National LTAP Association Executive Committee Meeting Minutes
November 19, 2007 Conference Call
11 AM Eastern

Consent Items
Marie Walsh
5 Minutes

Discussion:

• Approve October conference call minutes
  Approve this agenda
• Moved by Donna and seconded by Laura that the EC accept the October minutes. Approved without opposition.
• Moved by George and seconded by Janet that the EC approve this agenda. Approved without opposition.

1.0 Stakeholder Relationships

1.1 External Communications
Donna Shea
5 Minutes

Discussion: Donna reported the external communications workgroup has made significant progress since the last EC meeting. During the visit to D. C. for the C/H Steering Committee meeting, Donna reviewed the new marketing materials being developed and feels they will allow us to communicate better with partners, stakeholders and external groups. Donna will be meeting with the CH representatives next week to submit a list of information for updating the reauthorization briefing sheets. There will be 2 sets of briefing sheet drafts ready for EC review at the December meeting, 1 for NACE; APWA and ARTBA and 1 for AASHTO and state DOTs. They plan to meet next Monday (11/26/2007). The committee will encourage centers to distribute annual reports and newsletters to state stakeholders. Donna strongly recommends each center check their mailing lists for all key stakeholders; she found several omissions on hers. Alison asked that the EC members look at the trainer database and on-line PAR form and expect a demonstration at the December meeting.

1.2 Partnership Update
Marie Walsh
5 minutes

Discussion: Marie noted we are meeting with all partners at the EC meeting in December, APWA, AASHTO, NACE, ARTBA and FHWA. Marie talked about the need to have a discussion with the SALT Institute about that partnership. Marie thanked Lisa H. for volunteering to help Jim with covering the APWA Transportation and Technology committee meetings. Clark suggested the EC add the FHWA Asset Management section to the December agenda, coordinating with Jim Sorenson.

1.4 December Meeting
Marie Walsh
10 Minutes

Discussion: FHWA and Marie will talk after this call about finalizing activities for the December EC meeting. Marie noted that the meeting was already jammed full with all the activities already scheduled. Marie observed that the EC had been hesitant to invite more than 1 person per group given the time constraints.

2.0 Center Needs/Training Products and Resources

2.1 Internal Communications
Janet Leli
5 Minutes

Discussion: 10/26/07 Needs Assessment (NA) discussion roundtable was the second session using the Seminar Room technology. Session went very well, nothing went wrong and Denise noted that more documents to be shown will make it go even better. Janet said that the participants had great things to share and that minutes were taken and a place to post those minutes so everyone could have access to them was needed. There was some question as to whether they should be posted on the C/H or the NLTAPA website. Janet noted that there would be a final meeting of the Internal Communication Committee this calendar year, which will take place the second week in December (after the EC meeting).

2.2 Professional Development
Laura Melendy
10 Minutes

Discussion: Laura reported that the group had been working on the New Director Forum (NDF) to be offered at TRB. The group was wondering how to structure it and had assembled an ad-hoc group to pull it together. They were also planning on having the same session at the annual conference in July and are assembling a list of people and topics. There was some discussion of making the orientation a plenary session, but Donna said the plenary session planning was complete. Consensus was that the NDO should be a 1.5 to 2 hour session where new managers could sit with experienced Directors and have an open discussion about what is on the new director's minds.

2.3 Training Products and Resources (TPR) Workgroup
Ed Stellfox/George Huntington
10 Minutes

Discussion: George reported that they had identified 20 specific topics to prioritize based on the needs assessment. They want to prioritize these topics using the TCCC format. Once the priorities are established through a survey, populate the training resource database according to those topics and priorities. They have a sample survey prepared and can send it out to the centers. The original thinking was to send it out after the holidays, but the EC did not want to wait that long. Marie suggested the sample survey be sent to the EC for comment and correction and then send the survey out right after the December EC meeting (week of 11 December) and then a follow-up survey in early January 2008. The EC decided the survey would be sent only to Directors. Marie asked the TPR workgroup what help they needed from the EC and Ed said they needed the EC to look at the pilot survey, discuss the final survey with the center directors in their region and follow-up with them to get the survey's complete. Once the survey is complete, TPR asks that the EC follow-up with centers to explain how the survey relates to populating the training resource database and encouraging the centers to submit their information for the database.

The next part of the discussion centered on the structure and population of the LTAP/TTAP training resources database being created by the CH. George had sent a copy of the revised database structure recommendations to each EC member. There are 27 fields and the work group is asking that each field be completed for each course. There was concern among the EC, about entering that amount of information for the 72-75 courses that most centers have in their inventory and further concern that some of the fields were not particularly relevant or easy to generate for LTAP/TTAP. Alison noted that the goal is to create a database of all LTAP/TTAP resources that will mirror and integrate into the TCCC database (where these fields originally came from). It was suggested that entering the entire 20 topics identified as needs by the LTAP/TTAP centers would be very time consuming for many centers and that we should begin by concentrating on courses that address the top 10 topics identified on the survey.

Marie observed that the EC members have all of the necessary information to make decisions about this very important topic and that they should review the information between now and the December meeting and be prepared to make decisions and recommendations.

2.4 Clearinghouse
Alison Black
10 Minutes

Discussion: Alison observed that the CH would have the final drafts of the LTAP/TTAP marketing materials ready for the EC meeting in early December and that the Trainer database and on-line PAR form are ready for review and she urged the EC members to take a look at those prior to the December meeting so they could provide feedback. She said the plan was to complete the marketing materials before the end of the year and to aggressively populate the Training Resources and Trainer databases during the coming year. She noted that there will be 2 options for entering and updating the Trainer database; the centers can enter information about trainers and then the trainers can review and update their profile. Marie stated that the EC members should prepare themselves to do some arm-twisting to get these databases populated and that we were very appreciative of the efforts the CH has made in these areas.

3.0 FHWA Update

3.1 FHWA Update
Clark Martin
10 Minutes

Discussion: Clark asked that NLTAPA continue to make safety a priority and that FHWA office of Safety John Dewar And Karen Timpone were prepared to offer more support in this effort. He asked that the EC members be prepared to discuss how the Seminar room and training priority discussions derived from the upcoming survey could be worked into the safety effort. Clark mentioned the funding had been secured via a continuing resolution good through 12/14/07 and that any center that was experiencing difficulty because of the lack of funding could get a 1/4 fiscal year disbursement if needed. He expected there to be either a budget bill passed or a continuing resolution through the end of January.

There was discussion about making the interim report on the Safety Circuit Rider program available, including the PPT. (Janet has a copy of the PPT and could distribute it to the EC members and centers if no other mechanism is available.) Clark noted that all centers should know what is going on with the SCR program and a synopsis of the web conference should be sent to all centers as soon as it is avaiable.

There was discussion about NHTSA's role at the NLTAPA annual conference and Mike suggested that NLTAPA might want to consider a plenary session, as NHTSA has the 402 funds and the mandate to work on improving highway safety on the behavioral side. Donna noted that all of the plenary sessions had already been planned.

4.0 NLTAPA Business and Administration

4.1 NLTAPA Association Secretary
Marie Walsh
10 Minutes

Discussion: Larry said Patsy sent a box of materials and he is still sorting them and digesting the duties. He wanted to remind everyone is will be recording the EC calls in the future to prepare the minutes.

4.2 NLTAPA Treasurer Transition
Bernie Alkire
10 Minutes

Discussion: Bernie said the treasurer transition is almost complete. He has sent out invoices and received payment from 22 centers. He will send reminder invoices after the 1st of the year when many centers receive their funds.

There is 45,000.00 in the bank and another 15,000.00 still to come from Duane Smith.

After reviewing the information to put together the new budget, he noted that NLTAPA spends about 15-20 K per year. He asked that the EC consider putting about 20 K in a short term CD earning interest, rather than sitting in a checking account. Someone raised the question about the Association being able to invest the money and Marie asked Bernie to research that and report to the EC at the December meeting.

Marie said we need all committee chairs to have workplans and proposed budgets ready for discussion at the December meeting and asked Bernie to distribute a copy of the spreadsheet with last year's budget information to the EC to aid the chairs in their budget preparations.

4.3 NLTAPA 2008 Conference
Kevin Burke
10 Minutes

Discussion: Conference is on track to have a draft agenda ready for TRB. Donna has most of the plenary sessions filled and all but 1 of the chairs is in place. Kevin said he was having trouble finding a chair for the technical track, but was continuing to work on it.

Have not quite finished clearing up the finances from the 2006 conference, but expects to have that complete and the funds send to Bernie by mid-January.

5.0 Upcoming Meetings and Future Agenda Items

5.1 Upcoming Meetings

5.2 Future Agenda Items