Executive Committee Meeting Minutes
October 24, 2005

Bruce Drewes called the meeting to order at 2:40 PM Eastern Time

Attending: Bruce Drewes, ID LTAP, Lisa Harris, KS LTAP, Linda Howe-Steiger, CA LTAP, Evan Hong, California-Nevada TTAP, Chris Adhmadjian, CT LTAP, Terry McNinch, MI LTAP, Marie Walsh, LA LTAP, Ed Stellfox, MD LTAP, George Huntington, WY LTAP, Al Alonzi, FHWA, Cameron Ishaq, FHWA, Melissa Barnette, LTAP Clearinghouse, Janet Degner and Nine Barker, FL LTAP

Absent: Patsy Anderson, KY LTAP (new Region 1 rep), Lisa Pogue, LTAP Clearinghouse, Gib Peaslee, FHWA

Approve agenda. The agenda was approved one addition to new business: Report on LTAP presentations made and planned at the APWA Congress.

Approve minutes of September 12, 2005 conference call. Lisa Harris moved and Marie Walsh seconded to approve the minutes as written. The motion passed unanimously.

Continuing Business

1. October Special Meeting in DC - Bruce Drewes and Lisa Harris reported on their recent trip to Washington, made at the invitation of FHWA. They visited the offices of APWA, NACE and AASHTO and had a day-long meeting with Al Alonzi, Roger Dean, Gib Peaslee, and Cameron Ishaq at FHWA. A few highlights: APWA's Peter King and Lisa Pogue helped brainstorm ideas for new action points for the APWA partnership, including an LTAP presentation at a future chapter leaders' conference call. Tony Giancola of NACE would like to meet with the EC at its Fall meeting. He encouraged NLTAPA to revisit the idea of having vendors and sponsors at its annual conference, as it is a good way to generate revenue. He also suggested getting an early start on advocacy for the next transportation bill reauthorization. Mike McGough at AASHTO stated his satisfaction with working with NLTAPA to date, and looks forward to future collaborations. Bruce also met with Ben Gribbon in FHWA's Office of Safety. Ben will be looking at the Hazardous High Risk Rural Roads Program in SAFE-TEA-LU to see if LTAP can tap into this funding for the circuit rider program. Ben expressed satisfaction with the progress of the safety circuit rider program.
2. Fall EC Meeting - Items of business will be meeting with NLTAPA partners, discussion the LTAP Program budget and the six tasks, discussing reauthorization considerations in 2009, meeting with FHWA's Office of Operations for possible collaborations regarding the MUTCD, traffic incident management and congestion management. Bruce also asked for detailed reports from each of the EC work groups. Al Alonzi reported that funding is available for this meeting, and that EC members should make their hotel reservations but wait for paperwork before making plane reservations.
3. EC Orientation Packet - Evan Hong reported that a small group of EC reps and NLTAPA members had talked by conference call and are now working on writing or gathering various components of the orientation packet. Drafts are due to Evan by November 1; a draft packet will be presented to the EC for their review at the Fall 2005 meeting in DC.
4. 2006 International/LTAP Conference - Bruce Drewes and Marie Walsh reported that the conference focus has aligned around technology transfer and networking, with the National Transportation Training Directors (NTTD), the Transportation Curriculum Coordinating Council (TCCC), and TRB's Committee on Technology Transfer planning to participate, among other training related entities.
5. LTAP 2007 Conference - Terry McNinch reported that the Knickerbocker, a hotel in downtown Chicago, has been contracted for the site for the 2007 conference.
6. NLTAPA Governing Structure - Evan Hong said he would send an email message out to the EC soon with an update on this activity.
7. Report on the FHWA Innovative Research Focus Group - This report was postponed until the November 14th EC conference call.

Regular Reports

1. Work Group Reports. Group leaders updated the EC on group progress:
   • Leadership - Bruce Drewes is revising the group's workplan.
   • Partnerships - Marie Walsh reported that NLTAPA's advisory committee on partnerships will be choosing its APWA and NACE liaisons in the next month, and they are also assigning committee members to work more closely with each of the partnership liaisons.
   • Internal Communications - Chris reported that Lisa Harris has started drafting an NTLAPA brochure for members that will be shared with the EC for comment at its Fall meeting.
   • External Communications - Terry McNinch reported that it's time to start advocacy for LTAP for the next reauthorization. He said lobbying for the renewal of the University Transportation Centers has already started. To strengthen our advocacy efforts, Terry suggested we update the communications plan to include a strategy for Centers to use in advocacy, identify who in FHWA puts together their reauthorization funding proposal, build a stronger relationship with ARTBA, and make sure the PAR and CAR information includes all the Centers.
   • Training Products and Resources - Group members are Ed Stellfox, Evan Hong, Lisa Pogue and Gib Peaslee. Ed reported they have a meeting set for October 25 that will need to be rescheduled. The group will also meet at TRB. The group will have a session at the 2006 LTAP/International Conference. Ed and Lisa Pogue have discussed product development guidelines.
   • Professional Development - Linda Howe-Steiger reported that she is the new chair of this group because the former chair, Jim Burati, had to step off the EC. Linda is gathering additional group members and will report on their activities at the Fall EC meeting. Richard Roland and Leonard Brown will also participate in this group.
2. FHWA-National Update - Al Alonzi. Al's position will be announced this week, both inside and outside FHWA. The position is slated to be 100 percent LTAP. Bill Evans's position was not filled and has been reassigned to another office. Gib Peaslee will be assuming Al's duties until Al's position is filled. Al asked the EC to play a role in determining who is on the Strategic Planning Committee. He also reported what is happening with LTAP funding under SAFE-TEA-LU. LTAP's overall budget was increased 10 percent, but took a 15 percent cut which went across the board in FHWA to help pay for the designated transportation projects in the bill. LTAP and FHWA's research department also are taking another 9 percent hit because of cuts needed because of the recent hurricanes. So LTAP, overall, will likely see a 20 percent reduction in funds. Al shared his intent to try to get as much money to the Centers as possible in spite of this, by reducing the amount of LTAP funds set aside in Washington by his office for travel, staff, special projects, etc. He would like to step up funding to the Centers each year of the bill. An appropriations bill has not been passed, so the final funding scenario is not yet available. In closing, Al thanked the EC for its work on behalf of LTAP and the EC thanked him for his dedication to the program. Al will be FHWA's new Assistant District Administrator in Austin, TX, starting mid November.
3. LTAP Clearinghouse Update - Melissa Barnette reported that the Clearinghouse has staffed an LTAP booth at the AASHTO national conference, APWA's Congress, and plan to be at the upcoming national tribal transportation conference. She said people who know about LTAP see a lot of value in the program. Several vendors have expressed interest to her, in passing, in exhibiting at the national LTAP conference.

New Business

1. National Training and Instructor Clearinghouse - Bruce Drewes announced that there is interest in FHWA's Safety Office in developing a pooled funded project for a database clearinghouse that would hold training materials and instructor contact information from NTTD, TCCC, NHI, LTAPs and others. We will discuss this further at the Fall EC meeting in DC.
2. APWA Congress Presentations by NLTAPA - Bruce Drewes reported disappointing low attendance at NLTAPA's presentation at APWA's Congress this year (15-20 people), but enthusiastic reception by those who attended. He thinks we should give a presentation at the 2006 Congress, and is working with APWA to submit a proposal. Bruce would like this to be a more technical session and asked the EC for ideas for a topic.

The Executive Committee adjourned at 4:15 PM Eastern. The next conference call will be Monday, November 14, at 2:30 Eastern time.

Minutes submitted by Lisa Harris, KS LTAP, NLTAPA Secretary