Area 7
Teleconference Minutes
June 20, 2007

Designated Federal Official
Judi Nicholas served as the DFO in John’s absence.

Attendance
Dave Jones
Tom Karwin
Merijane Lee
Iris Sosa
Wayne Whitehead, Chair
Doug Wilhelm

Absent
Charles Davidson, Vice Chair
Margaret Ferguson
Greg Gursey
Howard Stahl
Wayne Tanna
Gil Yanuck
John Tam, DFO

Staff
Janice Spinks, Program Analyst
Marla Ofilas, Secretary

Opening/Welcome
Judi opened the meeting. Roll was taken and a quorum was met.

Mid-Year Review – Wayne Whitehead
A copy of the mid-year review was provided to all members. Wayne will be presenting it during the Joint Committee face-to-face meeting in Denver.

Wayne provided an overview of the report. The report provides an update on the activities of Area 7 for the first half of FY 2007 and lists accomplishments, issues worked, issues being worked and outreach activities.

Wayne asked for input to the report.  One recommendation made was to have TAP staff develop measurable expectations for outreach performance.

MJ suggested “Recommendations” be changed to “Chair Recommendations” to indicate these are observations and suggestions from the chair and not the full committee.
DECISION: Wayne agreed to make the changes.

Sub-committee Report – Greg Gursey

• Sub-committee A – Issue #3959 Referral

Tom provided an update of his discussion with Barbara Toy, Joint Committee Analyst. She felt the IRS may not receive access of social security information in time to process the tax return. The sub-committee discussed this and concluded that it was an IRS logistical issue and is beyond the roll of the Area Committee to solve.
DECISION: The full committee agreed to go forward with submitting this issue to the Joint Committee.

Future of the Issue Sub-Committee – Wayne Whitehead & Judi Nicholas
The members reviewed the Issue Tracking Process document which accompanied the midyear report.  Wayne asked the members if they would like to continue using the process outlined or create a new one.  Doug indicated the issue sub-committee was a good idea when Area 7 had a back log of issues. However, if the committee continues with sub-committees A and B, having the issue sub-committee is not needed. Doug suggested that the issues be assigned to the appropriate alpha sub-committee. 
DECISION: The full committee agreed with Doug’s recommendations.
ACTION: Janice will begin to assign incoming issues to the appropriate sub-committee. 
 
Joint Committee Report
Wayne reported that recruiting efforts are underway. The staff has ranked the applications and interviews have started. The goal is to have all interviews completed by June 29th with the hope of providing IRS with names of potential new members by August.

Member Comments/Other Business
Iris reported that the committee received an e-mail from Barbara Toy regarding a Form SS4 issue that was previously worked in Area 7. The recommendation was not elevated because the IRS had corrected the problem. However; the IRS has invited TAP to review the form to ensure it is working properly.
DECISION: Iris agreed to review and test the form to see if the changes are appropriate.
ACTION: This will be added to the July agenda as a follow up item.

MJ explained that she participates on the Ad Hoc Issue Committee, which works closely with the Director of forms and publications. It has come to their attention that many issues are being worked (or have been worked in the past) where the IRS provided a response.  In an effort to prevent duplication, members of the Ad Hoc Issue Committee have been charged with reviewing issues (related to forms and publications) prior to area members working them.

Closing
Judi closed the meeting and thanked the members.