NLTAPA Executive Committee at NACE Annual Meeting
Highlights and Action Items
Portland, OR
April 20 – 22, 2008

NLTAPA at NACE:

The NLTAPA EC conducted its annual spring meeting in conjunction with the NACE Annual Meeting and Technical Conference in Portland, OR. This provided a great opportunity for NLTAPA to interact with NACE elected leadership, state and regional representatives and several hundred other NACE members. NLTAPA began its meeting with an early morning NLTAPA planning session on Sunday followed by a series of meetings with the NACE Executive Advisory Committee followed by a meeting with the full NACE Board of Representatives. These meetings mark the first such joint events in the 10 years since NLTAPA and NACE signed the original partnership agreement.

Joint EC Meeting:

The joint NACE/NLTAPA Executive Committee meeting allowed discussion of opportunities to improve the NLTAPA/NACE partnerships at the national and state level. Both organizations agreed that the NLTAPA/NACE partnership is a natural one that has been highly successful at the national level and in many states. To ensure continued progress in the partnership and in the service to our local customers and members the following action steps were agreed upon:

1. The existing NLTAPA/NACE partnership agreement will be reviewed and revised if necessary to reflect the current level of commitment and activity. The revised agreement will be signed again at the NLTAPA business meeting held during the LTAP 2008 Summer Meeting in Breckenridge.
2. Each LTAP Center and state NACE Affiliate will be encouraged to begin a dialog to review the national partnership agreement as well as state specific activities, priorities and expectations. Inclusion of at least one state NACE affiliate representative on the LTAP Advisory Committee is recommended. Development of a simple Memorandum of Understanding or state partnership agreement is encouraged by the NLTAPA and NACE Executive Committees.
3. NLTAPA’s Partnership Committee will work with NACE to develop examples of best practices of NACE Affiliate and LTAP Center joint activities, level of service and relationships.
4. NACE subject matter experts will participate in the upcoming Expert Task Groups that will be formed to evaluate existing materials available for the top training areas selected with input from NACE as part of an ongoing NLTAPA needs assessment. Top areas as confirmed by NACE will include asset management; road safety; and pavement maintenance.
5. Annual evaluation of the partnership agreement and progress at the national level will be scheduled and is encouraged at the state level as well.

NLTAPA at the NACE Board Meeting:

The above action steps were presented by Marie Walsh, President of NLTAPA at the meeting of the full NACE Board. Other NLTAPA speakers at this meeting included Kevin Burke, Ed Stellfox and George Huntington. Kevin Burke, NLTAPA President Elect from the Illinois LTAP, detailed the level of involvement of the IL LTPA Center in the planning activities for the NACE 2009 which will be held in Peoria, IL. Kevin is participating on the NACE conference planning committee and the IL DOT has already committed $10,000 to sponsor the conference. Ed Stellfox and George Huntington presented the results of the NLTAPA needs survey including the feedback received from NACE. The top 3 areas identified by NACE were in LTAPs top five. The NLTAPA process to collect the available resources in the top 3 areas was detailed and participation by NACE requested.

At the conclusion of the meeting the NACE President, George Webb, asked each NACE delegate to show by a hand vote if they perceived their state’s relationship with the state LTAP Center to be good/adequate or in need of improvement. The vast majority of the NACE Delegates indicated strong relationships with their state’s LTAP Center and a few indicated a desire to improve. Informal outreach will be made by the NLTAPA Partnership Committee to the states that indicated a willingness to enhance the NACE/NLTAPA partnership at the State level.

NLTAPA at NACE Delegate Breakfast:

The NACE leadership team invited NTLAPA’s EC members and FHWA representatives to a NACE Delegate breakfast. This allowed the NLTAPA EC representatives to meet with NACE members from similar regions. This allowed informal discussions about NACE/LTAP relationships and gave both groups the opportunity to ask questions and explore ways to enhance communication and strengthen state and even regional relationships. Groups were asked to discuss the idea of regional road or transportation conferences which NACE is interested in pursuing.

NLTAPA and NACE Partnership Committee Meetings:

The joint meeting also allowed the NACE and NLTAPA liaisons, Mike Shehane and Ken Skorseth, respectively to meet with Jim Grothaus, NTLAPA Partnership Chair, and the NLTAPA officers, Marie Walsh, Kevin Burke, and Donna Shea. Topics at this meeting included the joint interest in asset management and road safety. The need for a better approach to Asset Management is becoming more apparent to local agencies with ever dwindling budgets and increased pressure to improve the quality and quantity of services to the public.

NLTAPA EC at NACE Again Next Year!

The NLTAPA EC debriefed at the conclusion of the meetings and decided that next year’s spring EC meeting will be held in conjunction with the NACE Annual Conference in Illinois which will coincide with the NLTAPA presidency of Kevin Burke of the IL LTAP. This decision will allow NLTAPA to more participate at a more integrated level in the NACE conference. The idea of inviting the NACE EC to join LTAP at a future National LTAP conference was also discussed.