April 7, 2003
1:00pm PDT

Members in attendance

• James Griffin
• Lawrence Lexow
• Gregory Maciulla
• Robert Meldman
• Francis Paolone
• Lillian Woo
• Judi Nicholas - Designated Federal Official

TAP Staff

• Anne Gruber

Guests

• Erick Patterson, Director, Individual Advocacy - Washington, DC
• Sharon Lassar - TAP Member - Area 3

Absent

• Larry Bernard
• Jerry Gensiejewski
• Chris Lowe
• James Grimaldi
• Calvin Johnson
• Diane Mignano
• Paul Smathers
• Sherry Whah

Opening
Committee Chair Chris Lowe was not able to attend the meeting so vice-chair Bob Meldman took over. He welcomed everyone and wanted to see if quorum was met.

Roll call
Roll was taken. When the roll was taken quorum was not met. However, later an additional committee member joined and the quorum was met.

Review of Minutes
The minutes of the March 3, 2003 meeting were discussed and accepted.

Discussion of DFO Change
Judi Nicholas introduced herself as the new Designated Federal Official. She explained that when the new TAP director came, she decided that the DFO responsibilities were typical of managerial duties and consequently she thought it made more sense that the managers were to be the DFOs. Anne Gruber will continue to help the committee in the same way as she has with research and meeting notes. The committee should think of the staff as interchangeable, i.e., if a request is made and Anne is not in the office, the committee member can call Judi. Likewise, if Judi is not in the office, then the committee member can ask Anne. Basically, an additional person has just been added to the group.

National Licensing of Practitioners
Sherry Whah was unavoidably absent. Sherry provided Anne with information to be shared with the committee. Anne stated that Sherry felt that the USAToday survey was delayed indeterminably and the committee should think of other ways to get public input. She wondered what Erick Patterson had to report.

Erick said Nina Olson spoke in front of the Ways and Means Committee last Tuesday and although her primary reason for testifying was not to discuss national licensing the subject did arise. The members in attendance were pretty receptive to the idea of national licensing. The president of H&R Block was there too and he also seemed to support the idea of national licensing.

Judi led a discussion about Nina's initial request to the Ad Hoc committee for help in getting public input about the issue. She suggested that if the group was interested in continuing to work this issue that they consider additional ways to obtain public input.

Bob pointed out that there have been lots of articles about the issue and although the articles were not the result of the Ad Hoc Committee's efforts, they still represented public exposure to the idea. Bob suggested that the National Licensing subcommittee create a questionnaire to be sent out to the entire panel. The panel is a ready-made focus group and each person represents many more people. ACTION ITEM: Anne will get the subcommittee (Sherry, Larry, Greg, Calvin, and Bob) together to create the questionnaire to send to the entire panel. Judi will check with Deryle Temple to get her thoughts about a survey to the entire panel.

Lillian Woo wondered since Nina's comments are already part of the public record, by virtue of her testimony on Capitol Hill last week, and therefore can be or already may have been quoted by any media source, would it be possible for IRS media specialists to extract the most important portions of her presentation about national registration for distribution to local newspapers across the country? This would provide information about the registration of unenrolled preparers to taxpayers so that when we do our survey, they will be familiar with the issue. Bob and Judi felt that Nina really wanted control over what went out to the public and that included re-sending her comments. ACTION ITEM: Judi will find out what actions have been taken on behalf of the NTA to generate a broad public awareness of the issue.

Greg Maciulla wondered what the occupational demographics of the panel are, specifically those in the tax preparation business. Judi said that about 15% of the panel members are tax preparers, but that does not include all tax professionals, like Bob Meldman. ACTION ITEM: Judi will find out the occupational demographics of the panel.

Marketing Strategy
Buck Paolone reported that he has had two meetings with Luckie & Company, a pubic relations firm that handles national advertising campaigns, and they are reviewing the information on the Power Point presentation to possibly create some 15 and 30 second Public Service Announcements for TV, radio, and the print media. They have agreed to do this pro bono and Buck is meeting with them again this week. Name recognition of TAP on a national level is the goal.

Agenda for St. Louis Meeting
Judi reviewed the two-day proposed agenda. A large part of the meeting will be spent discussing the as-yet-unknown topics brought forward from the Joint Committee meeting in early May. Another large segment of the agenda will be spent discussing the marketing strategy. Judi talked about the previous members of the Citizen Advocacy Panel (CAP) and the plan that they developed. Lillian wondered if their plan could be shared. ACTION ITEM: Judi will get CAP's marketing plan to share.

Larry Lexow described how the students at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, IL were going to be invited to the TAP meeting. The university is not only providing a room for the meeting, but they are also going to provide transportation from the hotel.

Bob wondered if members of Congress were being notified. Judi briefly discussed the congressional, media, and local IRS contacts that would be made before the meeting as a matter of routine.

Bob wondered if the video "Pipeline" should be shown, since it shows the workings of a Submission Processing Center. Many of the area committee meetings have already been held at service centers and people have seen the processing of returns firsthand.

Social Aspect of St. Louis Meeting - June 6 & 7, 2003
Larry reviewed the options for social activities associated with the two-day event. Everyone will travel on Thursday, June 5. The hotel, Embassy Suite at Laciede Landing, hosts a nightly reception from 5 PM to 7 PM and afterwards the committee members who are interested are walking to Kemoll's, an Italian restaurant with a view. On Friday night, Larry is suggesting a dinner-theater, The Royal Dumpe. The St Louis Cardinals are also in town both nights for those who are interested in baseball. ACTION ITEM: Anne will email everyone to get numbers and names for attendance at the dinner-theater. For committee members who are staying the weekend, Larry offered to talk further about things to do and places to visit. ACTION ITEM: Don't forget to call the hotel and make reservations (1-800-445-8667 or local 314-241-4200 - make sure to ask for government rate.)

NEXT MEETING: MAY 5, 2003

Meeting adjourned at 2:00 PM PDT.