Ad Hoc Issue Committee Minutes

Taxpayer Advocacy Panel
Ad Hoc Teleconference
February 16, 2006

Designated Federal Official

• Nancy L. Ferree

Members Present

• Rashidah Abdulhaqq, Cleveland, OH
• George Bates, Jr., Great Falls, MT, Vice Chair
• Emilio Cecchi, North Bethesda, MD
• Larry Combs, Yuba City, CA
• JoAnn Davis, Scott Depot, WV
• Margaret Ferguson, Vista, CA
• Gim Hom, Acton, MA
• Patrice Marker, Davie, FL, Chair
• Donald Miller, Loudon, TN
• Willy Nordwind, Scottsdale, AZ
• Ralph Rivera, Garland, TX

Members Absent

• Dorothy Havey, Lincolnville, ME
• José Irizarry, San Juan, PR

IRS Program Owners

• None

Staff Present

• Inez E. De Jesus, TAP Program Analyst and Note Taker

Welcome & Announcements
Chair Patrice Marker opened the meeting by welcoming everyone.

Roll Call
Quorum of 50% plus one was met (8); 11 members were present.

Review minutes of December 20, 2005 & January 11, 2006 for vital information
DFO Nancy Ferree informed everyone that these minutes are posted on TAP Speak and since the January meeting in DC was an administrative meeting, these do not fall under the FACA (Federal Advisory Committee Act) guidelines. If panel members have any suggestions for changes to these minutes, they are to bring them to her attention.

Program Owner’s Reports

a) Multilingual Initiative (MLI) Issue(s)
None at this time.

b) Forms and Publications
None at this time.

c) Publication 1-Your Rights as a Taxpayer
None at this time.

d) Systemic Advocacy
None at this time.

Requests from the IRS
None at this time.

Ad Hoc’s Editing Sub-committee
Margaret Ferguson and JoAnn Davis volunteered during the annual meeting to write and edit reports/proposals for this committee when the opportunity arises.

Decide on Location for Face-to-Face Meeting: June 15-17, 2006 (travel June 14th)
Program Analyst Inez E. De Jesus shared that she had done a cost estimate for the cities that this panel had shown an interest in holding their face-to-face meeting on the dates indicated above.

Results from the lowest to the highest cost are Phoenix, Atlanta, Denver, Chicago, and San Diego.

Decision: Committee agreed on Phoenix/Scottsdale; Willy Nordwind volunteered to assist the analyst with the logistics. They will be working together on this and will keep the panel informed of their findings.

Define Roles of Sub-committees
DFO Ferree briefly shared what the expectation was of sub-committee work once they start receiving direction from the IRS program owners. Most of the work is done within the sub-committee(s) which report back periodically to the entire panel. Materials and information will be sent primarily by email and/or placed on TAP Speak.

During the annual meeting in DC, January 2006, the following subcommittees were created for this committee with the following volunteers:

Multilingual Issues/MLI Needs Assessment

• Rashidah Abduhaqq
• José Irizarry
• Dorothy Havey
• Willy Nordwind

TAP & Tax Forms & Pubs/Publication #1-Your Rights as a Taxpayer

• Larry Combs
• Gim Hom
• Ralph Rivera
• Emilio Cecchi
• Don Miller

Systemic Advocacy (SAMS)

• Assigned as needed

Editing Subcommittee:

• Margaret Ferguson
• JoAnn Davis

Next Steps: Input from each Sub-committee (Goal-setting)
Not at this time.

Members’ Comments
Concern and frustration was expressed since the IRS Program Owners were not on this call to provide guidance to this committee. A request was made that if they cannot attend can they put their request/information in writing. Larry Combs stated that he will be sharing this with the TAP Director Bernie Coston on their next scheduled teleconference meeting.

Members were reminded to fill out the meeting satisfaction survey and to submit it directly to Inez who will consolidate the results and share this information with the entire panel.

Public Input
None

Follow- up Action(s) required on the following issues:

• Ferree will be following up with the IRS Program Owners to ensure that there is representation during next month’s call or direction from them via email.

Closing Assessment
Analyst De Jesus shared that on February 8th, an email was sent to the IRS program owners as a reminder of today’s call.

George Bates and Margaret Ferguson shared that they are experiencing problems with TAP Speak. Gim Hom shared the following link which he uses when he has experienced problems:

http://tapspeak.fedworx.org/irs/tapspeak.nsf/MainMenu?OpenForm

Both Nordwind and Combs shared that they will not be present during next month’s call due to other commitments.

Chair adjourned the meeting.

Please note: Next Teleconference Meeting: March 9, 2006 at 2:00 PM, dial-in information will remain the same until further notice.

*These meeting minutes were approved by the TAP Ad Hoc committete, by consensus on March 9, 2006.