RCLG Meeting Notes: March 11, 2011

Meeting Notes

RAC/CUTC Liaison Group

March 11, 2011

Conference Call

Note: Decisions and action items are underscored.

1. Participants: Sandra Larson, Jason Bittner, Martin Pietrucha, Wes Lum, Richard Long, Chris Hedges, Ned Parrish, Daniel Yeh, Larry Sutter, Shashi Nambisan, Leni Oman, Sue Sillick, John Moulden.

1. Clarification of CUTC participation in RAC Task Forces

The following draft language was developed by the RAC Administrative Task Force and presented at the February RAC Officers’ conference call:

CUTC members are eligible to participate on RAC Task Forces as non-voting “friends” upon invitation by the Task Force chair. CUTC members may indicate their interest in participating in a Task Force by contacting that Task Force's chair. From time to time Task Force chairs may also issue a request for volunteers for a specific activity through the CUTC distribution list. Task Force membership and activities can be found at:

Questions arose concerning the designation of “friends” versus “associate members”. Some task forces are including non-RAC, voting “associate members”, but according to the RAC operating guidelines, voting associate members must be appointed by the RAC Officers. Steve and Skip agreed to discuss how to handle this clarification during the April RAC Officers call.

1. Agenda for RAC CUTC Liaison Group Meeting in Salt Lake City

A working group comprising Sandra Larson, Rick Collins, Steve Albert, Skip Paul, and Chris Hedges met by conference call on February 16th. The group prepared recommendations for the format of the July 25th meeting and developed a draft agenda focusing on the four items in the RCLG workplan (see attached). Leni questioned whether two hours was enough time. Sandra noted that status reports should be distributed in advance, so the majority of time could be used for discussion rather than presentation. Ned Parrish – another hour and a half for the RCLG meeting is available if needed. It was decided to start the meeting at 8:00 a.m. and end at 10:15. The RAC 101 session will follow at 10:30

1. Action on workplan:

a) Discussion of the need for national research agendas;

Chris Hedges has prepared a draft discussion paper on two current initiatives related to national research priorities (see attached). John Moulden described FHWA’s development of a research agenda for its own activities. John originally prepared a white paper on what would be needed for a true national consensus on highway research needs. It became clear that an effort of that magnitude would be significant, and a good first step would be the development of a research agenda for FHWA. The Volpe Center will be assisting with the work. The first task will be to inventory current FHWA R&T efforts, including external research funded by FHWA. A web-based Wiki site will be set up to solicit comments and generate discussion. RAC and CUTC members will be encouraged to participate. The results will be compared to planned initiatives and a gap analysis will be conducted to identify research needs. John hopes to complete the needs statement and gap analysis by the fall of 2011. Leni – how will FHWA encourage others to address the identified needs? John – the agenda is aimed at FHWA research. Hopefully it will also be helpful to RITA and other agencies, but there is no expectation that the states will be asked to follow the FHWA national research priorities.

John Moulden and David Huft and/or Laurie McGinnis will be asked to present a status report at the Salt Lake City meeting. Chris will contact Dave and Laurie and modify the July 25th agenda accordingly.

Sue Sillick – the C&C task force is also working on the collection and compilation of all available research agendas, roadmaps, plans, etc to post on the RPPM site.

b) Development of examples of successful partnerships between RAC and CUTC members;

A workgroup consisting of Jason Bittner, Sue Sillick, and Chris Hedges has begun work on this task. The proposed first step is a survey of state DOTs and CUTC member universities to collect basic information on their joint activities. This will be followed up with more in-depth interviews and surveys with the intent of collecting examples of the most successful practices. The group has developed draft surveys for RAC and CUTC and will share them with the RCLG before it is distributed for comment. It is hoped that the survey results will be available by the July meeting.

c) Development of guidelines on facilitating successful agreements between RAC and CUTC members in other states.

Leni Oman, Shashi Nambisan, and Wes Lum have agreed to develop and conduct a brief survey of UTCs and RAC members to compile information on successful agreements. Sue – it may be more efficient to combine the survey for this effort with the survey for item b). Sue will send the draft survey to Leni, Shashi, and Wes to see if it meets their needs or can be modified to do so. It was also noted that there is a survey done by Michigan DOT on In-State and Out-of-State Contracting for SPR Research posted on the RAC-SCOR website.

The group will report progress at the next conference call and present the findings at the July 25th meeting.

d) Sharing and disseminating information about the mission, goals, objectives, and activities of both organizations.

Chris Hedges distributed the AASHTO position on research needs for reauthorization to the RAC-CUTC Liaison Group Members on February 16th. Steve Albert agreed to find the CUTC position on research needs for reauthorization and distribute it to the RAC-CUTC Liaison Group Members. Jason Bittner, Larry Sutter, Skip Paul, and Steve Pepin have been asked to develop ideas for sharing other information between the two organizations. Jason Bittner agreed to collect one-page summaries of CUTC member universities. Skip Paul offered to work with the RAC Administrative Task Force to develop a template for similar one-page summaries for state DOT research offices. Further activities will be discussed on July 25th.

1. Next call – May (Chris will distribute calendar ballot).

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