Joint Committee Minutes

Joint Committee Teleconference Minutes

August 2, 2006

Welcome/Announcements/Review Agenda/Roll Call

Quorum met.

National Office Report

TAP Director Bernie Coston said TAP is currently on target with the budget.  TAP has some travel money still available so managers will poll their committees to see if they have any subcommittee meeting travel needs.  The Communications Strategy Subcommittee of the  Communication Committee will be meeting in Atlanta August 15-16.  A subcommittee of the Taxpayer Assistance Centers (TAC) will meet in Atlanta in September to look at the formulation of the survey in the TACs.  Coston offered this same type of opportunity to all issue and area committees.  This money is available through September. 

Paul Brubaker, Larry Combs, and Coston are working on a draft agenda for the annual meeting.  This year the emphasis will be on the area and issue breakouts, which is the most important part for new members as voiced by Joint Committee members in Denver. 

TAP is in the process of filling two vacancies; Senior Program Analyst in Washington, DC, and a Program Analyst in Seattle.  The interviews for the analyst position in Seattle are in two weeks.  Coston hopes to get the application packages very soon for the position in Washington, D.C.

The interview phase of recruitment is finished and thanks to all the TAP members who volunteered and participated in the interviewing process.  Tax checks, fingerprint checks, and subversive name checks are being done on the potential new members.  These processes can take up to eight weeks.  TAP wants to get names to the National Taxpayer Advocate, the Commissioner, and to Treasury as soon as possible for final approval.  They will go with a caveat that these selectees are pending subversive name checks. 

At the Continuing Professional Education (CPE) for Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) employees that took place in New Orleans in mid-July, TAP staff had a separate session on volunteer management.  Staff identified four areas for emphasis. 

1. Establishment of a vision statement for TAP
2. Establishment of a stronger member position description that accurately describes the roles and responsibilities of being a TAP member.  Maryann Motza said this is a wonderful addition.  Through the new member survey, Motza found new members were very confused as to what their roles and responsibilities are. Motza, Max Scott, and JT Wright volunteered
3. Member evaluation process/how to evaluate members – TAP now tracks only attendance, but needs to look at other ways to evaluate member participation and if members are fulfilling their expectations.
4. Balanced Measures – The committee that works on the vision statement should work on this committee too.  The vision statement will help identify appropriate measures. 

Right now there is a manager, a program analyst, and a National Office analyst on each committee.  TAP would like two to three TAP members on each committee as well. 
ACTION:  Coston will send an email to Toy to forward to all panel members soliciting interest in volunteering for a team.

Depending on the response, the teams could have up to four panel members each.  Allena Kaplan thought it should be restricted to the Joint Committee since only two or three volunteers are needed for each committee.  Sandy McQuin replied that the Joint Committee members are so busy already and other panel members may have the necessary skills.  George Bates felt the email should go out to all the panel members.  Neil Mitchell asked if there was a deadline for pulling all of the above together.  Coston replied that he would have it in place by the annual meeting in December.  The vision statement and the balanced measures should take priority. 

Coston was at an advocacy advisory board meeting yesterday and mentioned to the area directors that TAP needs Designated Federal Officials (DFO) for Areas 1, 2 and 3 this year.  Mary Ann Slivaggio, Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) Area 1 Director, is already working on a replacement and will follow up for the other Areas.

Success Stories

Kaplan announced they had an unusual outreach in Area 7.  TAP members rode in a 4th of July parade advertising TAP.  As a result, there were several inquiries and one will be applying to be a TAP member during the next recruitment.

Communication Committee Update

Bob Meyers said the Internal Communication Subcommittee is working on TAPSpeak and a new look is coming.  A statement of work has been forwarded to the vendor.  The TAP Member Handbook has also been updated and should be completed by August 28th.  The External Subcommittee has been working on marketing materials and has ordered new outreach media materials which should be here soon.  Remember there is a PowerPoint show available for anyone who wants to use it.  The taxpayer survey is not being worked on at this time.  The success stories to be used for outreaches are updated and on TAPSpeak now.  Area Committee Chairs should forward their success stories to the Communication Committee to keep the stories updated.

A copy of the article that Beth Tucker, Director, Burden Reduction, wrote for Congressional testimony was sent out to all panel members.  In it she applauded TAP as a partner.

Commissioner Issues

• Section 7216 Regulations – selling taxpayer data 
• Return preparers regulations (licensing)
• Private collection agencies
• The direction of VITA and TCE – Schneider said the write-up was finalized in Chicago about three weeks ago by Area 4 and they are very pleased with the final results
• The availability of “Free File” for taxpayers

The Joint Committee reached consensus on sending the issues to the review committee for wordsmithing.  They will be sent to Barbara Toy and Larry Combs for final approval; a cover letter will be added; and then sent to the Commissioner.
ACTION:  Toy will forward Commissioner issues to Quality Review.  Toy will send to Combs for final approval, draft a cover letter for Comb’s approval and then submit to the Commissioner.

Coston felt this was an excellent job in the short timeframe TAP had to work on the issues.  They are all very well written and thanked everyone for their hard work.  The quality review committee will try to get them reviewed within one week.
ACTION:  Toy will send a copy of the finalized response to Jenny Mandel, at GovExec.com

Office Report

McQuin asked for clarification for the meeting dates for the October Joint Committee face-to-face meeting; the calendar says Wednesday thru Saturday.  It was verified that the meeting will last all day Thursday and Friday, October 12-13, 2006.  Travel days will be Wednesday and Saturday afternoon.  The meeting could include Saturday morning depending on the agenda.  The agenda will be finalized and the decision made regarding Saturday by our next meeting, September 6, 2006.  Coston said the annual meeting content and preparing for the annual report will be part of the agenda.

Dorothy Havey had trouble locating the success stories and the TAP PowerPoint show on TAPSpeak.
ACTION:  Toy will send instructions as to where the success stories are located on TAPSpeak to all Joint Committee members.

Meeting adjourned.

Next meeting:  Wednesday, September 6, 2006.

New Action Items

Coston

1. Coston will send an email to Toy to forward to all panel members soliciting interest in volunteering for a team.

Toy

1. Toy will send instructions as to where the success stories are located on TAPSpeak to all Joint Committee members.
2. Toy will send a copy of the finalized response to Jenny Mandel, at GovExec.com
3. Toy will forward Commissioner issues to Quality Review.  Toy will send to Combs for final approval, draft a cover letter for Comb’s approval and then submit to the Commissioner.