Meeting Notes RAC Task Force on Administration Conference Call Tuesday, March 19th, 2013 1:30 pm – 3:00 pm In attendance: Steve Pepin (co-chair), Allison Hardt (co-chair), Clint Adler, Moy Biswas, Ron Curb, Chris Hedges, Skip Paul, Rod Montney, Amy Schutzbach, James Watkins. Absent: George Colgrove, Elisha Wright-Kehner. Action items underscored. 1. Introductions Chris Hedges identified those on the call. Steve Pepin welcomed all participants and called the meeting to order. 2. Previous Meeting Notes A motion (Schutzbach/Hardt) to accept the meeting notes was approved. 3. Existing Business Website Working Group See attached email and Word document from Cynthia Gerst. The next Website Working Group call will take place on March 25. Recommendations have been presented for changes to the menu structure. “Ahead of the Curve: Mastering the Management of Transportation Research & Innovation”. The first conference call will be held April 17. Formation of the working group is now complete and includes the following members: RAC list (current/former/honorary): Michael Bonini, Mara Campbell, Anne Ellis, Cynthia Gerst, Chris Hedges, Sandra Larson, Martin Parker, Ned Parrish, Skip Paul, Stephen Pepin, and Daniel Yeh. 1 The other members: Barbara Harder, Mark Norman (TRB), Jason Bittner (U South Florida), Hau Hagedorn (OTREC), Martin Pietrucha (Penn State), Kim Fisher (TRB), Shashi Nambisan (Iowa State), Victoria Beale (Ohio LTAP), Gregor Benz (Parsons Brinkerhoff), Chandra Bhat (U Texas), Kirk Steudle (Michigan DOT), Debra Elston (FHWA), Sue McNeil (U Delaware), Laura Melendy (U Berkeley), Neil Pedersen (TRB), Larry Rilett (U Nevada), and Katie Turnbull (Texas A&M). DOT Fact Sheets – request for updates Allison Hardt: 10 states have responded to date; eight have provided updates. Allison plans to contact the Canadian affiliate members and invite them to submit fact sheets for their own organizations. National RAC Meetings July 14-18, in Baton Rouge, LA The website is officially up and registration is now available. Revision process for RAC 101 for presentation in July 2013 Steve has still not heard back from George Colgrove and asked for a volunteer to take the lead. James Watkins and Clint Adler offered to help if someone else took the lead role. Skip Paul outlined the process: review all sections of the RAC 101 PPT and update if necessary; ask Chris Jenks to identify new members; send new members the RAC 101 PPT in advance of the summer meeting; organize a session at the summer meeting with the leader of each RAC 101 component speaking for five minutes, followed by audience comments and questions. Steve will follow up with Allison to discuss next steps. Agenda items for the Admin TF meeting at the summer meeting: a) RAC Winter Meeting – Discussion of the purpose, structure, schedule, and format. It was reported that several RAC members expressed dissatisfaction at the January 2013 meeting. Ron Curb – it would be helpful if the speakers coordinated their presentations to avoid duplication with other sessions and each other. Clint and Amy - Implementation of SHRP 2 will still be a relevant topic for discussion at the 2014 meeting. Skip – The summer meeting will feature several presentations on SHRP 2 implementation followed by a one-hour open workshop or discussion forum. Part of the discussion will cover how well the various national and state bodies are working together. Chris Hedges – RAC could also structure the winter 2 meeting as a business meeting; all options are still on the table. Clint – use the SCOR strategic plan to identify significant elements for the winter agenda. Chris – consider a “red meat” session similar to the one held annually at the TRB Executive Committee meeting, during which an invited speaker delivers a presentation and facilitates a discussion on a current high-priority topic. Steve – the first step will be to survey the RAC members to get their thoughts and ideas on the winter meeting. Steve and Allison will lead the effort and Chris will provide assistance in the survey. b) Clint suggested that performance management for research programs might be an appropriate item for the summer Task Force agenda. Mentoring Update Regional chairs have checked in and the program seems to be working well. Amy – consider surveying RAC 101 participants for their experiences with mentoring. Chris – it may be time to review the mentoring material provided on the website and evaluate the need for any revisions or updates. Moy – ask specific mentors and mentees partners to comment on their experiences. Amy – it is important for new members to know that they can contact their mentor any time they need help or advice. This item will be carried forward for discussion at future meetings. Increasing State DOT involvement in RAC Allison plans to follow up with Debra Nelson, TRB state representative for New York DOT. She also plans to contact regional chairs to identify states with non-participating RAC members and explore ways to get their state more involved, possibly through designation of a secondary RAC representative. Peer Exchange Reports Skip sent an email earlier this week inviting RAC members to submit peer exchange reports for posting on the SCOR/RAC website if they have not already done so. Clint asked what other process reviews are required and conducted by FHWA. Skip offered to share the latest process review done in Louisiana. 4. New Business Email from Barnie 3 Barnie will be retiring from the Oregon DOT and from RAC at the end of March. Task Force members are encouraged to send their best wishes, and the RAC Officers will be asked whether they want to present a tribute to Barnie on behalf of RAC. Interaction with other Task Forces Steve and Allison will follow up with the RAC leadership. Ron suggested that the Task Forces on Administration, Collaboration and Coordination, and Transportation Knowledge Networks collaborate on developing a generic sequence of the steps involved in the research process from idea to final product. (see attachment) The results could help states identify the best research programs to address given topics by assigning local, regional, and national priorities. 5. Items for RAC Leadership Identified items included mentoring, RAC 101, states with limited RAC participation, the RAC winter meeting agenda, and recognition of Barnie Jones’ service to RAC 6. Open Discussion 7. Next Call – Tuesday, April 30th from 1:30 – 3:00 pm 4 AASHTO RAC Web Site Subcommittee Conference Call Monday, March 25, 2013 MEETING NOTES Participants: Allison Hardt, Sue Sillick, Adam Woodyard, Chris Hedges. 1. Previous Meeting Notes: The Minutes from 2/25/13 were approved by consensus. 2. Action Items (a) Proposed modifications for the mouse-over menu structure. As a result of the discussion, the recommendations have been revised, with additions marked in red text (see attachment). These will be addressed at the next conference call. (b) Review of the existing menu of the RAC site. Suggested changes or items for discussion are incorporated in the proposed modifications document mentioned above. 3. New Business (a) Task Force Mission sheet from Leni Given that there is already a landing page for the Task Forces with membership and mission statements, it is not clear whether there is a need to add this page to the website. A decision will be made at the next conference call. 4. Next Steps Proposed Assignment: Review Home page http://research.transportation.org/Pages/default.aspx o Define criteria and/or guidelines for content on the home page. o What is the audience for the site: who are they and what do they need? o What should be on the home page? o How long should it be there? o Can we get alerts, subscriptions, or RSS feeds alerting RAC members of changes to the home page or specific pages on the site? (Natassja will look into this) 5 o Review the order of the items in the menu and submenus. o Review the titles and content of the sections “Research Projects and Results”, “Contacts and Programs”, and “Resources for Research Managers”. o Review content of the FAQ section. 5. Next Meeting: 4/29/13 1:30 – 2:30 pm Eastern Time. 6 7