Transportation Curriculum Coordination Council

Transportation Curriculum Coordination Council (TCCC)

Meeting Minutes

Cincinnati, Ohio

June 12-14, 2006

Introduction

Howe Crockett began the meeting with opening notes and introductions.

Members in attendance:

Anderson, Chris	Iowa DOT	christie.anderson@dot.iowa.gov
Betts, Catherine	Minnesota DOT	catherine.betts@dot.state.mn.us
Beuter, Bill	Virginia DOT	bill.beuter@vdot.virginia.gov
Bolling, Doyt	Utah LTAP	doyt@cc.usu.edu
Cox, Ken	Florida DOT	kenneth.cox@dot.state.fl.us
Crockett, Howe	FHWA Western Federal Lands Division	howe.crockett@dot.gov
Doyle, Greg	FHWA Massachusetts Division	gregory.j.doyle@dot.gov
Farouki, Ahmed	NICET	afarouki@nicet.org
Feda, Jim	South Carolina DOT	fedaj@scdot.org
Flom, Ewa	FHWA Office of Pavement Technology	ewa.flom@dot.gov
Gribbon, Ben	FHWA Office of Safety	benjamin.gribbon@dot.gov
Gwaltney, Debbie	FHWA Office of Professional and Corporate Development	debbie.gwaltney@dot.gov
Hamrick, Scott	West Virginia DOH	shamrick@dot.state.wv.us
Johnson, Judith	FHWA Resource Center	judith.johnson@dot.gov
Monjo, Martha	South Carolina DOT	monjoms@scdot.org
Moon, Sung	Caltrans	sung.moon@dot.ca.gov
Newman, Chris	FHWA Office of Asset Management	christopher.newman@dot.gov
Newman, Garth	Idaho Transportation Department	garth.newman@itd.idaho.gov
O'Doherty, John	National Center for Pavement Preservation	odohert1@egr.msu.edu
Rice, Dennis	Georgia DOT	dennis.rice@dot.state.ga.us
Ross, Marty	National Highway Institute	marty.ross@dot.gov
Saddler, Jeff	Utah DOT	jsaddler@utah.gov
Stalcup, Will	Missouri DOT	william.stalcup@modot.mo.gov
Stevens, Leo	NETTCP	lstevensjr@adelphia.net
Stilgenbauer, Ted	Fairmount State University, WV	tstilgenbauer@fairmountstate.edu
Townes, Douglas	FHWA Resource Center	douglas.townes@dot.gov
Vandall, Mike	Red Vector	vandall@redvector.com

Updates

WAQTC - Garth Newman

• They have discovered that their key issue is one different from the one the group started with. Always come back to issues with test methods; WAQTC needed methods that would represent what they were doing in the western states, and are currently working to modify AASHTO test methods to better reflect their needs. Currently working to keep the program (training and testing materials) fresh. Have never had a person formally designated to run the program, the way that NETTCP does, and have an RFQ out now to secure such a person.

LTAP - Doyt Bolling

• Much of the courses identified in the matrix effort are available through the LTAP centers. The Course Development and Distribution committee is working to find/ correlate existing training within the matrix areas to determine what's current and applicable. The effort is proceeding along the five curriculum tracks, focusing mostly on Construction, Materials, and Maintenance so far - work to correlate the Employee Development is on hold pending a decision on how to proceed with courses covering that area. Need to get the courses into the database, and advertise their availability. For any given course, need to establish how consistent the product is with expected format - Instructor Guide/ Participant Workbook/ Reference Manual/ test? What audience? Available for distribution and at what cost? That way, the committee can tell what may serve as source material when developing or updating training.
• Recommended that TCCC develop a new courses relating to the use of GPS/ GIS in construction. Doyt suggested that such a training course could be developed at an LTAP Center because of their connection to agencies that are doing it. Need to see what target audience we are trying to serve with the training.

ACTION: Prepare scope of work for training on GPS/ GIS in construction.

M-TRAC - Chris Anderson

• The group's annual meeting will be held in Kansas City on September 11-12, 2006. Douglas Townes will present on TCCC and Construction Inspector Certification (update on 23 CFR 637). Debbie Gwaltney will present update on the Sandbox project. Other TCCC members are welcome to attend - contract Chris for the details.
• The Midwestern states produced manuals on soils, aggregates, etc. and are updating those and will have the new versions out this summer. They will be available online through the M-TRAC website, which is hosted through the Purdue Superpave Center (where Becky McDaniel is also active as part of the group).
• The Midwestern states also tend to work as individuals, like the northwestern states. Working on reciprocity in some areas, which is strongly appreciated by contractors. Their approach is that the states will accept training from elsewhere, but individuals still need to sit for retesting.
• M-TRAC is developing a spreadsheet of state programs and requirements for testing (AASHTO spec/ state spec) and other information.

SETTFEQ - Ken Cox

• Training for the certification of bridge coatings inspector was hosted in Tampa in late January 2006. It was essentially a train-the-trainer session, seeking to have people take it back to their states and make the training and program more broadly available.
• Florida and Louisiana participated in the demonstration of NHI's Sandbox program; both states were impressed with the Breeze software and plan to keep working with it.
• The SASHTO Quality conference will be held March 2007 in Louisville, KY.
• Southern states have developed the pilot presentation for a 13-module, one-day course on Introduction to Materials. The course is designed to be taught in-house by the state materials engineer. SETTFEQ's Materials academy team is meeting to divide the 13 modules and develop in Breeze, so that the training will be easier to teach to employees.
• Garth Newman pointed out that in the west many of the people 40 years or older can sometime struggle with computer-based training; such participants want face-to-face interaction, and represent the majority of the audience who needs training and certification - not the 20 year olds who thrive with CBT. Jim Feda suggested that having the manuals, etc. ahead of time would be beneficial to participants; they need things to look through and move engaging than a speakerphone. The recent web-conference pilot of NHI's Maintenance Management Systems course was a good example of this. Certain subjects may be more suitable to the technology than others. West Virginia and Federal Lands both pointed out that they have an intensive materials academy that could be used by SETTFEQ.

NCPP - John O'Doherty

• The NCPP has been working with FHWA for the last 9 months to conduct a series of pavement preservation program appraisals - the first round, consisting of twenty appraisals, has been completed. A follow-on contract of up to 30 more appraisals is being awarded.
• One of the outcomes of the appraisal process is the development of a database of best practices and key observations and recommendations, identifying common problems/ challenges; it allows states to benchmark themselves against national averages
• The NCPP is part of the technical team converting the Caltrans Maintenance Technical Advisory Guide into web-based training. The storyboards are nearly complete, and programming of the lessons will begin soon. The project completion is expected in November, 2006
• The NCPP has been selected by AASHTO to be the lead of the Transportation System Preservation Technical Service Program (TSP2) - the key technical advisor for states on pavement preservation. Ultimately, the program will focus on bridge preservation and other aspects of the highway infrastructure.
• Available training on Transportation Asset Management, and Chip Seals.
• Training needs is one of the aspects that the pavement preservation program reviews are evaluating. This is a commonly raised subject, as the need for qualified crews and DOT inspectors familiar with the treatments will be a key to the success of a pavement preservation program.
• Developing regional pavement preservation partnerships. The Midwestern partnership is already underway and successful; partnerships in the Northeast and Southeast are under development.

HIPT - Ewa Flom

• HIPT is developing a Percent Within Limits workshop, to present the basics of the subject and serve as a precursor to the FHWA Risk Analysis workshop. Matt Corrigan and Bruce Wasill are developing it together with NHI.

NTTD - Martha Monjo

• The AASHTO Human Resources Committee Meeting met in April 06 in Charleston, SC. One of the main messages was that many key people are leaving agencies, therefore succession planning which includes an educational component is critical to the future of transportation organizations. The committee chair Roy Balco relayed encouragement for NTTD, TCCC, and others to attend the International Symposium on T2 in August (St. Petersburg, FL). A broader vision of training is emerging, in which organizations are looking at a total workforce development notion and considering many opportunities to bring training groups together. Although some states like Florida have severely downsized their training departments, many states have been moving toward a broader approach to training - a marriage between their technical and HR training branches.
• Training sessions at the Conference included a panel on leadership and the importance of partnering efforts/ strategies among all training disciplines.
• The draft resolution making NTTD a subcommittee of the AASHTO Standing Committee on Administration did not pass at the HR Conference. Instead, the resolution goes to the Board of Directors in October 2006 for a general membership vote. There is a disagreement about where NTTD should be housed.
• Apparently HR Directors are concerned that their power base would be diminished if Training Directors are not aligned with them.

ACTION: Coordinate continued activities of TCCC with the activities of the AASHTO group, to avoid conflicts or duplications of effort. Martha conveyed that this year there will be openings at Task Force chairs and other positions within the Subcommittee. Consider getting someone from TCCC involved on a regular basis to help merge the actions of our groups.

NETTCP - Leo Stevens

• The Quality Assurance Technologist course is nearing readiness to share with other agencies. Greg Doyle and Ken Jacoby (FHWA Office of Asset Management) are working with Leslie Bolden at NHI to fasttrack final formatting of the course materials.
• The NETTCP is also conducting the last of the rewrites of its soils and aggregates laboratory technician manuals, and is about to start the second cycle of rewrites.
• In their efforts at certifying labs, NETTCP is going to have to increase scrutiny of small contractor labs - Greg Doyle is leading the charge on this effort.
• The northeast states use NHI courses for certification - the two deep foundations courses, other soils courses.
• For their PG Asphalt Binder Lab Technician training, there could be a wrinkle in duplicating and distributing the manual because of copyright issues. The Asphalt Institute is writing one, but NETTCP is in a bind because of training for next season, and may have to go back and use the 2003 version.

Resource Center - Douglas Townes

• Peter Osborn reports that the deep foundation training courses are going well. The Subsurface Investigation course is complete, and the MSE walls course is nearing completion. Peter's group projects that there should be two new starts next year:
  • Inspection of earthworks (need panelists)
  • Inspection of anchored wall systems

ACTION: Have NHI distribute CD's of final course materials for the Subsurface Investigation and MSE Walls courses. Provide Peter Osborn with candidate technical panelists for the next two training courses for development.

Construction Certification in Utah - Jeff Saddler

• Utah has combined its courses for construction and maintenance personnel, and is currently in the fourth year of that program. UDOT has learned that maintenance people have little experience in construction, so it's been a challenge to get them up to speed. The advantage of the combined approach is that it ingrains into construction staff that they can take the project beyond construction because the Department will need to maintain it later. Jeff will keep the group posted on further developments.

Caltrans Training and Development - Sung K. Moon

• In Caltrans there are academies for Roadway Construction, Bridge, and Maintenance. They are developing a Resident Engineer certification program because more consistency is needed among field engineers. Caltrans is interested in the core curriculum and matrices in order to support those developments.

Subcommittee on Maintenance - Jim Feda

• Jim Feda also participated in the AASHTO Human Resources Committee meeting in South Carolina. He made a presentation to the group about TCCC and it was clear that a lot of HR people were unaware of our group. There has been talk amongst the group to recommend the creation of a separate subcommittee on training under AASHTO HR or Finance. However, the HR Committee will recommend that training will keep attached to them, not independent. Garth Newman concurred that disconnect between HR directors and training directors was evident. Often this is related to turf issues or competition. In many states there are technical trainers as a third player in this arena, making it even more challenging. Mike Vandall added that such internal competition was often seen within the private sector as well.
• Jim Feda has been appointed to the TRB AHD-15 committee on Maintenance and Operations Personnel, and is currently the Chairman of the WFD Focus Group within the Subcommittee on Maintenance.

ACTION - need visibility of our audience and the significance of our efforts done to serve it. Need coverage and presence at the Symposium, and Pete Rahn's talk there will be a key avenue to spreading our message. We will work to provide Pete Rahn with a message that will also be delivered similarly to AASHTO. The current marketing thrust needs to be carried forward to key audiences.

Meeting Presentations

Maintenance Academy Update - Chris Newman

• There will be a meeting of the technical panelists on August 21, 2006 to complete scoping for the academy, which is envisioned as a four-week curriculum of training to prepare new state and local maintenance engineers. ADNET, NHI's training support contractor, is serving as facilitator for the meeting, so that panelists can come away with a scope for the development contract, desired learning approaches, and a course outline to include in the request for proposals. Funding has been secured for the development of the four-week course. After the meeting, FHWA and NHI will complete the course RFP and will compete for the development contract during the beginning of FY 2007.

ACTION: As development of the Maintenance Academy proceeds, a broad and committed technical panel will be the key to its success. Jim Sorenson will be contacting agencies to ensure that the technical panel represents the proper array of interests.

NHI Sandbox e-learning Project - Debbie Gwaltney

• The Sandbox is a demonstration project by NHI using the Breeze software to allow agencies to quickly convert existing instructor-led powerpoint presentations into web-based training (either synchronous or asynchronous). The states participating in the pilot were Louisiana, Florida, Iowa, and Kansas.
• One of the main considerations in distance learning is interactivity - it has a great effect on the acceptance of learners. FHWA has come around to greater support of distance learning. Trainers need to build in interaction to the course: we are getting better at educating designers to incorporate that aspect into the training. Ken Cox (FDOT) reported that they found the process very easy, and that the Breeze meeting room was beneficial. Need to adapt the content to recognize the different medium (some subject or content may be more or less suitable to distance learning). Iowa had some challenges because of large videos - in the future, they will run videos through a separate channel to simplify the participants' receipt of data. IDOT liked the support from NHI.
• NHI is working with FHWA to get retiring people to prepare Breeze-O's to capture their institutional knowledge. New formats like "interview" provide more than one voice for the training, increasing user interest. NHI wants to go through TCCC as opposed through individual states for additional test projects.
• Doyt Bolling pointed out that finding the right delivery mechanism will be a key to our course development process. The more we know about this and other tools, the more effectively we can produce useful product. An example of this is the Course Development and Distribution committee's extensive use of GoTo conferencing to hold meetings and review material. Bill Beuter added that this sort of effort can contribute greatly to the use of blended learning to make good use of this and other distance learning media.
• In order to best use the Breeze approach, States should analyze the training requirement, look at material to present (highly technical, hands on, etc. are not very suitable) and time requirements.
• NHI is preparing to conduct a second round of demonstration projects. It hopes to find states from the Midlantic, Northeast, or Northwest to participate. Because of the new provisions under SAFETEA-LU, there are opportunities to use program funds for such activities as this. Iowa was so happy with the results that the DOT has provided funds to buy their own Breeze. Administrative/ support needs may present an issue for Kansas.
• The next round of demonstrations will explore its potential to develop from the start as e-learning, as opposed to having to convert existing materials. NHI is exploring that possibility in lieu of new course development. Marty Ross and other Training Program Managers have a goal of two courses per year to do conversions.

ACTION: For the second round of pilots, coordinate notification so that projects are more different (not multiple courses of similar subjects). NHI has the capacity to do about five sandboxes at a time. Consider providing additional support funding to NHI - more staff can be added onto the ADNET contract to expand their administrative capabilities and support a broader program.

Fairmont State University - Ted Stilgenbauer

• The WVDOH is conducting is inspector and technician in-house qualification through a partnership with FSU. It links the qualification training curriculum with an academic curriculum to get technicians more comfortable with the notion of taking "college courses". Uses WebCT management software for the overall training program.
• The lab component is not yet fully addressed - still a "theoretical" course. Those going through the program need to take their lab component from other sources.
• Other states face similar challenges. FSU is open to the notion of sharing their process and their courses - the materials are written in generic fashion, making very usable elsewhere. Products in/ products out.

ACTION: TCCC should consider joint development with FSU, through the efforts of the Curriculum Committee and Course Development and Distribution Committee.

NICET - Ahmed Farouki

• Ahmed spoke to the group about NICET highway maintenance and preservation program. NICET has been looking at the existing highway maintenance program since 2002. The testing program focused on routine maintenance before. Currently they have been working to coordinate with the TCCC maintenance matrix - same four levels. Like with other programs, there is recertification every three years. Aimed at implementation by October 2006. The effort has been reviewed by a technical panel composed of the Subcommittee on Maintenance, Mississippi DOT, and others. Construction inspection is included as a module to bring it closer to other highway tracks and to reflect the heavy nature of some maintenance work.
• For 2007, work is beginning for a similar qualification track for the Highway Construction Program - Transportation and Public Works inspection. Members of the technical review panel will include Jim Sorenson, Douglas Townes, NHI, industry, etc. The program will consist of four tracks:
  • Highway construction inspection
  • Airfield
  • Rail
  • Public Works
• Level 1-2 are the same for all four. Specialization begins at level 3. Broken down into categories and tasks - testing developed on that basis. Not currently related to curriculum or training.

Quality Assurance Technologist Course - Leo Stevens and Greg Doyle

• The course was discussed during the last NETTCP board meeting (5/24/2006). Reciprocity from elsewhere was an issue - whether a tester's qualification would be accepted would be determined by whether their state was using basically the same course, test, and proctoring methods. How control over the material will occur during updates is still undetermined. The target audience is field level people - the project team. Following review during the 2002 pilot and Dec 2003 session, the course has been held nine times within NETTCP from Dec 2003 - April 2006.
• Greg Doyle met 5/24/2006 with NHI to discuss the details of the course adoption by NHI. The course will retain NETTCP copyright of resource manual and slides, along with acknowledgement of NETTCP as the manual developer. When other agencies use the materials for their own programs, they will be expected to remove the NETTCP logo and NE-specific information (to avoid confusion that they have taken the same course as would be used in New England). The course will be converted to be consistent with NHI formatting, and NETTCP will be responsible for future updates and revisions. The reference manual will remain as developed by NETTCP (incorporating comments from 2003 review). ADNET - NHI consultant - will prepare participant workbook, instructor guide, and slides.
• Besides the acknowledgement of NETTCP development - "proper recognition and attribution", the Board would not object to sharing electronic formatted files. NHI expects about a nine-week timetable for revision, being done in house. Garth Newman will approach others in WASHTO to serve on the technical panel for the final revisions. Marty Ross will research the ability of agencies to go through their own contractors for development/ delivery. Technical panel will develop a draft exam for use by other agencies teaching with this course. The expectation of TCCC members is that the course will incorporate the changes noted at the 2003 pilot.

ACTION: The Office of Asset Management will provide the funds to NHI to conduct the formatting project. Chris Newman will work with NHI to assist in distribution of traiing materials to states and agencies.

NHI Update - Marty Ross

• The NHI has launched a new website, with functionality for e-commerce to enable online registration and course material ordering. Right now there is limited availability of materials - most of what is available is just participant workbooks, and they don't have a complete library of courseware electronically.
• Breeze presenter web-based training is available for conversion of PowerPoint for cost savings in development (Sandbox). Similarly, there is Breeze web-conference training. This presents an opportunity for cost savings in travel of instructors - and the cost savings to NHI will be passed along to participants. The pilot presentation of the Maintenance Management Systems course (131107) was held using this method - three 2-hour online sessions and four hours of web-based training in between. For future sessions of the course, participants will have the workbook ahead of time.
• In August, NHI will conduct a train-the-trainer session specifically oriented toward the use of web-conference training - for anyone who will use the system as an instructor.
• Evaluation and use of that information is now being done electronically - trend analysis, etc.
• NHI certification will be a requirement on new IDIQ contracts and tasks. Douglas Townes, Chris Newman, and Marty Ross will get together to work out the details for FHWA/ State instructors on NHI courses.
• Within the NHI catalog a new category of training has been developed to better align the catalog with FHWA organizational structure: Asset Management, which will make it easier for prospective hosts to find courses on preservation, management systems, and construction program management. Course numbers won't change - just another way for people to locate courses. Meanwhile, NHI will email new bluelines to post on the TCCC website and help market existing training.
• Since the bridge course is now available for delivery through NHI contract, and many state DOT's mare interested in presenting this course for their own program, the group discussed the possibility of holding a train-the-trainer session of 130088. HIAM program funds could be used to pay for the session, while travel and per diem of the participants would be left to their own agencies. Marty Ross will talk to Larry Jones about the logistics of this.
• The group also discussed using the new NHI website as a means for electronically distributing TCCC-developed course materials not presented as NHI training (like the IDC for Technical Trainers and the Survey course).

ACTION:

• For newly-developed courses, Marty Ross will make CD copies of course materials available to all people on a mailing list. We need to work out a way to efficiently determine who gets things and how - for new courses and old. The Course Development and Distribution Committee will work out the process for doing that.
• Also need to ensure that the NHI website continues to prominently present its partnership with TCCC so that visitors can quickly and easily locate our web-presence.
• Make arrangements for train-the-trainer sessions of the Bridge Construction Inspection course

Database/ Website - Chris Newman

• The group agreed that significant effort was warranted to upgrade the TCCC website. As part of its contract for TCCC marketing, Worth Associates had prepared a design concept document to help guide TCCC in writing a website development scope of work. The FHWA Office of Asset Management has committed money to fund this effort, and will secure a contractor before the end of FY 2006.
• The group discussed essential design features and functions to incorporate into the new site. Integration with the new training course database is one of the principal elements. Another critical item is the ability to keep the site current, and to design it for clarity and ease of use. During Committee breakout sessions, each group devoted some time to provide feedback to Chris Newman on the design concept, and to input on how the site can address Committee needs. Chris Newman will use that input in the contracting process and in discussions with the designer to ensure that the site meets internal and external customer needs. A technical panel was assembled to work the contractor: Chris Newman, Douglas Townes, Ben Gribbon, Howe Crockett, Judith Johnson, Martha Monjo. As development progresses, input will continually be sought from other TCCC members as necessary.

ACTION:

• Chris Newman and Ben Gribbon will secure a contract with the Volpe Center for developing a new database that will utilize existing data (and be receptive of data from other training databases) and be presentable in a web-based environment.
• Chris Newman will provide input access to members of the Course Development and Distribution Committee
• Chris Newman will secure a contractor for the development of a new TCCC website that is satisfactory to the needs of internal and external customers.

National Center for Concrete Pavement - Chris Anderson

• Iowa State - National Concrete Center was invited to participate. Felt that ACPA should still be the one to remain involved (Mike Ayers). Mike will be at the National Symposium and available to discuss potential activities.

ACTION: Meet with ACPA, Suneel Vanikar (FHWA Office of Pavement Technology), NHI, and the National Concrete Center to help flesh out training needs related to concrete pavements, identify available funding, and create scope of work to develop/ update courses as necessary.

Computer-Based Training - Minnesota DOT Effort

• The development team that used pooled funds to create the Geometric Design CD's (34 CD's created through MNDOT) is now establishing a new pooled fund to do conversion of those modules to dual units and create as web-based training instead of CD-based. They are seeking $100,000 per state - a total of $1.8 million - which could be a big bite for small states. The bulk of the development money would be used in the CBT-WBT training. Cathy Betts pointed out that the group (located within HR in MNDOT) is still together and available to do other e-learning. Garth Newman will contact the pooled fund states to see other perspectives on this issue.

ACTION:

• Find out more about the upcoming project (Garth Newman)
• Determine whether there is interest to use this avenue for development of new training needed by TCCC.

Business Plan - Chris Newman

• The consensus among the group was that the bulk and intent of the Business Plan was sound as written, and accurately reflected an effective way of carrying out our activities. Two key recommendations were made to make it more useful as a marketing or communications tool: introduce with a preface to guide users to the dynamic section (instead of beginning with so much history), and update the finance section (as part of an annual review to ensure it is up-to-date - this should be added to our general orders of business for TCCC meetings).

ACTION: Chris Newman will make final changes to the Business Plan as discussed during the meeting, and circulate a motion to ratify the Business Plans and accept the Bylaws. This will be done in advance of the December meeting.

Finance - Chris Newman

• The FHWA Office of Budget and Finance has provided an accounting string to us so that we can use the balance of our pooled funds for course development. There is approximately $800,000 available to the TCCC for this purpose (see attached financial data sheet).

ACTION: Identifying new courses and writing scopes of work for their development should be a priority. The TCCC should consider other avenues for course development in addition to using NHI's IDIQ contracts.

Preservation Qualification Program - John O'Doherty

• NCPP registry?
• Established that this will not have a potential overlap with the NICET maintenance program. NICET will work with us in the development of the program.
• The meeting will be held in conjunction with the AASHTO Subcommittee on Maintenance in Charleston, SC on Thursday July 20 (to take advantage of key players' presence at the AASHTO Maintenance meeting).
• Are we developing competency levels/ performance standards? Not yet - need the contractors' involvement to accomplish that, before we can identify further training needs.

ACTION: Jim Sorenson and Chris Newman will lead the effort to secure industry participation in this activity. Revisit the Maintenance curriculum matrix to expand the section on thin surface treatments. Work out a plan for testing, qualification, record-keeping.

Marketing - Douglas Townes

• The group felt it would be in our best interests to continue using Worth Associates for satisfaction of short-term marketing needs, so that we can take advantage of their familiarity with TCCC mission and activities. Marketing plan and marketing products need to stay consistent.
• Douglas presented a proposal for a "just-in-time" brochure/ fact sheet process. There is a website where self-service production is possible, once the message points and template are in place. Special ordering options are available for special needs such as slicker paper, etc. That way, there are fewer issues of stockpiling, expenses incurred for unused material, keeping current.
• Need to revisit and produce the "Success stories" brochure; those were produced a few years ago and were considered to be successful. Would like help from Worth Associates to help query regions and states for sources of stories. One of the successes we could focus on is related to return on investment - show how money invested by pooled fund compares to course costs (also connect in the number of people being trained through that same investment). The survey course adapted from VDOT would be a good example or demonstration. What is the cost savings to a DOT?
• Course fliers, especially for the Survey Course or Instructor Development for Technical Trainers course, could increase awareness of our products.
• Update tabletop for new content. It might be a stretch to do so in time for the Subcommittee meetings, Symposium, or other events, but still worthwhile for autumn meetings or TRB. Another possible approach would be to develop backdrop panels to use in an existing FHWA standing booth. Douglas also mentioned how he has seen a standup projection screen (about 3' x 8') used, with content projected from a PowerPoint presentation. Extremely flexible and adaptable, costs about a $1500 total to create. Screen and projector would travel together.

ACTION: Judith Johnson will prepare a scope of work for marketing efforts to be undertaken within the next twelve months.

Closing/ Other Business

The next meeting of the TCCC will be in Salt Lake City, Utah the week of December 3 (12/5-7/2006). Doyt Bolling and Jeff Saddler will help Laura with the arrangements.