Executive Committee Meeting Minutes
November 13, 2006

Attendees: Lisa Harris [KS - chair], Patsy Anderson [KY], Bruce Drewes [ID], Jim Grothaus [MN], George Huntington [WY], Cameron Ishaq [FHWA], Janet Leli [NJ], Ed Stellfox [MD]

Lisa Harris called the meeting to order at 10:08 a.m.

Consent Agenda

Minutes of October 9 EC conference call and the agenda for this call were approved unanimously.

Fall EC meeting follow-up

Focusing NLTAPA external contacts - Lisa, Patsy Anderson, Marie Walsh, Bruce Drewes and Ed Stellfox will meet by conference call to develop recommendations for the EC, based on prior discussions at the EC Fall meeting. Lisa will arrange the call.
Short and long range goals for the Association - Review list and decide if any short term goals need to be done by TRB:
- Committee/work groups structure and terms - Patsy recommends that committees or groups should be limited to 5-8 people per group for terms not to exceed two years, and she will draft a paper on this for the EC by December 11 conference call.
- Internal communications and the possibility of an NLTAPA newsletter - Janet wants to know the status of the Inside LTAP/TTAP newsletter, as the present one looks out-of-date; also asked if the Clearinghouse will be able to manage and archive a proposed new NLTAPA online forum; Lisa and Janet will contact Alison Black directly; work group teams to determine what kinds of info needs to be shared within NLTAPA by December 11 conference call.
- Deepen relationship with FHWA - Bruce thinks there is not enough time to get much done before TRB, but there may be time to meet with some FHWA folks at TRB; further discussion at December 11 call.
- Center needs survey - George put together a draft that he has shared with Ed and that will be discussed at the next training products and resources group call; April may be an aggressive timeline for completion; Patsy points out that Terry McNinch has a survey tool that may be able to help. Ed or George will contact Terry to learn more about it before next week.
- Maximize use of and express NLTAPA wants and needs to Clearinghouse - Lisa and Patsy met with Clark Martin after the EC meeting, and Clark is looking into having the CH handle some accounting, bookkeeping and logistical task as well as helping produce an annual report for NLTAPA; NLTAPA is awaiting response from Clark.
- More participation at TRB - Bruce asked who will prepare the list of relevant TRB activities for LTAPers; the CH used to do it. Lisa will discuss with CH staff, who are new to the program and may need assistance; George recommends that volunteers be solicited at the LTAP business meeting to attend meetings to report back on behalf of the Association; Lisa will follow up on the list of relevant activities. TRB will release its schedule in mid to late November.
- Long range goals to be reviewed at December 11 conference call.
APWA education summit - Draft minutes from EC's Fall meeting say that the EC voted to send the work group chairs and Clark will fund an additional 10-15 Center participants. Lisa asked for verification on that. On behalf of Clark, Cameron Ishaq said that FHWA would be willing to send only the workgroup chairs from Partnerships and Professional Development, plus one person from each region; Lisa wanted to know if the EC intended to send Lisa and Patsy, Cameron says he doesn't know. The EC voted to send Lisa and Patsy and reps from the professional development and training products and resources work groups; Lisa will follow up with Clark on other members he would be willing to fund.
Discussion of the NACE action guides was moved to next conference call, so Marie Walsh can participate.
ACI affiliation - The EC voted unanimously to not have a formal partnership with ACI but to develop a Web page on NLTAPA's site that can advertise opportunities for Centers to work with manufacturing associations. Lisa and Janet will discuss with Clearinghouse. Lisa to consult with Marie about further communications with ACI.
Next steps and overall timeframe for a LTAP client survey - Bruce, on behalf of External Communications, wants to get the client survey going by TRB and will provide draft of survey questions for the EC to review by December 3. External Communications would like Centers to provide around 4 customer e-mail addresses to populate the survey.
AASHTO TIG travel and LTAP tasks in TIG - Lisa recommended that the EC pay for Doyt Bolling travel to AASHTO even though it was unbudgeted, as AASHTO is a key partner for the Association. Lisa noted that the travel should have been identified in a partnership work plan and needs to be in the future; as for tasks, Lisa believes clarification is necessary on the Center tasks Doyt proposed to TIG, George wondered if we should be working with state DOTs directly, and Lisa said that is Doyt's intention; Bruce said that some but not all TIG efforts are of interest to LTAP, and Lisa agreed; Lisa will follow up with Marie for her input and Doyt on creating more specific language and whether he needs EC feedback and endorsement prior to the December 11 EC conference call (if yes, the EC will discuss this item through email).
LTAP 201 - Idea tabled for now; no consensus on what this would entail.
Reminder letter to Centers about LTAP participating in strategic highway safety planning - Lisa will send this to Centers by November 30.
Roadway Safety Foundation board member and membership - Lisa wants to serve on the RSF board in her EC officer capacity; Lisa will send further info on RFS membership to the EC for discussion at the December 11 conference call. Membership is not necessary for service on the board.
Draft TRB agendas - Lisa will email to the EC by November 16.
TCCC description to Centers - Lisa will ask Gib to email her a description he and Ed wrote, so she can distribute it to Centers ASAP. Centers will vote on whether to provide funding to TCCC.
Governing structure Option G feedback - Comments so far have ranged from approval to strong disapproval to conditional approval if the regions are re-aligned; EC will await final comments and forward those to the ad hoc committee. The committee will report back at the December 11 EC conference call.
Contacting ATSSA "opportunity states" re: safety programs - Bruce had offered to contact Centers about possible training cooperation with ATSSA. He said that ATSSA is concentrating on ten states for work zone safety training, but they are not telling who will be doing the training in those states; Lisa points out that it is thus premature to assume that LTAP can provide that training; Bruce and Lisa recommend tabling the discussion for now.
Work group documentation - Patsy asked the work group chairs to tell her the qualifications they are looking for in their groups; she will also provide some preliminary thoughts on this by Thanksgiving.

Reports and Updates

LTAP 2007 conference - Patsy has sent a first agenda to the conference planning committee; working to get speakers in place as well opportunities for partners; Lisa commented that the EC should consult its partners to determine interest and that the EC should also think about what it wants from its partners in this role; Lisa suggested a conferece call before the December EC call with Patsy and Marie and partner liaisons; Patsy also working on a sponsorship format (where other entities can participate through funding events and other opportunities at the conference) including levels of participation, schedule of events and costs etc. by mid-December; a rough draft may be available at the next conference call. Patsy adds that Renee Koller is working on an evaluation process for the conference. Regarding plenary speakers, Patsy says the group is looking for someone that appeals to the broader membership.
AASHTO presentation follow-up - Lisa shared a message from Cheri Marti outlining next steps for NLTAPA after the AASHTO presentation. Cheri will be drafting a follow-up letter to sent to the SCOH. Lisa will have more to report either at the December 11 call or earlier via e-mail.
Bruce Drewes' meeting with International Programs (OIP) - Bruce met with Mike Avery and Henry Nevares in the FHWA Office of International Programs the afternoon after the EC meeting in Arlington. Bruce said OIP is looking for a stronger relationship with LTAP. The main focus for OIP is Iraq, Kuwait and British Columbia, with other projects ongoing or on the horizon; there are opportunities and money for trainers and capabilities to meet the needs of these projects. Bruce and Lisa have talked about some next steps to work with the EC to expand the Association's relationship with OIP. Bruce also spoke with the Hana Maier, the FHWA coordinator of scanning tours, about desired qualifications for a new LTAP member of the scanning group. Bruce working on a note to Mike outlining NLTAPA's role for Lisa and Mike to review; will go to EC for comment before Thanksgiving; Lisa will contact Hana to follow up on the scanning group.
Ongoing contact with NTTD - Bruce indicates that there is idea for NTTD and NLTAPA to hold a joint conference call twice a year; there has also been talk about having some kind of regular contact between NLTAPA and NTTD. Lisa asked for Bruce to include her in any next-steps discussions with Ray Belk.
SPC update - Cameron indicated that he is working on the location and agenda for the next SPC meeting; he is planning on a mid-to-late February date. This meeting will likely span three full days instead of two. Cameron said this SPC meeting will be longer to discuss the progress of the present LTAP/TTAP Strategic Plan and begin to think about interim changes to the performance measures, and he hopes to have logistics and a draft agenda completed well before TRB. Returning to Coeur-d'Alene, ID to coincide with Bruce's local roads conference is an option, with Santa Fe, NM also being considered.
Report any recent changes in LTAP Center staff - George says that ND LTAP is moving to the upper great plains UTC and Gary Berreth will be the new Director; he expects that there will also be new staff in ND; Janet offers that CT director Peter Montenegro has resigned effective November 30, but no replacement has been named. SD LTAP has two new technical service providers: Ron Marshall, PE, and Don Hosek.

Work Group Updates

Partnerships - Marie is not on the call, so no report at this time.
Training Products and Resources - Ed says that group will consider George's draft survey next week.
Professional Development - Jim has no report at this time.
External communications - Bruce has no report at this time.
Internal communications - Janet has had discussions with Patsy on potential new members for this work group, will send out info to EC next week.

Upcoming Meetings

EC calls - 10:00 Eastern -Dec 11, Jan 8, Feb 12, March 12
Winter EC and NLTAPA meetings - January 21
Spring EC Meeting - April 17-19, 2007 in Baton Rouge, LA

Meeting adjourned by Lisa Harris at 11:44 a.m.

Minutes by Cameron Ishaq