Meeting Notes

AASHTO RAC Website Subcommittee Meeting

Monday, June 22, 2015

1:30-2:30 p.m.

Participants:Michael Bufalino, Natassja Linzau, Rick Kreider, Amy Schutzbach

1. Meeting Minutes from 5/18/15 were approved (Rick, Amy). Natassja will post these notes on the website.

2. Review of Changes from Last Meeting and Other Fixes Requested—In addition to the items from the last meeting, there were a few other needed fixes that we discovered as we were reviewing the site. Unless someone else is indicated as the responsible person, Natassja will implement these changes to the website.

OLD CHANGES

  • The majority of previous changes to the website were accepted, aside from a few exceptions on the Programs page (as noted in the Programs page markup below).
  • Natassja reported that there has been a very good response to her email about updates to the three State DOT information pages (Publications Notifications, Research Websites, and Fact Sheets). She is continuing to add state information as updates are requested. A total of 15 states have verified their information and/or provided updates, so far.
  • For the Programs page, there were two additional suggestions of links by Amy S. that have been incorporated on the page (see blue text in markup below). The additions are: (1) Link to the page for TSPs and (2) Add AID Program link to FHWA listing.

NEW CHANGES

  • There was a lot of debate about whether or not we should include all the links to the Transportation Pooled Fund (TPF) website. Natassja will collect analytics (using Google Analytics) on those links for the next couple of months to see how many people click on the links and then the group will make a decision at our next regular meeting (not at National RAC meeting).
  • For the University Transportation Centers (UTC) links, there were a couple of points: (1) the Lab Facilities and Map of UTCs documents are too old to be useful, and (2) we need to find out if there are more up-to-date resources available on the web.
  • For the Lab Facilities document, Amy offered to check with Shashi Nambisan and Tim Klein to see if they know if there is a more up-to-date version.
  • For the Map of UTCs document, Rick found a much better link on CUTC’s website and he will email that to Natassja. Natassja will then replace the document with the link to the online map.
  • Under TRB, there was some discussion of NCHRP Project 20-7 and its associated links on the Programs page. Natassja had removed the project number from the title text, but the group thought it would be best if the project number and project title are included for clarity. Natassja will put that text back in (see blue text in markup below).
  • In addition, the links under 20-7 were broken. Rick offered to send Natassja the updated link for Guidelines for Proposal Submission and a link to an information page about the project.
  • The group also agreed it’s a good idea to include a link to the actual project write-up so that people can see what projects have already been completed in that series.Natassja will add this to the list of links under 20-7.
  • Natassja will delete the “Overview” page text and link, because that page no longer exists (broken link).

NEW BUSINESS

NOTE: We skipped items #3 (Review of Resources for Research Managers Page) and #4 (Discussion of the Status of Task Force and Regional Meeting Notes) on the Agenda; these have been tabled for a future meeting. Instead, we discussed the audience and topic for the breakfast meeting at National RAC.

5. Breakfast Meeting at National RAC—Ideas for Topics and Audience

One suggestion for a topic we could discuss was the role of the website in disseminating information. Another idea was to invite all the secretaries for the Regions, RAC Officers, Task Forces, etc., to talk about keeping the meeting notes up-to-date. Another idea was talking about the products of the various task forces and where on the site they should be located.

We decided to focus on the products of all the Task Forces and try to discuss ways these products can be highlighted and presented on the SCOR/RAC website, to take full advantage of the presence of the Task Force Chairs at the summer meeting. Natassja will draft an invitation email to specifically invite the TF Chairs. If a Task Force Chair or Co-Chair is unable to attend the meeting, we will ask her/him to appoint someone to represent the views of that task force. Natassja will send the draft email to Michael, who will send it out to the Task Force Chairs with the date, time, and location of the breakfast meeting. Natassja will draft a Breakfast Meeting agenda in the next few weeks, hopefully to be circulated to the group for feedback.

ITEMS FOR OUR NEXT REGULAR MEETING:

I. Review of changes to “Programs” page.

A. Revisit TIG links and whether or not they should be listed separately from all the other TSPs.

B. TPF Website link analytics findings to determine whether or not we should include the links or just link to the website itself.

II. Review and analysis of the “Resources for Research Managers” page.

III. Update from Sue about CRC Resources guide—new version?

PARKING LOT/TABLED FOR FUTURE DISCUSSION:

  • If more funding becomes available:

Consider programming to display the date of each survey on its Survey Details page in the RAC Surveys database. Currently there is no date listed on the page.

Consider adding a box to the homepage that would be an automatic feed from the RAC Surveys database and would list the 10 most recent surveys, with links to the individual survey details pages. This would remove survey items from the “What’s New” list.

Consider developing a Calendar of RAC Task Force Meetings, Regional RAC Meetings, National RAC Meetings, and SCOR Meetings—Possibilities include posting on the RPPM Calendar, using the TRB Calendar, and/or developing a calendar for the SCOR/RAC website.

  • The website subcommittee would like to provide feedback to Chris Hedges and Chris Jenks on the layout of the Welcome letterfor new RAC members—it's getting dense. [This will be discussed at a future meeting.] It was also recommended that this would be more appropriately addressed in a meeting of the Admin TF.
  • SCOR Roster—Still needs to be addressed, but it was decided to discuss this at a future meeting.
  • Task Force Products and/or Document Libraries—We decided to defer until we have finished our review of the rest of the site before tackling the issue of where these should be housed and/or highlighted. In addition, we want to find a way to preserve the “ownership” of each product, possibly by linking back to the task force that developed each product. In addition, we could potentially include a list of products on each task force page, as well as other relevant places on the site.
  • Acronyms Brochure Update—This project is on hold. Amy Schutzbach offered to update the Acronyms. We need to compare this document with the Map of Highway Organizations to make sure items are consistent between both of these documents. Update: In correspondence after the meeting, Leni asked about the status and offered assistance from the TKN Task Force. There was some discussion of the potential scope of the Acronyms document, which is currently limited to Highways, aside from listing other CRP programs such as Transit, Airport, Freight, and HazMat. Sue stated she was planning to see if the CRC Council would prepare Map of Organization documents for the other modes. This would help to make sure we have a more a more comprehensive list of acronyms. Update as of 4/2/15: Mary Moulton is in the process of creating a transportation acronym list; we could possibly link to that when it’s finished.
  • Discuss the “Information for TRB State Representatives” section and what should be listed there—This would include information about STRAP and possibly other kinds of information in addition to the current link to the TRB page (

ADJOURNED. Our next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, July 30, 2015, 7:00-8:00 a.m. Pacific timeat the National RAC Meeting.

ATTACHMENT A

PROGRAMS PAGE MOCKUP

GENERAL:

Acronymsof ProgramsBrochure

Map of U.S. Highway Research Organization Relationships

AASHTO:

Overview

Home Page

Centers of Excellence

  • Center for Environmental Excellence (
  • National Operations Center of Excellence (
  • Transportation Finance Clearinghouse ( )

National Transportation Product Evaluation Program (NTPEP) -

SHRP-2 ( )

Technical Service Programs (TSPs)--

  • AASHTO Innovation Initiative (AII) -
  • AASHTO Materials Reference Laboratory (AMRL) -
  • AASHTO Product Evaluation List -
  • CENSUS TRANSPORTATION PLANNING PRODUCTS PROGRAM (CTPP) -
  • Equipment Management Technical Services Program (EMTSP) -
  • Rail Resource Center -

------TABLED FOR NOW—This is already listed on the TSP page; should we list both? The group was not ready to make a decision on this and it has been tabled.------

Technology Implementation Group (TIG)

  • Overview
  • Home Page

------

FHWA:

Accelerated Innovation Deployment (AID) Demonstration Grant Program—

Exploratory Advanced Research (EAR) -

Every Day Counts (EDC) -

Long-Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) -

SHRP-2 -

Transportation Pooled Fund (TPF) Program

  • Overview:
  • Pooled Fund Procedures Released
  • Pooled Fund Project Solicitations Survey including
  • Pooled Fund Questionnaire Results--Charts
  • Pooled Fund Survey Results
  • Survey of State Pooled Fund Programs
  • Synopsis of Changes in the New TPF Procedures
  • Updated TPF Program Procedures Manual (March 2012)

OST-R:

Home Page -

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) -

Commercial Remote Sensing & Spatial Information (CRS&SI) Technologies -

University Transportation Centers (UTC)

  • Overview
  • Home Page
  • Lab Facilities—Need updated link from CUTC
  • Map of UTCs--

TRB Transportation Research Board (TRB)

  • Home Page

Cooperative Research Programs (CRP)

  • Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP)
  • Overview and Home Page
  • Legal -
  • Synthesis -
  • Hazardous Materials Cooperative Research Program (HMCRP)*
  • Overview
  • Home Page
  • National Cooperative Freight Research Program (NCFRP)*
  • Overview
  • Home Page
  • National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP)
  • Overview
  • Home Page
  • Legal -
  • NCHRP Project 20-7: Research for AASHTO Standing Committee on Highways
  • Overview
  • Overview andGuidelines for Proposal Submission--
  • Project Write-up --
  • NCHRP Process and Calendar (38 Kb)
  • Overview of NCHRP Annual Projects(90 Kb)
  • Synthesis of Practice
  • Overview
  • Home Page
  • National Cooperative Rail Research Program (NCRRP) -
  • Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP)
  • Overview
  • Home Page
  • Legal -
  • Synthesis -
  • Ideas Deserving Exploratory Analysis (IDEA) Programs
  • Homepage -
  • NCHRP Highway IDEA Program
  • Rail Safety IDEA Program -
  • Transit IDEA Program -
  • Domestic Scan Program
  • International Scan Program

Policy Studies Program -

Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) -

Truck and Bus Synthesis Program -

Highlighted items are new to the list.

Green highlighting indicates links that need to be updated once we have received new information.

Grey highlighting indicates that this portion of the page is being monitored for website usage analytics

Green text indicates questionable item.

*Program is no longer funded.

Website Subcommittee Meeting, 6/22/15Page 1