Executive Committee Meeting Minutes
March 14, 2005

Telephone conference call was called to order at 2:30 pm EST.

Roll Call: Executive Committee Members participating in the call - Attendee list for conference call is missing.

Agenda was reviewed and approved.

Old Business

1. International T2 Conference Update - Bruce Drewes - The second telephone conference call of the committees dealing with the International Conference in 2006 was held this morning. Janet and Nina informed the group that they were taking with two hotels in the St. Petersburg area about hosting the conference. The group decided not to have an official call for papers. A list of proposed joint sessions was sent to the EC member for input.
2. Partnership Liaison Guidelines - Signed? Update - Bruce Drewes - The NACE Partnership Liaison Guideline is the only one signed. AASHTO Guidelines delivered. [what does this mean?]
3. ASCE/FHWA Paved Low Volume Roads Guide Update - Al Alonzi - AL Alonzi sent the attached information on this topic before the telephone conference call
4. 2005 LTAP Summer Meeting Update - Lisa Harris - The APWA President was invited to attend the Summer conference and will attend. NTTD was also invited but has not confirmed. A motion was made: " NLTAPA will pay the Summer Conference Registration Fee for one partner member." Motion was second and passed.
5. 2006 LTAP Summer Meeting Update - Marie Walsh - Marie Walsh has accepted the position as chair of the agenda planning committee of the 2006 LTAP Conference. Bruce has sent her a copy of the Conference planning CD and will keep her informed as to the activities of committee planning the international portion of the conference, and the joint sessions.
6. Spring EC Meeting in S.F: Details. - Linda Howe-Steiger - Linda was not on the call, so topic will be moved to next telephone conference call.
7. InterTraffic 2005 - Terry McNinch - ARTBA has asked us to join with them in some of the session planning and possibly some presentations, if we have something that fits. The first InterTraffic North America is scheduled for Sept. 27-29, 2005 in Baltimore. Presentation tracks include 1. Work Zone Safety (filled up?); 2. Environmental Regulations Streamlining and Compliance; 3. Traffic Management (roundabouts, traffic calming, merge systems); 4. Economic and Financial Management. Ed Stellfox will take the lead on assisting ARTBA in identifying some speakers that could present at this event.
8. Strategic Planning Committee (SPC) meeting after the previous EC call - Terry McNinch, Al Alonzi - SPC Talking Points [Al Alonzi sent the talking points to the E.C., see attachment]
9. PAR Non Responders, to date - Al Alonzi - (Al Lonzi sent information to E.C, see attachment)
10. R&R status report and what's next for NTLAPA in the process - Bruce Drewes, Lisa Harris, Marie Walsh, Al Alonzi - The subgroups are working at their "homework" assignments and will get together after the Summer LTAP Conference.

New Business

Spring EC Meeting - Agenda - The EC will review and flesh out the roles and responsibilities of NTLAPA. The agenda will also include discussion of the SPC and the replacement of some of the members, and a proposed presentation by National Institute for Certification in Engineering Technologies (NICET).

Meeting adjourn at 3:19 pm.

Minutes submitted by Bruce Drewes, Secretary for NLTAPA, Idaho LTAP

Attachment

Information sent from Al Alonzi to the E.C. before the conference call:

1. ASCE/FHWA "Guide for the Design and Maintenance of Paved Low Volume Roads":
   • Reached agreement on Statement of Work w/ASCE
   • ASCE will develop course/materials/instructor guide, pilot the course, refine and teach course via train-the-trainer
   • Per ExComm discussion last month, LTAP/TTAP Centers will purchase coursebook directly from ASCE (nominal fee--waiting to hear what it is) and can instruct the course for whatever fee they want after they purchase the coursebook from ASCE
   • Expected completion: approximately 4 months
2. SPC Meeting after last EC Call:
   • Drafted talking points for EC/FHWA use at appropriate meetings and conversations (attached)
   • Level II Evaluation Tool draft completed by FHWA. SPC members to provide feedback on relevant LTAP course material to fit the examples
   • Draft charter for SPC developed--waiting on input from SPC. Charter to be considered by Roles-n-Responsibilities group in near future (I am pulling all R-n-R docs together to determine gaps and will re-group R-n-R then. Ron Hall and I have the lead on developing this SPC Charter/succession piece for R-n-R consideration)
   • Discussed PAR/CAR modifications
3. PAR/CAR non-responders:
   SPC recommended course of action to include:
   • Note to all Centers on national numbers, ID non-responders, note impact on national numbers due to non-responders
   • Attaboy letter to timely reporters
   • individual meetings b/w FHWA and non-responders at Annual meeting
   • Post January 31 deadline, have received PA, WY and IN CARs, and PA, FL, WY PARs (did I miss any other PARs Lisa Pogue?)
4. R-n-R: Again, I am pulling all R-n-R docs together to determine gaps and will re-group R-n-R then (hopefully in a week or so I will have an email to R-n-R) It is my hope that the EC can embraces the advisory role concept reflected in the consensus roles/responsibilities document--"Advisory role to FHWA and internal Program stakeholders to determine, devise and communicate Program improvement initiatives"--would like to begin movement this summer on a few items such as:
   • Update of 6 Tasks
   • Guidelines for self-evaluations (Task 6)

Sorry I cannot participate live.
Al

Talking Points for 2005 Regional Meetings

"America's prosperity requires restraining the spending appetite of the federal government; I welcome the bipartisan enthusiasm for spending discipline. I will send you a budget that holds the growth of discretionary spending below inflation, makes tax relief permanent, and stays on track to cut the deficit in half by 2009. My budget substantially reduces or eliminates more than 150 government programs that are not getting results, or duplicate current efforts, or do not fulfill essential priorities. The principle here is clear: Taxpayer dollars must be spent wisely, or not at all."
- President George W. Bush, State of the Union address, February 2, 2005

General Points

• These talking points are the result of a review of your feedback to date by a representative group of your LTAP/TTAP peers; including NLTAPA, the LTAP Clearinghouse and FHWA, all of whom are united in working to improve performance measurement to better the Program
• Remember: Mandatory submission of both PAR and CAR for all Centers; the deadline for this year is January 31, 2006
• Also remember: The 2006 TRB is scheduled for January 22-26; this will significantly impact your ability to complete your reporting requirements, so plan ahead!
• A reminder: The data we collect in the PAR is not significantly different from the data we used to collect for the old profile reports; everyone should be able to collect this data with little to no additional effort
• Another reminder: As each Center is part of a larger Program effort to move the dials in tech transfer etc, the capture of this data is critical to insuring that we are doing things right and doing the right things at the Program level to better tell the LTAP/TTAP story - something that benefits everyone
• The strong recommendation of the Strategic Planning Committee is that you coordinate your internal processes for Program reporting on no less than a quarterly basis
• In many cases, your peers have developed or are developing tools to assist you in data collection; the SPC will be working to coordinate and better deliver these tools to you, but do not wait - seek out assistance via your NLTAPA representatives, FHWA, the Clearinghouse, via T2ALL, and those Center peers directly
• In case you have forgotten - the collected PAR data is not going to be used to compare Centers to other Centers
• As in the past, however, individual Center data will be used to
  • Assess general needs as well as areas for assistance by FHWA
  • Hold Centers accountable for required activities (6 tasks, etc)
• OMB PART (Office of Management and Budget Program Assessment Rating Tool)
  • We urge you to take some time and review a completed PART assessment - not for the overall score but to better understand the seriousness and methodology of the OMB investigation process [NOTE: FHWA will review the OMB website to determine if there is a PART for the Agriculture extension program]
• Talking Points for 2005 Regional Meetings
  • Of the OMB PART analyses completed to date, 51% of the programs reviewed to date have received a finding of "results not demonstrated"
  • The PART tools and results to date are available at www.omb.gov/part/
• 2004 PAR and CAR
  • Over 90% of all Centers delivered their PAR and CAR data on time - an amazing result!
  • The quality of the CAR submissions greatly exceeded expectations - outstanding responses!
  • Now that we've seen the responses, we are better positioned to promote the Program, understand the full picture of our impact to our stakeholders, and better manage the Program
  • For example, here's something...[some really pertinent data points from the PAR/CAR that illustrate a powerful message or task or value added]
  • But here's the rub: Those 10% of folks who did not submit on time or at all diminished that impact by a significant factor - 858 sessions, almost 700,000 participant hours, 30,000 tech assists--so we can't claim the full impact and importance of our national effort and that hurts other Centers, the Program as a whole, and therefore the very Centers that did not submit!
• Next Steps
  • As we garner feedback from the LTAP/TTAP community on the strategic planning process, we will continuously review and assess the efficacy of the reports and make edits, changes and other revisions as necessary
  • In the future, a new and improved Strategic Planning Committee will be working to analyze and define Program strategic planning initiatives and provide the LTAP/TTAP community with the latest information on Program progress... stay tuned for details!
  • See the Program website at www.ltapt2.org for the latest version of all Program documents, including the PAR, CAR, and other Program tools