Executive Committee Meeting Minutes
March 12, 2007
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Attendees: Janet Leli, New Jersey LTAP; Alison Black, ARTBA – FHWA Clearinghouse; Lisa Harris, Kansas LTAP and NLTAPA President; Marie Walsh, Louisiana LTAP; George Huntington, Wyoming LTAP; Patsy Anderson, Kentucky LTAP; Cameron Ishaq, FHWA – OPCD; Ed Stellfox, Maryland LTAP. Having a quorum, Lisa called the meeting to order at 11:07 EDT. Ed had not yet joined the call. A brief discussion on the taking of minutes at EC meetings took place. Alison said that the Clearinghouse is in discussions with FHWA regarding ARTBA's taking minutes but an agreement has not yet been reached. George agreed to take the minutes on an interim basis. Harris reviewed LTAP's major outside contacts and who are involved: Consent Agenda
The Consent Agenda was unanimously approved. Approval of AgendaThe agenda was pulled from the consent agenda to make the following changes:
The agenda, as revised, was approved unanimously. A proposal for a survey of LTAP/TTAP customers that the External Communications workgroup has been working on was reviewed. It was mentioned that Bruce Drewes is no longer with this work group and that Bernie Alkire has agreed to take over as chairperson until the end of July. It was pointed out that statement in the introduction to draft survey that "the EC approved moving forward with a series of targeted surveys of LTAP/TTAP Center clients—4 clients per center, maybe 3 or 4 surveys per year" was not correct, and that the EC had instead requested a proposal for EC consideration and action. Discussion of the proposed survey brought up several concerns. As written, those being surveyed would not being selected in a statistically valid manner. While the questions seem to be directed towards developing LTAP-customer services, the stated purpose of the survey is to advocate and justify funding during future reauthorizations. Other questions asked how we define who is the "Policy Maker" and who should be filling out the survey. EC members commented that the workgroup needs more direction from the EC, that the workgroup should be allowed to do their job, and that the survey needs to be beta-tested. Lisa moved and Jim seconded a motion that further discussion of this survey take place at the Executive Committee's spring meeting with the goal of moving forward with the survey or deciding not to do it. The motion passed unanimously. Patsy described the status of the proposed NLTAPA Annual Report. She hopes to have an 8 or 9 page report containing, among other things, reports from the Regional meetings, along with photographs. The report might also include updates on activities with partners. Patsy agreed to come up with bullet items for activities that might be included in the reports from each region and some guidance for length of the reports. Lisa suggested the EC decide the contents of the annual report and what will be reported from the regions at the Executive Committee spring meeting since no other regional meetings (except Region 6) will take place in the interim. The EC discussed the need for a strategy for education for the next reauthorization. Lisa moved and Patsy seconded a motion that this issue be further discussed at the Executive Committee's spring meeting and that the External Communications workgroup should develop a strategy education for the next reauthorization. Lisa also reported that she met recently at the FHWA Office of Safety with senior level officials of transportation associations (AASHTO, APWA, NACE, ATSSA, AAMVA, GHSA, IACP, IAFC, ITE, TRB and NHTSA) to explore partnerships on safety initiatives and discuss new ideas for improving safety on the nation's roads. The purpose of this group's meeting was to come up with recommendations; their next meeting will be in June. Patsy asked if the External Communications workgroup would be allowed to send a representative to this group; Lisa will ask. Lisa stated that Bernie Alkire was willing to chair the External Communications workgroup. Marie moved and Jim seconded a motion that Bernie Alkire be appointed chair of the External Communications workgroup through the July national conference. The motion passed unanimously. The agenda for the spring Executive Committee meeting to be held in Baton Rouge was discussed. The meeting will take place all day April 17th and 18th and the morning of April 19th. Agenda items are to include:
Marie mentioned that a tour of Katrina's destruction might be planned for the afternoon of the 19th. Workgroup Reports and UpdatesMarie reported on the activities of the Partnership workgroup. A message sent to NACE members about ATSSA's work zone training was mentioned briefly. Marie provided that status of the NACE action Guides update project. Jim-G has been working with a group including Marie, Lisa, Gib Peaslee, FHWA-OPCD, Ken Skorseth—South Dakota LTAP, Mike Sheehan—NACE's LTAP liaison, and Tony Giancola; this group will review the priorities for revision of the Action Guides. Jim said he has arranged for a consultant in Minnesota to coordinate the activities of a group including Ken, Mike, Jim, the consultant, and a few Minnesota County Engineers. They will put together recommendations as to the next steps to be taken in the revision of the top priority action Guides, and report back to Tony by the NACE national meeting in Milwaukee in April. Marie suggested that the Action Guides should be addressed in the Center Needs Assessment. Lisa asked Jim to summarize in writing the process of revising the NACE Action Guides. No activities are currently taking place with the Salt Institute. Dick Hanneman has submitted requests to FHWA and Marie has asked OPCD about the status of those; the Winter Maintenance group is to meet at the APWA snow conference in April. The APWA Education Summit will be held at the end of March, and LTAP/TTAP will be represented there. Peter King will be discussing the APWA reorganization plans in Denver. Marie has not heard from Doyt Bolling or Mike McGough about progress with AASHTO. The letter from NLTAPA regarding Cheri Marti's presentation at the AASHTO meeting is still with Clark Martin, awaiting revision. The character of NLTAPA's relationship with AASHTO needs to be evaluated, perhaps with the External Communications workgroup; perhaps NLTAPA should have both a representative to the TIG and one at a more strategic level. George briefly described the activities of the Training Products and Resources workgroup. Ed is working with the Dick Hanneman on the Winter Maintenance group, and also with the TCCC. The Center Needs Assessment was beta-tested by Marie's region; the work group will revise the Needs Assessment based on their experiences and present the results at the Executive Committee's spring meeting. Jim discussed the activities of the Professional Development workgroup. He has been working with Dan Cady and Linda Howe-Steiger; Jim got information on the annual awards from Linda and will have it at the Executive Committee's spring meeting. The workgroup is looking for a representative from a DOT-based Center since Leonard Brown has left the workgroup. Janet discussed the activities of the Internal Communications workgroup. They had a conference call last month. Janet requested and received the support of the Executive Committee to host a roundtable conference call discussing interactions with UTCs. Janet said she would moderate the first conference call. Lisa mentioned that it would be the moderator's responsibility to line up experts in the topics to be addressed at each roundtable conference call. Lisa mentioned that the Program Strategies group has proposed an evaluation of the association. Further activities will be determined at a later date. Patsy discussed the status of the 2007 national conference in Chicago. The conference Web site is up and running. The registration form will be available by April. The conference committee is now gathering speaker information forms. Involvement of partners in the national conference was discussed; Marie and Lisa will discuss the format for their involvement and get the information to Patsy for inclusion on the Web site. Lisa will invite the partners to attend. Cameron gave a brief update on the activities of the FHWA's Office of Professional and Corporate Development (OPCD), in Clark's absence. Clark Martin is working on the LTAP business plan, the LTAP Clearinghouse report, and the AASHTO letter, so Cameron could not go into much detail on these topics. He said that the Strategic Planning Committee is meeting April 3rd, 4th, and 5th in Austin. He will get a draft of the agenda out this week. The relationship between NLTAPA and FHWA was discussed, particularly the level of cooperation and integration between the two organizations. EC members noted that integration is desired for efficiency, at that some autonomy is also important. The work of the Roles and Responsibilities Group was discussed; the distinction between the Partnerships and External Communications workgroups was mentioned. The difficulty of having this discussion without Clark Martin (who will not be able to attend the Executive Committee's spring meeting) was mentioned. Some input to the activities of the Strategic Planning Committee may be done by email. Topics for their upcoming meeting may include reporting to the OMB and clarifying LTAP/TTAP's niche in the overall transportation system. Alison briefly described a number of activities of the LTAP Clearinghouse, which included: a presentation to reservation representatives at the IRR meeting in February in New Mexico; meeting with FHWA about the new Clearinghouse Web site which should go live in June; working with the Clearinghouse Steering Committee; getting speakers for LTAP 101; sending out publications for various LTAP/TTAP Centers; working on the PAR analysis; providing notices from the Federal Register; updating the trainer list on the webpage; compiling minutes from TRB which includes a three to five minute audio file; compiling a report on the use of the NLTAPA website which Lisa commented would be useful to the Internal Communications workgroup; and preparation of the newsletter, 'Inside LTAP,' which should be out next week. Changes in LTAP Staff. Lisa announced that Rose Lichtenberg will be retiring from the Kansas LTAP in June or July. The list of activities on the agenda titled Take Note – FYI was noted. No items were pulled for discussion. These items were as follows:
The next conference call will be April 9th at 11:00 am EDT, and the May conference call will be May 14th, also at 11:00 am EDT. Lisa adjourned the meeting at 12:38 am EDT. Minutes prepared by George Huntington. |
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