AASHTO RAC Web Site Subcommittee Meeting
Monday, August 26, 2013
MEETING NOTES
Participants: Cynthia Gerst, Jennifer Slesinger, Sue Sillick, Allison Hardt, Rick Kreider, Natassja Linzau, Chris Hedges, Mary Moulton, Amy Schutzbach.
I. Previous notes accepted by motion (Amy/Allison). These can be posted on the web.
II. Action Items:
A. A new task force page should be developed for “Reauthorization Task Force.” The link to SCOR Research Recommendations for Authorization should be removed from the home page, renamed “2008 SCOR Recommendations for Authorization” and moved to the new Reauthorization Task Force page. A link should also be provided to the Funding Task Force page as a related activity.
B. Increased use of icons – Natassja is working on it; discussion will be continued at September meeting.
C. RAC Surveys – the page has been revised; the spreadsheet is in development. The main page should be renamed “RAC Surveys” (not RAC Survey Results).
D. In some cases RAC members distribute surveys on behalf of their research contractors for inclusion in a future research report. The results are rarely released before the report is available. In these cases, the survey should link to a URL of the final report once it becomes available. Natassja will download a copy of the full report and add it to the SCOR/RAC website in these cases.
E. Peer Exchange Reports – most requested changes have been made. Names of participants should be made consistent, using a version included on at least one of the reports. If a nickname is included on at least one report, the nickname will be used instead of the full proper name, as a way of resolving inconsistencies. If there appears to be no nickname, the full name will be used.
F. Taxonomies for Peer Exchange Reports Database and RAC Surveys Database
For the Peer Exchange Reports:
1. Mary Moulton has decided to post all Peer Exchange reports in the NTL catalog. Mary’s indexer will be going through the reports and will suggest a list of about 5-10 subject categories. Sue Sillick developed her own draft list of 10 categories. The final short list will be presented to the Admin TF for approval prior to implementation on the website. Mary stated that her indexer should be able to complete the indexing process and produce a short list of Peer Exchange Report topics in the next few weeks.
2. When Natassja receives a new Peer Exchange report she should forward a copy to Mary Moulton.
3. NTL will index each new Peer Exchange report and will check the topics found against the short list to make sure the topics match. [Sue suggested that, once the Admin TF has approved the short list of Peer Exchange Report topics, if a new report comes in that needs a new topic, we should check with the Admin TF before summarily adding new topics to our short list.]
4. RAC members should be reminded to provide all their Peer Exchange reports and to include a complete list of participants.
5. At least one posted Peer Exchange report (dealing with high speed rail) was not a research department Peer Exchange as required by legislation. These types of reports should not be included on the SCOR/RAC website. They may be forwarded to Mary for posting in the NTL. Per our discussion, the Wisconsin high-speed rail report will be removed from the RAC Surveys database.
6. It was decided that all Peer Exchange Reports should be posted in PDF. Natassja will take care of checking the database and converting any existing Peer Exchange Reports from MS Word to PDF format, as needed.
For the RAC Surveys:
1. NTL is not interested in adding the RAC Surveys to their database.
2. RAC Surveys are currently classified by a hybrid of NCHRP subject categories and TRB publication subscriber categories. Natassja offered to follow up with Mary to discuss possible alternative classification methods.