CONFERENCE CALL MEETING NOTES

RAC Task Force on Administration

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

1:30 – 3:00pm

In attendance: Allison Hardt (Chair), Cynthia Jones (acting chair), Michael Bufalino, Chris Hedges,Beth Klemann, Carolyn Morehouse,Amy Schutzbach, James Watkins, Elisha Wright-Kehner.

Decisions and action items are underscored.

1.Meeting Agenda – Allison

A MOTION (Cynthia/Amy) to APPROVE the agenda was approved.

2.Previous Meeting Notes (see attached)

A MOTION (Amy/Beth) to APPROVE the previous notes was approved

Existing Business Updates

3.RAC Mentoring Guidelines (James)

Amy has provided review comments; James asked the other task force members to comment at their earliest convenience before the next conference call.

4.RAC Winter Meeting Agenda (Elisha and James)

The RAC Leadership approved the concept of rotating the responsibility for the winter RAC meeting, in which the responsibility will fall to task force members from the region that will be organizing the summer RAC meeting in the next calendar year. Since Region 2 is hosting the 2017 summer RAC meeting, they will be planning the January session at the 2016 TRB annual meeting. James and Elisha will follow up with Allison, Skip, and Dale. James and Elisha will be invited to the October 8th RAC officers call.

5.RAC 101 Webinar (Carolyn)

Carolyn has reviewed the webinar. She noted that it covers the information thoroughly, but it is fairly long at nearly two hours. Some editing at the beginning and end would be an improvement. Allison suggested looking into whether the webinar could be broken up into individual sections. Chris Hedges will look into it and see what’s possible.

6.“Ahead of the Curve” Updates (Cynthia)

Cynthia has received lots of feedback, including some suggestions for improvements. The course outlines being developed under NCHRP 20-105 are due in mid-October. Cynthia has asked the Providence meeting organizers for a placeholder time slot on the Sunday before the meeting begins.

7.Your Role in RAC (Cynthia)

Cynthia has asked the Region 1 organizers to provide time on the Providence agenda for this session. She will lead a review and selection of topics over the coming months.

8.Website Working Group (Allison and Cynthia)

After discussion of alternative names for the group, they have settled on the “SCOR/RAC Website Working Group”. The name was approved by a vote of participants on the call.

Cynthia – there was discussion during the leadership call that RAC members do not know when changes are made to the site. RAC Chair Skip Paul indicated he was OK with the task force communicating to RAC members directly. The group has also set up an RSS feed to keep members informed of changes to the site.

9.SCOR Strategic Plan Review (Elisha)

Elisha is about 25% through her review and hopes to present the full results during the next call in October.

10.Guidance Document for Hosting National RAC Meetings (Michael)

Michael volunteered to put this together; he is reviewing the existing guidelines and adding new material. He is also participating in the planning calls for the Providence meeting. Michael will have a draft to present at the next conference call in October. Sponsorship planning and strategies were discussed duringthe last RAC leadership call. Some states have ethical guidelines that prohibit soliciting sponsorships. Michael will include a discussion of sponsorship issues in the planning guidelines.

11.RAC Task Force Membership Spreadsheet Update (Allison)

Cynthia has updated the spreadsheet. Allison recalled that the RAC Officers have had discussion about titles of members, associate members, friends, affiliates, non-voting members, etc. Skip Paul noted that any recommendations should be presented to the RAC Officers since they might have implications to the RAC Operating Guidelines. Allison noted that TRB and FHWA staff are generally described as associate members. Michael noted that the more titles, the more difficult it is to keep the membership lists up to date. Allison will contact Jim McDonnell at AASHTO staff to see if they have standard membership categories which must be followed.

New Business – All

12.Items for RAC Leadership (next call October 8th):

Cynthia distributed two items with the meeting agenda: a Regional Chair checklist for new members and a revised RAC member welcome letter: All task force members are asked to review both documents and comment before the RAC leadership call on October 8th.

Allison will raise the issue of membership categories.

13.Next Admin TF Meeting – October 27th, 2015 at 1:30PM EST

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