November 18, 2002
2:00 PM PST

LOCATION: Conference Call

TAP ATTENDEES:

• Clayton Agena
• James Banks
• Darlene Bramon
• Mario Burgos
• Richard Cormier
• Justin Doucette
• Skip Eshelman
• Chris Forzano
• Gregory Maciulla
• Joe Reder
• Sharon Stetz
• Virginia Symonds
• Bruce Twomley
• Sherry Whah
• Thomas Sherwood, Designated Federal Official

TAP STAFF:

• Anne Gruber

OPENING
Justin Doucette opened the meeting. He welcomed the new members of the committee, i.e. Darlene Bramon from Nampa, Idaho, Skip Eshelman from Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Jim Banks from Bozeman, Montana. Clayton Agena from Honolulu, Hawaii was also joining the committee for the first time. Justin then went through the protocol for a conference call since this is a fairly new way to meet. He suggested trying not to use cell phones, or pay phones, or speakerphones when actually speaking. The speaker should always say his or her name before beginning to speak, so all listeners know who's talking. And if anyone is late, they shouldn't interrupt, but when connecting before the meeting time, the caller should state his or her name to let everyone know that he or she is on the line.

Justin explained that the Federal Register did not publicize the meeting in time this month; therefore this was not going to be an open meeting. The public was not invited and no issues were to be discussed. December 16 will be the first public meeting.

Before each future meeting the agenda will be distributed with the times notated for each item so everybody will know what time they are responsible for. A discussion will be terminated once time runs out. There will be a limited time to continue the terminated discussions at the end of each meeting. Otherwise, the matter will generally be postponed until the next agenda. Thus, the total amount of time needed for an item must be estimated accurately.

All issues will first go to Anne to be assigned a number on the TAP database and then go to the member of the state of origin for review. That member will then determine how much time is needed on the agenda for the committee to discuss the issue. The cut-off date each month will be the 5th. By the 6th Anne will email to each member the issues that came to the committee from his or her state for the preceding month. By the 10th the committee member will have reviewed the issues and made a determination as to the amount of time needed on the agenda. Three days before each meeting, the agenda will be sent to all members. This process will be fine-tuned over time. Mario Burgos requested that all members see all the referrals; the entire committee would benefit from knowing what types of suggestions are coming to the TAP.

Anne took the roll call at 2:23. Then Justin explained that the minutes from the last meeting have already been approved and asked if there were any questions. To review, draft minutes are due within 5 workdays after each meeting. Committee members have a window to request changes and/or clarifications and changes must be made within 14 workdays after each meeting. Final minutes are due within 15 workdays of the committee meeting.

OFFICE REPORTS
Anne reminded everyone about notifying the office whenever anyone goes on an outreach assignment. National office must approve all travel expenses beforehand. The new Speakers' Report Form was briefly reviewed. The form serves two purposes. It is a request form and a report form. At times an organization might request a TAP member to speak at a function. The top of the form provides room for the organization's identification information. The bottom of the form provides space for the speaker, or TAP member, to report the event. At times, the TAP member will fill in both the top and the bottom sections.

A discussion was held on the amount of email that the area committee received. Most felt that they received neither too much nor too little. Darlene Bramon and Sharon Stetz mentioned that they were grateful for all the information. Many commented that there was trouble opening attachments that come from the IRS. Tom Sherwood suggested that it was possibly due to the firewall on IRS computers.

FACE-TO-FACE MEETING
Justin wondered if the planned meeting in January was too soon and if 1½ days might be too much time given the amount of issues so early. Chris Forzano pointed out that many committees were looking at the same time to meet and maybe it would be too much for January, that March might be better. Greg Maciulla thought that the time of the face-to-face meeting was an item that could wait and be an agenda item on the next conference call meeting in December ACTION ITEM: Anne will email the group and take a poll of desired dates. A variety of choices will be given, some weekend, some weekday, some 1 day, some 2 days. Joe Reder mentioned that he is busy the first week in May and weekends are bad for him. Virginia Symonds mentioned that she is busy the first two weeks in May. Definitely January and February are too early; Jim Banks commented that the later it gets in tax season is definitely too busy.

Next, location was discussed. Cost is important, but not the driving force behind the choice of cities. ACTION ITEM: Anne will email everybody with a list of five possible cities, which everyone can rank one to five in order of preference, plus one write-in location.

ELECTION
At 2:55 the election of a permanent chair and vice chair was discussed. Clarification was requested if Justin thought the chair position was too much work, or the election was for the benefit of the four new members. Justin said he wanted the new members to have an opportunity to lead if they wanted. Jim Banks motioned that the temporary chair and vice chair become permanent. Sharon Stetz seconded the motion and everyone approved.

CLOSING
Justin closed the meeting at 2:59, right on schedule. He reminded everyone of the next meeting on December 16 at 2 PM PST. It will be a public meeting with oral comments from citizens. He asked if there were any questions now. Clayton Agena asked for clarification of the difference between the area committees and the issue committees. Justin explained that the area committees receive grassroots input from the public, while the issue committees serve a specific purpose and provide input on a topic that the IRS has identified. Justin offered the Power Point presentation that he developed to anyone who would like to use it for an outreach effort.

A request was made for a complete member list and a calendar with all meeting dates. ACTION ITEM: Anne will send both to all.

Several questioned the status of the business cards, the credit cards, and the phone cards. ACTION ITEM: Anne will make inquiries and report back to the group.