Area 4 Committee Meeting Minutes

Conference Call
December 20, 2005

Designated Federal Official

• Richard Morris, Wisconsin Local Taxpayer Advocate
• Betty Martin, Tennessee Local Taxpayer Advocate

Committee Members Present

• Maureen Amos, Illinois
• Larry Behnkendorf, Michigan
• Robert Broniarczyk, Illinois
• Kimberly Chowning, Indianapolis
• Paul Duquette, Wisconsin
• Donna Hafer, Kentucky
• Steve Hoffman, Ohio
• Mary Ann Lawler, Michigan
• David Meister, Wisconsin
• Jerry Melchior, Indiana
• Don Miller, Tennessee
• Marie O’Donnell, Illinois
• Lovella Richardson, Tennessee
• Allen Scioli, Michigan
• Teresa Smedley, Indiana, Area 4 Chair

Committee Members Absent

• Rashidah Abdulhaqq, Ohio
• Adrienne Bell-Stampley, Illinois
• Joe Hurr, Ohio
• Ferd Schneider, Ohio

TAP Staff

• Sandra McQuin, TAP Manager
• Mary Ann Delzer, Program Analyst
• Patti Robb, Secretary

Visitors

• Marilyn Luster, TAS Program Analyst , Cincinnati

Welcome — Smedley
Teresa Smedley welcomed everyone to the call. She asked that everyone identify themselves with first and last names when speaking.

Introductions – All

Roll Call — Robb
Quorum met.

Joint Committee Report — Smedley
No Joint Committee report this month as the call is tomorrow. The Joint Committee consists of the chairs from all the area and issue committees, as well as the TAP Chair and Vice Chair. They meet on a monthly basis to discuss recommendations elevated from the area committees. They determine if the issue is ready for elevation. If not, the recommendation goes back to the committee to be further researched or rewritten. They do not discuss issue committee recommendations as those go directly to the IRS program owner.

Annual Meeting, January 10-13, 2006 — Smedley
You should all have received your travel arrangements for the annual meeting. Some pre-read information was also mailed. Each committee, area and issue, will have a four hour meeting at the annual meeting. The TAP members will elect a new chair and vice chair, as well as a new overall TAP chair and vice chair. This is a very important position. The panel needs good leadership and a good spokesperson. Be sure you bring your calendar to the meeting as the committee will be setting up your meeting dates and times for the rest of 2006.

There is an Area 4 dinner scheduled for Thursday night in Washington, D.C. It will give you a chance to meet the rest of the area 4 members. There will also be a social reception from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday night. This will give you a chance to meet and speak to the members who are running for TAP Chair and Vice Chair. Spouses and guests are invited to both functions.

Public Input
None.

Area 4 Self Assessment — Morris
Each year a self assessment is done by each committee, with all members asked to give their input. The assessment looks at the recommendations, outreach, other accomplishments, and also disappointments of the year. This assessment is used by the TAP Chair to compile into the TAP Annual Report.

The assessment also includes an evaluation of how the committee operated; best practices, suggestions to improve, cooperation TAP and IRS staff. This part of this assessment is used strictly by our area to improve our meetings and the way we operate.

What is the Committee doing that has no value and should be stopped?

• Deviating from agenda in conference
  Richardson – when we get off track, it needs to be handled courteously.
  Hoffman – sometimes we do attempt to solve an issue.
  Decision: During monthly meetings, subcommittees should report-out on their work to date, not work the issues.
• Counting complaints pertaining to individual as new issues
  Delzer pulls the report off the contact database as they are entered. She does not edit or filter anything that has come into TAP. It is up to the area committee to decide if the issue is individual, systemic, or legislative.
  Decision: Committee will continue to get the complete new issue report each month.

What would you like the Committee start doing?

• Set ground rules
  Decision: Committee will talk about ground rules at the area meeting in January.
• Develop a step-by-step procedure for new members’ to use a template for outreach activities.
  Decision: there will be an outreach workshop at the annual meeting for all panel members
• Instead of wasting so much time on reports, etc., send out information by email in advance and spend the time on member input and discussion.
  Information should be sent out before the meeting instead of reporting out during the meeting. Smedley pointed out that some things need to be discussed. McQuin agreed that there needs to be time for member input on issues other members have worked on. Information would also need to be sent to Delzer early enough so she could send out in time to be reviewed before the meeting. Morris suggested adding more time to the agenda for discussion.
• Committee chairpersons need to be moderators, not directors.
  Duquette thought the chair should be a director, not a moderator. That would help keep the meetings on track.
  Decision: All agreed.
• More face-to-face meetings.
  Decision: This is budget driven. We cannot resolve this at the committee level.
• Ensure all panel members are actively engaged.
  It is critical that all panel members are engaged in four areas; 1) conference calls, 2) sub committee work, 3) outreach, and 4) work product. All panel members are volunteers and so it is critical that all must be engaged. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Richardson said if everyone talks, the meeting will be too long. Morris said everyone should feel free to talk during the meeting.
  Decision: Would like to reinstate the evaluation/critique of each teleconference. Delzer will send out assessment after calls.

Richardson said a list of acronyms should be provided to new panel members. It will be in the TAP Member Handbook.

If you would like to see the status of any elevated issues, it is on TAPSpeak and is kept updated: Issue Recommendation Summary.

ACTION: Delzer will send a link to TAPSpeak where to find the issue recommendation summary.

ACTION: Delzer will send a link where to find the Joint Committee minutes on TAPSpeak.

New Issues — Delzer
Delzer explained that an issue report is run each month. Last month the returning members of area 4 were asked to go through the issues and indicate their order of interest. Delzer used this information to pare down the list and remove the issues that had little interest. The committee will look at them again at the annual meeting. Please review and decide which issue you would like to work. If you have any more issues, please bring them to the meeting in January; this report is not all inclusive. Delzer said she would explain all the reports at the annual meeting.

Outreach — All
Area 4 had no outreaches reported this month. Please remember to send Delzer an email or the report form when you do an outreach. We need the outreaches reported to the office to add to the database. This is the only way outreaches are accounted for and given “credit.” McQuin said there will be an Outreach workshop at the annual meeting and everyone will have training.

Town Hall Meetings — Duquette
Nina Olson, National Taxpayer Advocate, has decided to have a town hall meeting in all seven areas that TAP is aligned to. TAP has been asked to host these meetings. The plan for area 4 is to hold the meeting in Cincinnati, but we haven’t been able to determine a date yet. The date for the town hall meeting will need to coincide with Olson’s calendar. One question is should we hold our face-to-face meeting in conjunction with the town hall meeting? This will be discussed further at the annual meeting during the calendar discussion.

Office Report — McQuin
Hopefully, orientation will clear up any questions you have regarding TAP.

Because of the holidays, not all the staff will be in the office every day in the next two weeks.

Morris said the new panel members should expect to be contacted by the LTA in their area to arrange to meet and talk.

Closing / Assessment
Happy Holidays to everyone and see you in Washington, D.C.

Meeting Adjourned