RAC Task Group 1 (Administration) Conference Call

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

1:30 – 3:30 P.M. Eastern time

Meeting Notes

Participants:Steve Pepin and Skip Paul (co-chairs), Barnie Jones,Chris Hedges,Alison Hardt, Amy Schutzbach.

Decision and action items are underscored.

  1. Minutes from 2/9 meeting

The minutes were accepted by consensus.

  1. Revision to the Task Force Mission Statement to incorporate the Education TF

The revised mission statement was presented to the RAC Officers at their most recent conference call. (Note: Task force mission statements do not require formal approval by the Officers). The mission statement was adopted by consensus. Chris Hedges will post the new mission statement on the RAC/SCOR web site.

  1. RAC 101

For the RAC 101 session at the national RAC meeting in Salt Lake City, three options were discussed for scheduling – Sunday night before the meeting begins, Monday morning opposite the RAC/CUTC meeting, or after (or during)the reception on Monday night. A decision on the schedule will be made at the next conference call. The RAC 101 presentation will be sent to new members about a month before the meeting.

Chris Hedges will talk to Chris Jenks to see how many new members have been appointed since last year’s national meeting. Note: RAC members appointed in the past year are Jay Wasson (Indiana), Cameron Kergaye (Utah), and Chris Hanning (Arkansas).

Skip will send an email to the presenters from last year’s RAC 101 to review their material from last year and suggest any revisions, updates, or additions needed. Chris Hedges will distribute last year’s presentation to the task force members.

  1. Mentoring Program

Skip raised the subject again during the most recent RAC Officers’ call. Not all of the regional chairs were on the call, but it was reported that Wes Lum is mentoring Cameron Kergaye from Utah, Amy is mentoring Jennifer Gallagher from Ohio. Chris Hedges will suggest that Chris Jenks mention the mentoring program in the letter welcoming new RAC members.

  1. SCOR Strategic Plan and how the Task Forces are supporting the items.

Skip has reviewed the SCOR plan and identified items relevant to the Administration task force. The task force status report has been updated to reflect current activities. Steve Pepin will talk to Rick for clarification on any actions needed by the task force.

  1. RAC/CUTC Liaison Meeting -draft brief guidelines for UTC participation in RAC.

Draft language was presented at the most recent RAC Officers’ conference call. Questions arose concerning the designation of “friends” versus “associate members”. Some task forces are including non-RAC, voting“associate members”, but according to the RAC operating guidelines, voting associate members must be appointed by the RAC Officers. Steve and Skip will discuss how to handle this clarification during the next RAC Officers call in two weeks.

  1. Summer RAC meeting activities and discussions.

An agenda for the task force meeting will need to be developed. Task Force members should give some thought to items that should be included.

  1. SCOHStrategic Plan Task 8

ACTION 1: SCOH will prioritize and recommend three to five projects that emphasize high payoff, cross-cutting research areas of critical interest to the chief engineers. SCOH also will be more involved in prioritizing projects submitted to SCOR by its Subcommittees.

Skip will speak to Sandra Larson about the implications of the second sentence in action 1.

ACTION 2: SCOH will ensure that the projects that are implementable within its charge, including those by the subcommittees, are piloted and the outcomes and results will be packaged for appropriate marketing that can be easily reviewed, understood, and adopted by the states, such as short videos, technical briefs, and other materials. SCOH will also ensure that training is developed and deployed to implement these innovative.

There is a related action item assigned to the task force from the SCOR strategic plan:Proposed activity no. 10 - Assist NCHRP staff to institutionalize training as a component of NCHRP studies where appropriate (SCOR goal 4.B.1). Steve and Skip will raise the topic with the RAC Officers to seek additional clarification on the scope of the task force’s assignment.

ACTION 4: SCOH will appoint a task force or use NCHRP funds to hire a consultant to document the current process of implementing improvements to AASHTO technical standards and have recommendations on options to accelerate updating of manuals and broaden publication development and delivery formats. For significant changes that SCOH desires to fast-track into practice through its guidance and policy manuals. SCOH will use electronic ballots to approve technical memoranda instead of waiting for the update and acceptance of complete new manuals and standards.

The Administration Task Force has completed and submitted its recommendations on this topic.

  1. Other items

During a recent meeting of the RAC-CUTC Liaison Group, Skip suggested that the Administration task force may wish to develop a one-page summary of state DOT research capabilities similar to those developed by and for the CUTC members. Skip will develop a template for the one-page summary and distribute it to the task force for review.

  1. Next call: March 29, 2011 at 1:30 p.m. Eastern time.

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