Taxpayer Advocacy Panel
Area 7 Committee
Meeting Minutes
June 25, 2008

Designated Federal Official
John Tam

Attendance
Wayne Whitehead
Wayne Tanna
Charles Davidson, Chair
Richard Coonradt
Howard Stahl
MJ Lee
Margaret Ferguson
Dave Jones
Richard Waterman
Greg Gursey
Sandy Finestone
Sabby Jonathan

Staff
Judi Nicholas, TAP Program Manager
Janice Spinks, TAP Program Analyst
Nina Pang, TAP Jr. Analyst

Opening/Welcome/Announcements
John opened the meeting and Charles welcomed the members. John indicated Area 7 is still without a director.  He will keep us posted on the status of selections.

Janice took roll and a quorum was met.

No announcements from committee members.

MJ indicated she attended a Congressional Aide Seminar hosted by LTA, John Tam.  MJ noted that John does a good job in relation to promoting TAP in his presentation and the manual that is handed out to participants.

Approval of April FTF & May Meeting Minutes
The meeting minutes for April and May were approved as posted on TAPSpace.

Joint Committee (JC) Report – Charles Davidson
Charles reported that the JC meeting held in St. Louis was successful.  Following is a summary of some issues addressed;

• The TAP Annual Report is almost complete. It is in final stages of review and will be going to print the week of 6-30-08.  All members will receive a copy.
• The TAP Annual Meeting – This year’s meeting will be 12-1-08 through 12-5-08 in Washington DC.  The JC discussed how to make the meeting more dynamic and interesting. The meeting days will be Tuesday through Thursday. Anyone interested in running for chair positions are asked to keep travel plans in mind as Friday will be a full day (for those elected) and members should expect to fly out late Friday evening or Saturday morning.
• All Area/Issue FTF meetings have been held. If anyone has photos of your meetings, please forward them to Wayne Whitehead.
• Projects finishing up for 2008 - The Commissioner will get a copy of the Annual Report.  TAP will participate in 3 Tax Forums; Las Vegas, Florida, and San Diego. 
• Leadership process for next year - E-mails will be coming out about this within the next week. The elections for chair/vice will be handled same as last year. (Charles gave brief overview of the process for the new member’s information).  MJ indicated there would not be any campaigning allowed this year. Members will only be allowed to post information on TAPSpace for consideration in being elected.

Volunteers Needed

• Anaheim Parade – Allena Kaplan, a former Area 7 Chair is looking for a TAP member to participate in the 4th of July Parade in Anaheim, CA.  There were no volunteers.  Wayne asked if it was possible for her to promote TAP as a former Area Chair.  Judi indicated she would follow up on this to see if it is feasible.
• Las Vegas Tax Forum – Judi stated we have no volunteers from Area 7 to attend the forum.  Sandi indicated she will be attending the forum (as a participant) and would be happy to assist.  Judi would like to discuss Sandi’s class schedule in relation to being able to staff the booth.  Judi stated she would like a full time person from Area 7.  Charles volunteered to be the full time person and Sandi (as her schedule permits) will provide backup.

ACTION: Janice will discuss Sandi’s schedule to determine the amount of time she would be available to assist Charles.

Issue/Research Status – Janice Spinks
Janice reported that all of the research requested by Sub-committee B has been completed.  The research requested by Sub-committee A is almost complete.  There are about four issues that require in depth research.  Janice stated all research should be complete in time for the next sub-committee meetings.
 
Active Issues – Judi Nicholas
Judi requested the sub-committees look at the preliminary research and pick a top issue to work and the remainder of the issues can be moved to the parking lot.  She would also like the sub-committees to prioritize the issues, have back up issues and decide which ones could be dropped.

Sub-Committee A
Charles discussed Issue Referral #4370 990-PF which was submitted to the QRC for final submission to Forms/Pub.  The referral has taken on a different flavor and Charles will bring it back to sub-com for further discussion.

A recommendation made to change the name so that it will not have to go to Forms/Pubs; just to the JC and to TG/TE.

Sub-Committee B
No report.  Issues will be discussed at the next sub-committee meeting.

Recruitment – Judi Nicholas
The last interview was 6-25-08. Area 7 will fill vacancies in Hawaii, Alaska, and California (4).  There were excellent candidates in the package. The waivers and fingerprint cards are being sent to prospective members.  Judi will be meeting with Bernie during the week of 6-30-08 to discuss her recommendations for selections. Bernie will then meet with Nina Olsen in July to go over the names and get her approval. It is expected that the names will be presented to Treasury by the end of August.  We should have names of new members by early October.  We are on schedule to meet that deadline. 

Judi thanked all who assisted with interviews as well as those who volunteered but did not have the opportunity to interview.

Outreach – Sabby Jonathan
Janice asked everyone to submit outreach for June.

Sabby provided an overview of the outreach graph;

• The numbers appear to be remaining steady…we hope to pick up progress
• Members were asked to be diligent in recording and reporting information to Janice

Judi noted that there has been a drop in outreach and encouraged members to be diligent in their activities over the summer.

Charles indicated the JC discussed having a form on TAPSpace that could be used for reporting. He asked for feedback regarding this suggestion, however, none was offered.

Member Comments/Other Business
Charles would like to see at least two – three issues elevated to the JC for their next meeting.  They will have another FTF meeting in October.

Wayne indicated the turn around on issues going through the QR process before actually getting on the JC agenda is approximately two weeks.

Judi informed the committee that all TAP Staff will be away for training during the week of July 28th.  She will send a reminder notice two weeks prior to our departure.

It was confirmed that the next meeting is July 16th opposed to July 15th as noted on the agenda.  

Closing
John thanked everyone for their attendance and closed the meeting.