RAC Task Force on Administration

Meeting Notes

Burlington, Vermont Monday, July 23, 2012 10:15 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.

In attendance: Skip Paul (co-chair), Amy Schutzbach, Alison Hardt, Cynthia Gerst, Dawn Vanlandingham, Moy Biswas, Barnie Jones, Ron Curb, George Colgrove, Chris Hedges, Sandra Larson, Rick Collins.

Welcome and Introductions

Statement of Purpose of the Task Force

“Typically this task force will recommend administrative policy to the RAC Leadership Board, and identify, investigate, and manage RAC administrative matters as directed by the RAC Leadership Board. Examples of issues that this task force should address include updating RAC Bylaws, and managing and updating the content of the RAC web site. The task force will also facilitate the exchange of information and experiences among RAC members, especially new RAC members, through the deployment and use of educational and training materials.”

Chris Hedges will make the following change: "Bylaws" to be replaced with "operating guidelines".

Task Force Web Site

Chris Hedges will add missing meeting notes and provide links to Task Force products.

Current Business

RAC 101

The RAC 101 presentation has been updated and will be presented this afternoon; each speaker will have about 5 minutes to present, followed by question and answers. Next year, the task force will add a section on research funding sources; based on a white paper written by Barnie Jones and Cynthia Gerst. The paper will provide a quick reference to funding sources including the FHWA pooled fund program, SP&R, NCHRP, and others. The project is presently on hold pending an update by FHWA of their SP&R Guidance.

1 Leni Oman provided extensive comments on the RAC 101 presentation. Task Force members are asked to take these comments into account when developing next year’s RAC 101 session. One of Leni’s comments related to a slide on SCOR membership that referred to “RAC members or research managers” from each of the four AASHTO regions, while the SCOR guidelines refer to "Engineers and/or research specialists". Possible actions: revise RAC 101 or raise the issue with SCOR and request that the governing document references RAC members directly.

SCOR New Member Handbook

This document has been approved by the Task Force and distributed to the RAC officers for review. Skip has received a number of minor comments that he will forward to Chris Hedges. Skip will ask for approval of the revised handbook at the next RAC Officers’ conference call.

DOT Fact Sheets

10 DOTs still have not provided fact sheets on their research program and capabilities. Regional chairs are asked to follow up with RAC members in the missing states. If the members still do not respond, the regional chairs will develop fact sheets on their behalf using publically available information from their websites.

Highway Research Fact Sheet

This was approved by the task force and distributed to RAC for review. Skip will ask for approval at the next RAC Officers’ conference call.

Review of Regional Operating Guidelines

Since the task force updated the RAC national operating guidelines, all regions except Region 2 have updated their own guidelines. Alison Hardt will send the revised Region 1 guidelines to Chris Hedges for posting. Region 2 is in the process of updating theirs.

Mentoring

The program seems to working well. During RAC 101, Skip will ask attendees if they have been assigned a mentor. It was agreed that mentoring should start as soon as possible after the new member is appointed.

Dawn Vanlandingham suggested developing a RAC 101 video presentation. Skip Paul offered to have his DOT video crew tape the RAC 101 session next year in Baton Rouge. This will be discussed further at future conference calls.

2 NCHRP's Role in Maintaining AASHTO Guidelines and Specifications (NCHRP 20-07/Task 324)

A conference call was recently held with Skip Paul, Jim McDonnell, Nanda Srinivasan, and Crawford Jencks to discuss. From SCOH's perspective, key AASHTO manuals need to be updated in a timely manner, but SCOH does not know the overall schedule or need. For SCOR, it is difficult to allocate research funding without knowing the long-term funding needs for each manual. Two ideas were developed: (1) to ask the responsible AASHTO committees and subcommittees to document how they update their manuals and develop a long-term schedule; and (2) if these committees and subcommittees plan to seek funding from the NCHRP, they should include the long-term plan and schedule with their funding request.

Current meeting process/conference call process

The Task Force conference calls are currently scheduled for the fourth Tuesday of every month. This schedule will continue, and agendas should be distributed one week in advance.

Task Force Membership

George Colgrove (Vermont) and Ron Curb agreed to serve as new members. Moy Biswas will solicit a new member from Region 2.

New Business

Assessment of RAC Website

The Task Force on Administration has the responsibility to determine where and when updates are needed. Each month, task force members will be asked to review specific sections of the site and discuss at the monthly conference calls.

It was agreed that Chris Hedges will create a section of the site for the RAC-CUTC Liaison Group.

Task Force Reporting Requirements

Keeping track of Task Force activities through their meeting notes has proven to be cumbersome and it was agreed to go back to a standard reporting template. Skip will distribute the old reporting template for review. Once revised (if necessary) and approved, each chair will be responsible for keeping their report current.

Assessment/Amendment of RAC Guidelines

It was agreed that a review of the operating guidelines was not required at this time.

3 Interaction with other Task Forces

There was a discussion on how to coordinate activities among task forces if there were overlaps in their areas of interest. The RAC leadership should help to make sure topics are addressed by the right task force, either singly or in partnership. If ideas are developed within a task force, the Task Force Chair should be responsible for identifying which other task forces should be involved.

Planning for Technology Transfer with the Research Process.

Cynthia Gerst distributed a white paper for review and discussion. The intent of the paper is to seek funding for a research effort to determine best ways of writing research problem statements to include activities that will facilitate implementation of the results. There is a need to account for differences in appropriate implementation activities between small and large states. It was suggested that compiling current and best practices on this topic in a synthesis might be more appropriate than a research project.

Improving involvement in RAC by low- or non-participating states.

(On May 5th, the RAC Leadership tasked “the Administration Task Force with finding ways to encourage DOTs to participate in RAC, possibly through a letter from AASHTO to CEO, direct contact with inactive RAC members, and other means.”)

This topic will be carried forward to the next task force conference call.