Meeting Minutes
San Diego, CA
Feb 18-19th 2003
Day One
Welcome & Introductions - Crockett
Recent successes of the TCCC were highlighted including the two Geotechnical courses, Driven Pile Foundation Inspection and Drilled Shaft Foundation Inspection, completed and piloted by Peter Osborn's group, the QA Technologist course was piloted and a final version of the course is close, and the core curricula team leaders met at NHI in January and reached significant agreement on curriculum issues and approach.
Several participants and presenters were unable to attend the meeting due to the severe weather on the east coast.
Attendees:
Mike San Angelo, AK DOT, WAQTC
Garth Newman, ITD, WAQTC
Lee Onstott, AASHTO Construction
Paula McGee, AASHTO Training Directors
Chris Newman, FHWA Office of Infrastructure
John Dewar, FHWA CA
Jason Dietz, FHWA CA
Alan Samuels, AZ DOT, AASHTO
Chris Anderson, Iowa DOT MRTRAC
Sergi Amirkhanian, Clemson University
Howe Crockett, FHWA WFLHD
Greg Doyle, FHWA MA, NETCCP
Bernie Kuta, FHWA Resource Center
Douglas Townes, FL DOT. AASHTO Materials
Harold Von Quintas, ERES Consultants
Laird Weishahn, NE DOR
June Dea, Administrative Manager (Wed only)
The meeting agenda is attached.
Member Updates
FHWA Office of Asset Management, Chris Newman
The TCCC has a new Administrator Manager, June Dea on board. Duties will include development of a business plan, travel, coordinating meetings, and coordinating inputs to the web site among other things.
Dan Sanayi has joined the Office of Asset Management as a Construction & Systems Preservation Engineer. Dan came from the Oklahoma Division. He will be the principal headquarters contact for the TCCC and have a role similar to that of John Perry when he was in HIAM. Dan also has a principal role in coordinating the upgrading of the web site with both June and Michelle Cribbs, the web developer.
SETFTTQ, Douglas Townes (alternate for Tom Malerk)
SETFTTQ continues efforts to identify avenues for information sharing and commonality relationships. This includes identifying and prioritizing training and qualification curriculums common to members. Solicitation of member's participation in the TCCC pooled fund is on going. Representatives contributed to the submittal of an NCHRP proposal to develop a "Measuring Training Effectiveness" synthesis and the group continues to contribute to TCCC work plan items. The group is committed to assuring that all relevant SETFTTQ web site information is seamlessly transferred to the TCCC site. A Regional Acceptance Plan is under development and will be accessed via the web. There is not yet a big push for reciprocity among member states. The next SETFTTQ meeting is March 3, 2003 in Williamsburg, VA.
AASHTO Materials, Douglas Townes representing Tom Malerk
Tom continues to do an excellent job of marketing the TCCC to AASHTO Materials members. At the Branson meeting, Tom again educated attendees on the TCCC mission and members, the web site and its eventual content of training courses, new curriculum developments, the Activity List, and pooled fund solicitation. In addition, the activities of the TCCC have been incorporated into the Subcommittee's Strategic Plan
NETTCP, Greg Doyle
Greg briefly covered the courses/certifications that NETTCP has and the group's structure for guests and new attendees. The QA Technologist Course is 97% complete. It was piloted on 12/2-5/02 and feedback will be incorporated by about April 1. NETTCP is attempting to reach agreement of reciprocity with the NYDOT. MA Technicians Laboratory "Qualifications" Program is in place. The Geotechnical Driven Piles Course pilot was hosted by NETTCP. Driven pile courses are now being scheduled and interest has been identified in providing certification in this area.
NETTCP Manuals and Presentations are copyrighted. The issue with sharing these needs to be clarified by TCCC and will be discussed with Jim Sorenson.
M-TRAC, Chris Anderson
Chris briefly discussed the group's makeup of 10 states and tester programs available: Soils, Asphalt, Aggregate, and PCCP (not complete). Four member states share complete reciprocity. The group has proposed the formation of an advisory board. Chris continues to solicit members for participation in the pooled fund where they will receive maximum benefit for minimal cost. M-TRAC is very interested in the TCCC reaching an agreement with NHI on attaining and utilizing TCCC materials. Laird Weishahn of Nebraska noted that he had developed a list of very useful web links for distribution and informational transfer at the 2003 Asphalt Paving Conference. The group requested that Laird share this information with members.
Action: M-TRAC is to provide this information to Howe, who will forward it to members. - Completed.
WAQTC, Michael San Angelo
Michael is the newly elected Chairman of the WAQTC and is the Alaska Materials Engineer. The WAQTC plans to review and update the business plan, revisit the group's roots, and chart a future direction. The WAQTC has a Pooled Fund in place that will provide for a Program Administrator and maintenance of the existing program among other things. The importance of contributing to both the WAQTC and the TCCC pooled funds and the differences and benefits of each have been discussed with members. A major emphasis of the WAQTC has been the use of AASHTO test methods. The group has been successful in getting AASHTO to change several outdated methods, and this area will remain a high priority. The WAQTC is the lead on a Structural Inspector Course for the TCCC that should go to a RFP this spring. The next meeting of the WAQTC will be on March 24 in Las Vegas in conjunction with the WASHTO Construction/Materials Conference.
Action:Distribute the WAQTC pooled fund info to attendees for informational purposes. - Completed.
AASHTO Construction, Lee Onstott
Lee intends to keep the mission and accomplishments of the TCCC in the forefront. He has explained the mission of the TCCC to the Committee and wants to explore a new approach for this year's meeting. He is going to discuss possible topics with Committee members. One approach might be to have several TCCC members attend to highlight accomplishments to date such as the Geotechnical Courses. Lee will let the TCCC know what he needs in the way of support.
National Training Directors, Paula McGee
Paula highlighted a suggestion from the Minnesota Training Director that entailed utilizing the Computer Based Training Team that produced the Design Training CDs, to develop a similar product for TCCC materials. That team is to complete work in May. Paul also briefly discussed an agreement between the World Bank and India to produce training materials and questioned if there might be a role for the TCCC.
Pooled Fund
Chris Newman briefly discussed the status of the TCCC pooled fund. The exact amount in the fund was not available at this time. Many states have not sent in a commitment form. This is probably due to the budget crunches. Also, many states that have committed funds have not yet obligated them so they are not available for use. Jim Sorenson is to send another request to the Division Administrators, along with the pooled fund solicitation, asking the Division specialists to work with and educate their DOT counterparts, and Research representative, on the importance of participation in the TCCC pooled fund.
Action: Jim will send out an up-to-date accounting of pooled funds for distribution to TCCC members and for their use in additional marketing. - Completed
Curricula Teams Status
Howe and Harold Von Quintus reviewed the January meeting with the core team leaders at NHI and the action plan and goals developed there for the completion of the construction team curriculum. A handout containing this information was provided. Goals and expectations for the break out session were discussed and Chris Anderson shared the Employee Development team's approach and progress to date.
Curricula Teams
Employee Development
Materials
Construction
Maintenance
Safety Features, Work Zones, & Worker Safety
Teams are currently working on the development of matrices that define skill levels needed for the various construction inspector roles to address the competencies required in the respective areas, matrices of available training courses to address the required skills, and competency definitions. Three teams, Employee Development, Construction, and Materials were represented at the meeting and broke into groups to continue curriculum development and related tasks.
Significant progress was made and the Employee Development team is near completion of their matrices. Teams assigned champions to subject areas who are then to complete the requirements for their respective areas and/or solicit the assistance of technical experts in these areas. It was emphasized that these champions must clearly explain the process and goals to anyone providing assistance. The group agreed to the following time line for curricula matrix development.
April 15: Champions to provide rough drafts to the team leaders
May 15: Team leaders are to compile all drafts and forward the skill level matrix, course matrix, and competency definitions for their respective teams to Paula McGee for distribution to the Training Directors for course input.
June 4: Paula is to provide the matrices to the team leaders
Action:
Howe will develop guidance on the curriculum development for usage by the team leaders and subject area champions in educating team members and technical specialists that will aid in the curriculum development process. The NHI meeting minutes, goals and definitions, standard matrix format, example matrices and competency definitions, as well as other information will be provided. - Completed.
Bernie will provide the construction matrix, developed in the breakout session, to all meeting attendees. - Completed.
Digital Continuing Education for Highway Agencies
Trevor Smith and Mark Kramer of Portland State University presented a demonstration of the leading edge technology they are employing in the digital multimedia continuing education area. They have worked with Rich Barrows of Western Federal Lands Highway Division to develop an interactive tutorial for inspectors in the Geotechnical field. They are currently working on an educational tool in the Threatened and Endangered Species area. Information on this multimedia project can be found at the following web address. www.ocate.edu/civil.htm.
Action: Howe is to provide the group with Trevor Smith's contact information. - Completed.
Day Two
NHI Update and NHI/TCCC Agreement
Day 2 began with a summary of activities between TCCC and NHI. Chris Newman notes that there are two NHI Geotechnical courses that could be adapted for TCCC. The new NHI representative on the TCCC, replacing Chris, is Ewa Rodzik who was unable to attend the meeting. Ewa and NHI are not yet comfortable with the language contained in the draft agreement between NHI and the TCCC that will define the terms for distribution of TCCC/NHI training materials. The agreement was interpreted as dictating to NHI as opposed to supporting the TCCC. The agreement must be made more concise to iron out these problems. It was noted that we must not forget the concerns of the States in the development of this agreement. Questions were raised on whether states could partner with NHI to share trainers. This could be incorporated into the agreement with NHI.
Action: Chris and Jim will work with NHI to develop an agreement that is acceptable to all.
Evaluating Technical Training Proposal
Chris Anderson's team had 2 video conferences to come up with a scope to measure the impact of technical training. The team put together a good scope and was very pro-active. It is important to justify why we're doing the training and that the training is beneficial. Alan notes that there is lots of data out there but no analysis to see if testing is effective. The scope has been presented to TRB.
TCCC Web Site
Dan Sanayi was unable to attend the meeting and update the group on progress on the site. Newman provided a briefing instead. The database is being rewritten in cold fusion for better technical support. Outdated links are being fixed. Will need to reach out to groups to populate the site and to update the TCCC members. Minutes will be archived on the site. The group agrees that the site is a key marketing tool for the TCCC to enlist new states. Some of the search features don't work very well and need to be fixed. It was noted that the development of a process for attaining the range of training materials from the states and industry and the regular updating of these materials, as well as a process for technical teams to provide progress updates for the site should be included in the strategic plan.
Action:
- Dan is to provide an update to the members. Howe will communicate with Dan regarding web site improvements.
- Dan and June will develop a plan to retrieve course information form DOTs and Industry.
- The processes noted in the above discussion will be addressed in the TCCC business plan by June.
National Training Directors Conference/National Certification Conference
Chris Anderson plans to host a combined TCCC/National Training Directors meeting in the fall of 2004. The goal is to make them more aware of TCCC's mission and find ways to better work together in partnership. Both Chris Anderson and Chris Newman attended the October NTTD national meeting in South Carolina and explained the TCCC mission and proposed a joint meeting. This proposal was enthusiastically received by the NTTD. The NTTD will have their annual meeting this Oct 03 and the agenda is set, thus we will target the 04 meeting. Both Bob Peda and Chris Anderson have discussed the proposed meeting with Barbara Martin, the President of the NTTD. It is also the intent to explore hosting a National Certification Conference as part of the same meeting. This would be similar to the conference previously hosted by the M-TRAC and the FHWA where information is shared on developments in the certification area. This conference has been a very important tool in the past. A goal of this meeting is to begin a dialogue and closer working relationship between the technical training staffs and human resource areas in the respective DOTs thus we propose that each state be represented by these respective individuals. The intent is to have sessions where all parties would participate and also allow time for the respective groups to conduct their individual business. Intentions are for Iowa to host the meeting in Kansas City. Newman notes that he will be drafting a letter to TRB to propose setting up a project fund to allow participants from each state to attend this conference. The letter needs to be submitted through the AASHTO subcommittee and chairs. The letter should be ready by the end of March.
Action: Chris Newman to draft a proposal by March 31 for an NCHRP 20-7 project to support the conference.
Computer-Based Training
Michael Moravec was to present a proposal to the group, but was unable to attend due to the east coast weather. The committee agrees that CBT is very important and is one of the tools in providing a qualified workforce. The question came to when will a TCCC sanctioned course be ready to be developed into CBT. As part of market research into CBT development June Dea will prepare a scope of work for multi-media experts to craft a proposal to address HMA Paving and Asphalt Plant Inspection to be supplied by the June meeting. The scope will be distributed to the TCCC for review. An issue raised by Douglas is the need for software standards for the emerging digital technology. Also, if this format were to be used for certification, how can the testing be conducted and controlled? Douglas also feels that on-line training is better than CBT with CDs, since it is easier to correct errors or update materials on-line.
Action: June to prepare a scope of work for CBT development. Proposals will be available by the June meeting. Chris Newman and Paula McGee will assist in scope development.
AASHTO/ASTM Fee Status
There are no new developments in this area.
Action: Jim is to continue efforts in this area and update the group at the June meeting.
Activity Plan Update
Chris Newman presented a proposal from Peter Osborn's group to develop two additional courses of the proposed six courses in the Geotechnical area. The proposed courses are Subsurface Investigations and Reinforced Soil Structures.
The group updated the TCCC Activity Plan, for the coming months. The current plan is attached to these meeting minutes as a separate document.
Course Development Needs/Prioritization
The committee discussed the lack of course information available and the need to develop a comprehensive database of courses broken down by states and topics. Lee suggests that a uniform method must be developed to request course information. The group also discussed the sources for the course information, whether it's the consultants and/or the state construction employees that would have this information.
The group discussed the immediate needs for course development. Priorities identified were:
- Structural Inspection - this course has been previously identified and was reinforced as a top priority
- Reinforced Soil Structures - the group noted that they would like the existing MSE course material utilized to the extent possible
- Train the Trainer for Technical Trainers - this subject will become a priority if an existing course cannot be identified
The group required additional information concerning the proposal to fund the Subsurface Investigations module. The group was also interested in the outcome of Woody Hood's AASHTO survey of the interest in developing a course for installers of bolts for overhead signs. The TCCC could be interested in a course if the scope were expanded to include all classifications of structural bolting. This will be determined after verifying the need and interest.
Action:
- Chris Newman is to work with Peter Osborn to obtain additional information on the proposed Subsurface Investigation course.
- Howe will contact Woody for an update and relay the information to the members. - Completed.
Other Discussion
Resource Centers
Bernie explained that there is only one Resource Center now with multiple offices and cited the locations and contacts. He further explained that the Resource Center has technical training available, but no training specialists. He also emphasized the importance of getting the Resource Center directors on board with the goals of the TCCC. Right now some of the directors are not aware of the TCCC. It was noted that the TCCC is expecting our Resource Center contacts to be actively communicating the efforts of the TCCC to their Division contacts and to solicit the support and assistance of the Divisions. This is seen as a key to success and education.
Resource Centers
San Francisco
Lakewood, CO - Bernie Kuta
Atlanta - Michael Smith
B
Baltimore - Michael Arasteh
Olympia Fields, IL - Bryan Cawley
Matrices
The action items and time line for matrices development was reiterated. Additional champions were assigned for subject areas under the Construction Matrix.
Geotechnical - Douglas Townes working with Peter Osborn
Utilities - Jason Dietz
Landscaping - Alan Samuels
Aggregates - Bernie Kuta
The committee agrees that there may be some overlap with other matrices, but that is okay and can be sorted out. A person may be advanced on one matrix, but entry-level on another. A discussion also ensued regarding reading levels. It was decided that an 8th grade level of reading and writing should remain for entry level and the rest of the levels would be at the 12th grade level. The TCCC will only make recommendations and the states can apply as they determine.
Jason notes that it will be good for the team leaders to write down exactly what the curricula teams' mission is and distribute it to team members. The team additions are as follows:
Construction - Greg Doyle
Employee Development - Judy Barrette - AZ
Safety - Dan Sanayi will assist Jack in finding additional technical assistance
Marketing New Products
It was noted that we need to be very vocal in marketing the products that we have produced, such as the high quality Geotechnical inspections courses, and the updated HMA course with new "black book" and CD that is structured as a certification course.
Next Meeting
The group agrees that the next meeting will take placeJune 10-11th, 2003in the Northeast.
