Meeting Notes

RAC Task Force on Administration

Conference Call

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

1:30 pm – 3:00 pm

In attendance: Steve Pepin (co-chair), Allison Hardt (co-chair),Moy Biswas, Dale Peabody, Amy Schutzbach, Dawn Vanlandingham

Absent: Clint Adler, George Colgrove, Cynthia Gerst, Chris Hedges, Rod Montney, Elisha Wright-Kehner, Skip Paul, James Watkins

Action items underscored.

  1. Introductions

The list of attendees on the call was read.

  1. Meeting Notes from April 30, 2013

A motion (SCHUTZBACH/HARDT) to accept the meeting notes was approved.

  1. Existing Business
  • Website Subcomittee:

The Website Subcommittee has developed some recommendations for changes to the website, which are now in the process of being implemented. The group will continue to review and make recommendations on the site. The next Subcommittee call will be held on June 24th. They will also meet during the Nation RAC/TRB State Reps meeting in Baton Rouge in July.

  • “Ahead of the Curve: Mastering the Management of Transportation Research & Innovation”.

There were no updates for this call.

  • DOT Fact Sheets

45 states are now listed on the website. The only states that have not posted a Fact Sheet are MA, RI (Region 1), TN (Region 2), ND, SD (Region 4).

  • The 2013 National RAC MeetingJuly 14-18, in Baton Rouge, LA

The Administration Task Force is responsible for RAC 101 and has been working hard to identify the following presenters and update the various sections:

Introduction and Mentoring – Dale Peabody

SCOR/RAC Website/New Members Handbook – Amy Schutzbach

RAC Task Forces – David Jared

Peer Exchanges – Camille Crichton-Sumners

Transportation Pooled Fund Program – Chris Jolly (FHWA Vermont Division)

Sharing Information & Cooperative Programs – Chris Hedges

Seven Keys – Cynthia Gerst

TRB State Representatives – Mark Norman

Allisonwill send the final presentation to all of RAC by the first week of July to allow time for new members to review it prior to the meeting.

The Admin. Task Force will also meet during the meeting from 1:00 – 2:30 on Monday July 15th. Discussion items include an update on the RAC/SCOR website, results of the RAC Winter Meeting survey, summary of the feedback provided on the Mentoring Program, and a discussion of RAC 101 (e.g. should presenters be limited to only RAC members?).

In preparation for the Task Force Meeting in Baton Rouge, Allison will summarize feedback received on the mentoring program and the RAC Winter Meeting survey results, and distribute them in time for the June 25th conference call.

  • Sequence for Transportation Research, Analytics, and Implementation.

The group would like a little more discussion on what Ron Curb has in mind so this agenda item was tabled until the June 25th call.

  • Interaction with other Task Forces

Dale led the first conference call of the RAC Task Force Chairs in May. During the call the group agreed that a quarterly call to discuss what each group is doing, would be useful. The next call will be August 19th. Because this item has been addressed, it can be dropped as an agenda item for the Admin. Task Force.

  1. New Business

The issue or whether or not RAC Leadership should meet during the TRB Annual Meeting was raised. While leadership currently has a monthly conference call, the call also includes AASHTO, FHWA, RITA, TRB, etc. The consensus was that there would be value to this meeting but it would be difficult to schedule.

  1. Items for RAC Leadership

Allison & Skip will mention the suggestion that it might be beneficial for RAC leadership to meet during the TRB Annual Meeting.

  1. Open Discussion

No additional issues were raised.

  1. Next Call – Tuesday, June 25th from 1:30 – 3:00 pm

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