Taxpayer Advocacy Panel (TAP)
Area 3 Committee
Meeting Minutes
February 19, 2008

Members in Attendance
Dale Cooper
Jaspconia Florence
Luis Fuentes
Louis Kapugi
Patrice Marker
Mark Paris
Al Rodriguez
Max Scott
Homer Sewell III
Tommy Thompson
Chuck Tice

Members Absent
Mary Armstrong
Hank Mosler

DFO present
Rose Browne, DFO

Staff in Attendance
Nancy Ferree, TAP Program Manager
Sallie Chavez, TAP Program Analyst
Anita Fields, Secretary

Welcome
Chair Dale Cooper welcomed everyone, thanked him or her on his or her outreach efforts, and encourages everyone to continue doing outreach.

Roll Call
Quorum was met.

Introductions of Guests
No guest present

Review of Meeting Minutes December and January
Minutes from December 2007 and January 2008 were approved as written.

Review of Joint Committee
Dale reported that during the joint committee call they spoke about the recruiting efforts.  Dale asked if anyone would like to be part of the recruiting efforts.  Patrice Marker, Mark Paris, Homer Sewell, Lou Kapugi, Dale Cooper, Max Scott and Rose Browne all volunteered to be apart of the recruitment/interview process. 

It was discussed during the joint committee call to try to measure our outreach.   Mark Paris stated that tracking the amount of outreach conducted and how many issues come from that outreach was discussed.

Subcommittee Reports
Al Rodriguez and Mary Armstrong will give updates on their issues at the face-to-face meeting.

Agenda for Face-to-Face Meeting
Dale stated that there are still a few open spots on the agenda for the face-to-face meeting.  If there is anything that you want to cover please let Dale or Sallie know so that they can put it on the agenda.  Once the town hall in Birmingham is complete, we will put together a draft agenda and send it out to everyone.

Dale asked if anyone have any objection to moving the April meeting from the 15th to the 14th at 12:30 due to a conflict with the issue committee face-to-face.  No one objected.  Sallie will send out an email to everyone to confirm/remind him or her of the change for April.

Outreach
Dale reported that the outreach for January was good.  Not everyone participated, and he wants to encourage everyone to try to get some outreach done. 

We have approx. 25 issues to work on right now.  Dale would like to have those available for the face-to-face meeting.  We currently have only two active issues assigned.  Dale informed that area 3 have a screening committee.  The screening committee looks at the issues before they are brought before the entire committee.  Mark Paris is chair of the screening subcommittee.  Dale asked everyone to update his or her bio on TAP Space.

Nancy Ferree discussed that during outreach, you will get issues that will border personal or systemic.  Just keep in mind that once you have been doing it for a while you will be able to determine which is personal and which is systemic.  If you are unsure, just get as much information as possible and write it up and Sallie will sift through them. 

Citizen Input
No citizen input.

Meeting Close
Patrice asked if any of the potential issues would be available before the face-to-face.  Dale stated that we would try to do what we can about getting some out before the meeting.  Nancy Ferree asked to be on the screening committee contact list, so that she will know when the meetings are held.  Dale thanked everyone for the attendance.  Meeting adjourned at 1:15 pm.

Next Meeting is a Face-to-Face in Orlando Thursday February 28- March 1, 2008.

Certification: the Area 3 Committee approved these minutes by consensus on February 28, 2008.