Re: Tasks for April 12 Meeting:

** See the attached Attendance Roster to confirm your attendance.
** See also http://mason.gmu.edu/~mbronzin/main.html for additional background material. 

You will recall that much of our progress to date has been focused on hearing from all of the actively involved research entities and in  collating a set of research categories through Mike Bronzini’s efforts (see attachment).  Alan Pisarski had added to Mike’s efforts an additional attempt to cluster Mike’s list into a smaller set of categories, called theme areas hereafter (see attachment).  All of this work now fits well into a new guidelines that the TRB staff has provided to help all five of the working groups toward a common  structure to meet our collective goals.  TRB has done an excellent job in these guidelines (take a moment to look them over when you have the chance) and they materially assist us in organizing our work over the remainder of the year.  

Given the TRB guidelines and information received from the RTCC last week, our April 12 meeting can serve to organize us for the work to come.  We need to finalize some of the preliminary efforts, make assignments for the work ahead, and schedule our meetings for the remainder of the work period.  

GOAL:  Our main goal is to prepare a document that represents our work on this subject by the end of the year, with a draft is needed by Thanksgiving.  The six main task identified in the guidelines and shown below will organize the document and our work from now to then. 
 

                  WORKING GROUP TASK AREAS

1. identify the major issues in their area of interest 
2. review existing R&T programs
3. assess the coverage in relation to the current issues
4. determine priority R&T theme areas
5. develop marketing information on benefits 
6. facilitate partnerships and coordination 
 

The effort is a little less daunting if we realize that our work to date maps well to the first four tasks with some slight word changes.  We would suggest a summary of progress to date looks like this:
 
 

TASK	AREA	PROGRESS TO DATE
1	identify the major issues in their area of interest	Extensive Discussions:Bronzini draft compilations
2	review existing R&T programs	Extensive presentations; FHWA:BTS:others
3	assess the coverage in relation to the current issues	Some Discussion and assessment
4	determine priority R&T theme areas	Pisarski draft structure in response to Bronzini list
5	Develop marketing information on benefits	LITTLE DISCUSSION
6	facilitate partnerships and coordination	LITTLE DISCUSSION

Our agenda then for the 12th has three main elements:

1. Review and understand the TRB Task Guidelines 
2. Finalize Issue Areas [Bronzini] (task 1) and Theme Areas (Task 4)
3. Discussion and preliminary understanding of remaining tasks 

From that will flow our final task for the day of 

4. Make schedules and assignments 

We would hope by the end of the day to fill out this work chart in rather complete form. 
 
 
 

TASK	AREA	NEXT STEPS ACTION 4/12	ACTION/LEAD
1	identify the major issues in their area of interest	finalize	Document MB
2	review existing R&T programs	Define/Prepare	DRAFTS: All presenters
3	assess thecoverage in relation to the current issues	DISCUSS/PLAN	Begin drafts : ASSIGN
4	determine priority R&T theme areas	finalize	Document  AP
5	develop marketing information on benefits	DISCUSS/PLAN	Begin drafts : ASSIGN
6	facilitate partnerships and coordination	DISCUSS/PLAN	Begin drafts : ASSIGN

 

MEETING SCHEDULES:

We plan to have a session at the NATMEC Conference in Madison in August, which is the site of the mid-year meeting of the TRB Data Committees providing an opportunity for people to talk to us about Policy Analysis and System Monitoring Issues.  The expected emphasis would be on the System Monitoring aspects given the NATMEC audience.  A similar format would be appropriate for the mid-year meetings of the Planning, Economics, Finance and Management Committees in San Diego in July with greater emphasis on the policy/planning side.
 
We would have to have at least one more meeting before the Thanksgiving deadline. This would probably occur after the mid-year meetings, likely mid-September.  A question for the group, probably only answerable at the end of the day on the 12th, is whether a meeting in late May or June is needed.  
 

ASSIGNMENTS:

The presenters of organizational research program materials at previous meetings should assure that their summary documents are still current.  This effort could be extended to task 3, assessment of coverage in relation to current issues, as well. 

The eight or so theme areas will be the guiding elements of our work from now on.  We will need individual authors, or teams, to take responsibility for preparing summaries. 

In addition we will need to discuss how the last two tasks, information on benefits and facilitating partnerships, are to be approached and by whom.

Looking forward to seeing you on the 12th.

MLT AND AEP