.org URL. The Association's URL is up for renewal on August 21, 2005. Terry has paid the cost for the last couple of years. Lisa moved and Chris seconded that NLTAPA pay for the cost for renewal from now on, with the NLTAPA president signing each time it is renewed. The motion passed unanimously. Lisa P. and Terry both noted that the Association could save money by renewing for several years at a time, rather than every year
5. NLTAPA Governing Structure. Bruce noted that Evan will be working the next several months on a "discovery phase" project to contact Centers and learn what issues they might have about NTLAPA's current officer structure, voting procedures, and regional structure. No further details at this time.
6. Topics for Regular Reports. The EC was asked if they would like to request any specific topics to be included in FHWA and Clearinghouse reports at monthly EC conference calls. None were offered; Bruce asked the EC to forward and any ideas to him well in advance of conference calls.
7. Meeting debriefing. Bruce asked for feedback on the meeting. Comments: good meeting but too long, good dialogue, not enough comment on some topics, grateful for FHWA's support of the EC.

Ed moved and Terry seconded to adjourn the meeting. The motion passed unanimously. The EC adjourned at 4:00 p.m. Eastern.

Minutes submitted by Lisa Harris, Kansas LTAP, NLTAPA Secretary

Next EC conference call: September 12, 2005, 2:30 p.m. Eastern