Meeting Notes
RAC Task Force on Administration
Conference Call
Tuesday, April 30th, 2013
1:30 pm – 3:00 pm
In attendance: Steve Pepin (co-chair), Allison Hardt (co-chair), Cynthia Gerst, Chris Hedges, Skip Paul, Rod Montney, James Watkins.
Absent: Clint Adler, Moy Biswas, Ron Curb, George Colgrove, Elisha Wright-Kehner, Dawn Van Landingham, Amy Schutzbach.
Action items underscored.
Agenda
- Introductions
- Meeting Notes from March 19, 2013
A motion (Montney/Watkins) to accept the meeting notes was approved.
- Existing Business
(a) Website Subcommittee
Chris Hedges reported on behalf of chair Cynthia Gerst. The most recent conference call was held April 29th. The group has made a number of changes to the home page, including development of guidelines for the “what's new” section. Work continues on the left hand navigation bar and mouse-over menus. Allison asked whether the group is too big to make efficient decisions on very detailed elements of the website. Chris suggested keeping the current group for now and if the size becomes a problem consider using a subset of the group to make final decisions.
(b) Ahead of the Curve” - update from 4/17 call
No report.
(c)DOT Fact Sheets (Allison)
14 have been updated. No new states have submitted; seven states and Puerto Rico are still missing. Canadian associate members were also invited to submit fact sheets but none have responded to date.
(d) The 2013 National RAC Meeting in Baton Rouge – registration is open
o.i.RAC 101 Update (Allison & Steve)
Speakers have been identified for all sections except the Pooled Fund Program. FHWA needs to secure final travel approvals before the speaker can be confirmed.
o.ii.Agenda items for the Admin TF meeting in Baton Rouge
January meeting format and content - Allison reported that 32 responses have been received to a survey on RAC member preferences. Allison will summarize and distribute the information. In general, respondents favored in-depth discussion and interaction over “talking head” presentations. Skip Paul suggested finding out how many RAC members would be available for an earlier start on Sunday afternoon.
Performance Management for research programs - This topic was suggested by Clint Adler at the last call. Cynthia Gerst – This topic is also under consideration as a theme for the 2014 annual meeting.
(e)Mentoring Update – Allison Hardt
David Jared and Amy Schutzbach provided some good feedback on the mentoring program. Allison will summarize and distribute the comments received. There was a suggestion to develop a checklist of items that should be covered during the mentoring process. A follow-up on the mentoring program may be an item for discussion at the summer RAC meeting.
(f)Increasing State DOT involvement in RAC – Allison Hardt
Allison has followed up with Debra Nelson at NY DOT and is waiting to hear back from her. Allison suggested that regional chairs reach out to non-participating states on a case-by-case basis. Skip Paul reported that he had a recent conversation with Bob Sack at the NY DOT who indicated he plans to appoint a new RAC member. Skip will follow up with Mr. Sack. Chris Hedges asked whether RAC had ever prepared a one-page summary of the benefits of RAC membership. Chris will follow up to see if one has been developed. If not, he will develop such a summary for consideration by the Task Force.
(g) Interaction with other Task Forces – Co-chairs to work with RAC leadership
Dale Peabody has been asked to organize a conference call meeting of the Task Force chairs. Skip will follow up with Dale.
- New Business
(a)Sequence for Transportation Research, Analytics, and Implementation
(see attached email from Rob Curb)
The problems of schedules and responsibilities in coordinating research programs have been constant issues in the transportation research community. Since Ron was not on the call, this topic was deferred to a future meeting.
- Items for RAC leadership
None identified.
- Open Discussion
- Next Call – Tuesday, May 28th
This is the day after Memorial Day – Steve will send a calendar ballot to see if the meeting should be rescheduled.
Attachment: item 4 (a)
Here is some more detail about what I mentioned on the Admin. TF call. I have been working on a rather generic, and hopefully more comprehensive, sequence for research activities in Oklahoma. It is intended to be for all levels of government/academia/industry and to allow for consideration of many types of programs and subject areas. As I mentioned, for me at least, two difficulties in research administration involve the differing deadlines for each step of the process and the lack of establishing who should grab each research need to avoid redundant research. PROPOSED GENERIC SEQUENCE for TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH, ANALYTICS & IMPLEMENTATION: • Solicit problem statements/research ideas from DOT, universities and industry • Review problem statements/research ideas from NCHRP, TPF and other states/sources • Conduct literature reviews and compile relevant sources of documentation/information • Establish, prioritize, recommend and obtain approval for implementable research needs • Submit research need for consideration in the most prudent venue (organization & program) • Solicit and approve proposals for local research if not accepted at regional or national level • Qualify Principal Investigator and obtain lab certifications • Commit funds and execute contracts and agreements • Conduct and/or monitor research and contracted activities • Collect, compile, format and qualify research data • Perform analyses which address implementable goals • Prepare abstract with conclusions and recommendations for implementation • Develop approved product and/or procedure • Prepare plans for demonstration project including tracking of performance measures • Prepare full implementation and/or deployment plans including tracking of performance • Conduct educational outreach Please let me know if you have any questions or ideas of how we might discuss this with other task forces during the summer or winter meetings. Best regards, Ron Curb
1