Executive Committee Meeting Minutes
December 12, 2005

Conference Call, 2:30 Eastern Time

Present: Bruce Drewes - ID LTAP, Lisa Harris - KS LTAP, Linda Howe-Steiger - CA LTAP, Terry McNinch - MI LTAP, Patsy Anderson - KY LTAP, Marie Walsh - LA LTAP, George Huntington - WY LTAP, Chris Adhmadjian - MA LTAP, Ken Skorseth - SD LTAP, Duane Smith - IA LTAP, Lisa Pogue - LTAP Clearinghouse, Gib Peaslee - FHWA

Absent: Evan Hong - California-Nevada TTAP, Ed Stellfox - MD LTAP

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

Agenda approval for this call. Lisa Harris moved and Marie Walsh seconded to approve the agenda with two additions: 1) add a brief discussion about the recent RWIS CD offer and 2) clarify who will participate in conference ownership research. The motion passed unanimously.

Draft agenda for the E.C. meeting at TRB - Bruce Drewes. Bruce reviewed the draft agenda and asked the EC to suggest changes before the January 9 conference call. It was clarified that the timeframe for the Association's work plan is August-July. The EC decided to discuss work plans for the work groups and the R&R action items at the January 9 conference call, to provide the information needed to prepare an overall work plan and budget for the Association by TRB. The EC decided to meet at TRB on Sunday, January 22, 9-11 AM and Monday, January 23, 9-11 AM. Bruce will secure a meeting location.

Draft agenda for the general membership meeting at TRB - Bruce Drewes. The EC discussed the possibility of having the focus groups earlier in the agenda. After discussion, Bruce decided to keep the agenda as is.

Clarify the action items for the governing structure - Bruce Drewes. Bruce clarified that he intends to refine Evan Hong's report on this subject and provide recommendations to the EC on work load, governing structure, and regional structure before the January 9 conference call.

Possible LTAP presentation at FHWA Division Administrators Meeting - Gib Peaslee, for Clark Martin. No report at this call; will touch base at January 9 conference call.

Vendors report from 2005 Conference - Lisa Harris. Lisa has learned that the vendors at Dubuque were not given evaluation forms. The vendor coordinator offered to do this after the fact. Lisa asked the EC to suggest questions to ask the vendors. Questions suggested: Would they exhibit at an LTAP conference again? Did they find value in exhibiting? Was it a good value for the dollar? Would they pay more? Location of tables OK? Size of space OK? Support OK? Are they willing to sponsor food to bring more people in? How could the vendor program be improved? Lisa Harris will provide these questions to the vendor coordinator and report the results of the survey to the EC.

Updating the NACE Guides - Bruce Drewes and Gib Peaslee. NLTAPA had been asked by NACE to review and update some of their guides. There was some confusion about the scope of work involved and whether funding would be needed. Gib clarified that NACE is requesting that nine guides be reviewed and updated. NTLAPA's Advisory Committee on Partnerships will develop a proposal for the EC to address this request. Gib will send the list of the nine guides in question to Marie Walsh, Ken Skorseth, and Jim Grothaus. Marie will update the EC at January 9 conference call.

LTAP discussion forum update - Chris Ahmadjian and Lisa Pogue. Chris and Lisa-P will discuss this with Kathy DesRoches and provide an update at the January 9 conference call.

LTAP articles on asset management - Lisa Harris. Lisa-H has sent a request on T2ALL asking for articles to be sent to her by December 25. She will forward them to FHWA's Office of Asset Management, as background for an article they have agreed to write for the LTAP audience. Lisa-H will report on what she has received at January 9 conference call.

RWIS Anti-icing CD publicity - Terry McNinch. Terry expressed concern that the snow states are not taking advantage of getting these CDs, which are free to NACE members. Bruce will draft a message to his region's Centers, which he will send to the EC, to solicit more interest.

Roadway Safety Foundation - Bruce Drewes. Bruce volunteered to get more information about this newly re-formed foundation for the EC to consider in possibly becoming a member of the foundation (recommended by Tony Giancola as a good fit).

Any changes in LTAP Center personnel? - Bruce Drewes. Howard McCann is the new director in Texas, from the Texas Engineering Extension Service. Dan Ratermann is the new training coordinator at Missouri LTAP. Dan was a county engineer and formerly a NACE President. Ken Skorseth reported that some changes may coming in South Dakota.

LTAP.org - Lisa Pogue has posted NLTAPA work groups on the Web site, with the lead person's contact information. She suggested posting a paragraph for each one and eventually having a page for each work group that could be updated by the group. This idea was supported by the EC.

Executive Committee's Spring meeting - Bruce Drewes. Bruce suggested Santa Fe as a place to hold the meeting, which would also provide an opportunity to meet with New Mexico's new LTAP Center director. Bruce will call NM LTAP and investigate that possibility and report at the January 9 conference call. [The EC needs to set dates for that meeting, too.]

Clarifying research about annual conference ownership - Lisa Harris. The EC clarified that there will be representation from the R&R committee in developing a proposal for the Association to assume ownership of the National LTAP conference.

The Executive Committee adjourned at 4:05 PM Eastern.

Minutes submitted by Lisa Harris, NLTAPA Secretary