Date: November 4, 2002

Location: Teleconference

Opening of the Meeting
Chairperson Fish opened the meeting at 1:05PM Eastern Time and welcomed all participants.

Roll Call Vice Chair Grimaldi took attendance.

Panel Members Attending

• Walter Fish, NY, Chair
• James Grimaldi, Vice Chair
• William R. Swartz, DFO
• Abigail Alicea, NH
• Catherine Kelly, ME
• Diane Mignano, RI
• Eileen Shuman, VT

Absent Panel Members

• Aimee Brace, NY
• Paul Nagel, NY
• Charles Silva, MA
• Shamsey Oloko, NY

TAP Staff and IRS Staff Attending

• Marisa Knispel, TAP Program Analyst
• Nancy Ferree, TAP Program Manager

Meeting Agenda for November 9th
Chair Fish reviewed the proposed agenda for the upcoming Area 1 meeting in Providence, Rhode Island. He indicated that at the meeting, he'd like to share with the members a speech he wrote for presentation at his local Chamber of Commerce. The speech gives a brief explanation of the TAP Program.

Vice Chair Grimaldi explained a revision made to the original agenda after the visit from a local Media Specialist was cancelled. The Specialist was invited to speak on how to deal with the media and how to conduct outreach presentations. Executives from IRS Communications deemed that TAP's open meeting to the public was not a proper forum to address these issues hence the revision was made.

Outreach
Member Shuman informed the committee of her participation in an employer seminar conducted in her town of Brattleboro, VT where several federal and state agency officials addressed questions on how to start a business. Member Shuman was invited to briefly introduce herself and speak about TAP and its issue committees.

Following, Chair Fish indicated that maintaining records on Outreach and public presentation was important to the Program. Thus, Analyst Knispel is to be notified of any outreach activities, mainly those requiring fiscal approval.

Issues
Member Shuman inquired as to how to record issues and/or concerns brought about by taxpayers. She suggested a form be created for this purpose. DFO Swartz explained that the Taxpayer Advocate Service uses Form 911 to record taxpayer's issues and/or problems. Analyst Knispel will bring sample of this Form to next meeting.

DFO Swartz also invited members to present their own issues and concerns to the committee. Issues will be discussed at the November 9th meeting.

Member Shuman proposed to have each state representative of our Area report on issues representing the state at each committee meeting. Local news is a source for these issues.

Member Kelly added that receiving reports on the different Issue Committees would also be beneficial. Since our Area 1 Committee members represent all TAP Issue Committees, it was suggested that each member give a briefing of his/her issue at each Area 1 committee meeting.

Closing of Meeting
Chair Fish closed meeting at 2:00 PM, EST.