RAC Task Group 1 (Administration) Conference Call
Thursday, May 21, 2009
1:30 P.M. Eastern time
Conference call in: 1-866-427-0083
Conference room: *1991319*
Meeting Notes
Participants: Moy Biswas (Chair), Chris Hedges, Barnie Jones, Dick McReynolds, Skip Paul.
Decision and action items are underscored.
1. AASHTO SCOR-RAC website survey status
Chris Hedges distributed the results of the survey to date (see attachment). He is currently reviewing the material with his web specialist and will be drafting a plan for site modifications for review by the task force. Task force members are invited to comment on the survey results.
Skip agreed with one respondent’s comment that the integration of a SharePoint platform would help to facilitate RAC business.
Some respondents identified material to add to the site when in fact the information is already available. Chris will identify comments of this type and clarify how to access the information through an e-mail to the RAC listserv.
Dick noted that some information on the site is harder to find, such as regional minutes and bylaws.
Chris will contact Ken Kobetsky to see if there is a designated RAC member for Puerto Rico.
Moy will encourage regional chairs to make sure AASHTO is aware when RAC members leave their positions.
2) RAC Operating Guidelines ballot
As of May 21, there had not been confirmation from AASHTO that the ballot had passed. Chris will follow up with Ken and inform the task force by when the results are known.
Moy will contact Sandra and ask her to encourage the other regional chairs to review their regional bylaws and update them if necessary. Moy will send Sandra the new draft region 3 bylaws as an example.
3) Task Force Task Chart
The status report is now posted on the RAC/SCOR site. Moy will provide Rick with changes since the past meeting: Item 1: Moy will ask Sandra to consult with the SCOR Strategic Planning task force for guidance on item 1. Steve Pepin is a member of both task forces and will be asked to serve as the liaison. Item 2 will be revised to indicate that the web survey is completed and the results are being analyzed. Item 3 will be updated when confirmation is received that the ballot has passed. Item 4 is up to date; it will remain as an ongoing effort for annual updates. The task force will remind the annual meeting host agency each year to update the manual. Task 5 has been rolled into item 4 with the posting of previous meeting agendas. Task 6: Moy will provide Rick Collins with updated information.
4) Current and future membership of the Task Force
There are currently open positions in all four regions. Moy will work with the regional chairs to identify potential new members in their region.
Dick McReynolds announced that he will be retiring from the Kansas DOT in three weeks time. Moy took the opportunity to thank Dick for all his efforts and contributions on behalf of the Administration task force.
5) Future Task Force initiatives
The only pending task is to assess the role of NCHRP support in developing AASHTO products and maintaining them over the long term. Moy invited task force members to provide suggestions for any new activities.
Dick suggested the task force may wish to review the RAC New Member Handbook, and over time to review the RAC annual meeting manual. Skip noted that much of the material is also included in RAC 101. It was agreed that task force members should review the New Member Handbook and be prepared to discuss it at the next conference call and at the Orlando meeting.
6) Orlando meeting agenda
The task force meeting will take place on Wednesday from 4:00 – 6:00 pm)
7) Next conference call: Thursday June 18, 1:30 PM Eastern time.
There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at approximately 2:45 p.m. Eastern time.
Survey Results& Analysis
for
SCOR/RAC Website Survey
Thursday, May 21, 2009 DRAFT
Nanda Srinivasan
Executive Summary
This report contains a detailed statistical analysis of the results to the survey titled SCOR/RAC Website Survey . The results analysis includes answers from all respondents who took the survey in the 28 day period from Tuesday, April 21, 2009 to Tuesday, May 19, 2009. 35 completed responses were received to the survey during this time.
Name / AffiliationMonique R. Evans / Ohio DOT
Mark Bradley / Arkansas State Highway and Trans. Dept.
Bill Zaccagnino / FHWA
Jake Kononov / CDOT
Barnie Jones / Oregon DOT
Skip Paul / LA DOTD
Amy Starr / Nebraska Department of Roads
dan lacombe / deldot
Dale Peabody / MaineDOT
Clint Adler / Alaska DOT
Glenn Roberts / New Hampshire DOT
Daniel Yeh / Wisconsin DOT
Lawrence Orcutt / Caltrans
Allison Hardt / Maryland State Highway Administration
Georgene Geary / Georgia DOT
Sue Sillick / MDT
Mike Sanders / SCDOT
James Watkins / MS Dept. of Transportation
James Sime / Connecticut DOT
Amy Schutzbach / Illinois DOT
Cory Johnson / MN DOT Research
Mara Campbell / MoDOT
Tommy Nantung / INDOT
Darryll Dockstader / Florida DOT
Robert L. Sack / New York State DOT
Ivy Harris / Alabama Dept. of Transportation
Leni Oman / WSDOT
Randell Iwasaki / Caltrans
Camille Crichton-Sumners / NJDOT
Jamie Byrd / Kentucky Transportation Cabinet
Gary Frederick / NYS Dept of Transportation
Richard L. McReynolds
sandi hoff / tennessee dot
William Ahearn P.E. / Vermont AOT
Rukhsana (Shana) Lindsey / Utah Department of Transportation
Contacts - fast way to keep track of personnel changes in the states. Events - Resources for Research Managers - good catchall location for stuff I occasionally need to reference.
information on national meeting
rosters, task force pages, research program map, events--Need to follow up on a connection FHWA has with RAC members.
new member handbook
RAC/SCOR member Directory. Links to meeting information. Links to other DOT research web pages.
Contact info TF notes Surveys Events
Research Manager Resources
Contact information for RAC members
Resources for Research Managers - T2 Tools (i.e. Trading Card templates) - Model calendar - RAC survey results - NCHRP project anouncements/balloting summary - SP&R Portal This information is useful because it is difficult to find elsewhere or compile from diverse sources.
RAC roster, task force information, survey results, resources for research managers (various publications)
RAC roster New member handbook
Member contact information. Value of Research Task Group.
RAC Roster, SPR Regulations
Resources for Research Managers - good compilation of information
Membership listings, links to State DOT research web pages, events, survey results, peer exchange reports and other information. These pages are most useful to me because I know they exist and I need the information.
I find the following features most useful: Contact information, particularly the RAC roster, is very helpful in identifying and contacting research personnel in a particular state; The link to research programs and organizations is very helpful when searching for certain types of information; RAC survey results; The link to resources for research managers provides easy access to information that aids in program management.
I like the Resources for Research Managers page because it is one stop shopping for new/old Research Managers.
The site is a treasure trove of information. This past month, I went to for contact information (PDF download); information about the next National meeting of RAC; SCOR's recommendations for the next round of NCHRP; and, NCHRP FY2009 Panelists by State.
Research calendar, resources for Research Managers, RAC contact info,key research-related studies - as a new Research manager, this is where I can find useful info. Survey results, because then maybe I don't have to reinvent the wheel. Task force info.
Resources for research managers, becuase it has a lot of information that is directly related to my job.
Having the reference "quick check" section to the left. I use it to find things like the latest copy of the SCOR Strategic Plan, membership of various task forces, etc.
Resources for Research Managers. It is a very useful page that is basically contains all the manuals and guidelines to the research program.
Depends on need (i.e., I use it by the occasion). Most recently used the updated RAC roster to obtain a current mailing list. More often, I use it as a task force member to cross-reference the activities, etc. of other task groups. I've also checked the events page and sometimes use the site to obtain information about SCOR.
Information on the status of various research programs and projects. Survey and research results.
The listing of the RAC membership for ease in contacting counterparts at other states, Peer Exchange Reports and Guidelines for help in conducting or participating in them, and easy links to information that is needed in serving as a State Research Administrator.
Lately: SCOR Strategic Plan; AASHTO Authorization Recommendations; Contact lists; Task Group materials; survey responses - I've used this as the current reference when developing reauthorization recommendations for Washington, for guiding the RAC TKN TF, when trying to find people I don't have in my contact list, to see if information already exists for questiosn my agency has
links to presentations and reports , other regions' information.
Resources for Research Managers, Research Programs and Organizations, the Contacts list. One stop shopping at its best.
Contact information for other SCOR & RAC members.(easy to find current information in one place) RAC Surveys (easy to find past information in one location) RAC national, regional and task force operating guidelines and meeting/conference call minutes.(easy to find past information in one location)
documents, guidelines
contact information
What information on the site is the least useful, and why?
Trading Cards - I just don't use them.
none
Some areas I don't visit very frequently, but I wouldn't call any of the information "least useful." I'm grateful to have the information available on the site, even though I might only infrequently have need to look for it.
about score about rac
Research Results. I access most of this information in other ways. Survey results. I find these are generally of keen interest only to the agency that initiated the survey.
At this point the resources page because of my tenure, but I beleive it is very helpful to new members.
Research Results link - because it is so sparase. Even the list of NCHRP products for AASHTO is incomplete.
It's all useful. I don't always realize or remember that some of the information is available there however.
Task force information
No comment.
I have found everything to be useful at one time or another
resources, SCOR, RAC Task Forces (other my own), research programs and organizations, how do I find, and research results. These sites are less useful to me for a number of reasons: 1) I don't have much need for the information, 2) I am not familiar with what is on these pages, 3) It is not well organized to find information, and/or 4) I can find the information quicker elsewhere.
The SCOR and RAC Roster web pages would be more useful if the phone number was posted, since the HTML page has only an email link. Phone numbers and other contact information are in a downloadable PDF file, but it takes an extra step to open the PDF and locate the person's name in the directory.
Don't know that I can suggest anything to eliminate. I think I've visited just about every page (sometime looking for something I can't find) and usually manage to stumble on something useful (although not exactly what I intended to look for).
Research results, there is not a good way to get that info fast... just a big pdf doc.
It's easy enough to use -- sometimes it is just quicker to call someone or email them than trying to locate information on the website
None.
Nothing stands out as something that I would not use, as occasion arises. Anything I didn't indicate in my answer to #5 would be less useful to me . . . but that could quickly change.
Meeting schedules and materials. I've found it difficult and many clicks to find current dates and information. I'm one to talk - the RAC 4 and RAC TKN TF info is out of date. Suggestion: have a fact sheet on expectations of Regional and TF Chairs about posting to the web site. The January meeting info seems to be buried in odd ways. I've had to guess to figure out where the material referenced in the agenda actually is on the website. I wish there were a tool that we could use interactively to post information to the site about our doings and that's searchable.
outdated information
Events and Reseaerch results, I tend to find what I need on other sites.
All of the information has some potential use depending on how new members are. Navigation probably can be improved to make it easier to find information.
its all good
Need real time information on policy and legislative activities that impact transportation research.
none
it works
Don't know right now.
I think it is very good as is.
Wiki-style narrative. Social networking features. Interactivity.
Acronym dictionary
Listing of success stories.
It's hard to imagine the possibilities. however, the content that is currently on the website needs to be better organized so that it is easy to find. Also, some task force information should be linked elsewhere so people know it is avaialble and it is not buried on a task force web page.
1. A check list of items on the SCOR/RAC website that a state should review and update periodically, where I am contacted periodically to review/edit/confirm information about the state. Examples are contact information, URLs, Report preferences. Perhaps this task could be delegated to a RAC task Force and accomplished as a part of the NRAC preparation, meeting and follow-up effort. 2. To create and send research surveys, provide a web-survey facility or link to a web-survey facility. I'd be willing to pay for this additional capability through an exploratory TPF project, if lead by the National Academies. 3) Exploratory work on a Facebook-type interface for research (perhaps through a NCHRP project). 4) Web-based meeting facility for members, to supplement teleconference communication.
existing info is good.
Perhaps the phone numbers of the SCOR and RAC members -- instead of just email addresses
None. I think the content is about right.
Some sort of sharepoint site for task forces could be useful; a blog page (shared journal) where conversations could be threaded might also be nice and could facilitate discussion on topical issues.
Anything to improve communication and coordination of the many separate research programs and efforts.
It depends on what we want to be. If we are a resource only for RAC and SCOR members - we're in the right ball park of content. If we want to be a resource about transportation research for other AASHTO committees, I think we need to think about user needs - what do we think they need to understand about identifying and managing a reserach project, how could we more effectively push results to them, how could we get them to work with us on capturing the implementation of research results. Personally, I'd like to see this evolve. I'd envision a site with portals for SCOR/RAC members and one for other AASHTO users. I don't think we have strong connects to other AASHTO committee research happenings - that would be interesting and useful.
Direct links to AASHTO Committee reports to help with coordination activities.
I would love to have complete contact information for the RAC members. If phone numbers, addresses, etc. are available, I've never been able to find them.
Task forces identified with their objectives
I think the best improvements would be in organization and design to update them.
website is adequate
In my opinion, the web site is actually highly functional and well organized, and it contains virtually all the available information I need, and quite a lot of information I don't need . My main criticism, and it's a minor one, is that it lacks a polished, professional "look".
I do not use this website very often. Probably the big reason is that I've been involved with RAC for long enough and know where to find or already have information that's on the site. I can see this website being extremely valuable to RAC newcomers.
Many thanks to Chris Hedges for his committment and work on the site to date. It is very appreciated!
I appreciate how responsive TRB staff is in posting new information when requested.
Need to have better domain communication between TRB and AASTHO.
Please update the URL (link) for CT on "Links to DOT Research Branches" -- the link from CT on the map of the USA.
Very useful web site, only minor tweak needed.
There are many different transportation related research programs and efforts. An easy to use, intuitive tool (maybe a clearing house type database and search capability)could be very useful to help avoid duplication of effort and facilitate complimentary research.
Overall, I'm pleased with the website and the information that I'm able to access using it.
I'm trying to click through other AASHTO committee sites to see what they've got that we might want to mimic. I like Aviation's site is somewhat similiar; SCOFA's pretty good (but realy at the top level). There seems to be some standard form some of these sites are using (I'd say there are two fairly common forms). Anyway, I'd really restructure our site. I would love to see this because wiki based so you didn't have to do it all. That said, I know how much work this is and really appreciate all you do to keep the information flowing to all of us.
I don't access the website. If I need information, I call Mr. RAC, Wes Lum.
once you select from the left hover bar , there are mnumerous links that require scrolling very far down the page
1