November 21, 2003
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM EST
Teleconference

Welcome/Announcements/Review Agenda
Chair Bruce Twomley opened the meeting by welcoming everyone and by reviewing the agenda. The committee was in agreement with the agenda as is.

Delford Jones reported that the National Taxpayer Advocate (NTA), Nina E. Olson, had recently attended his area committee's teleconference meeting whereby he had shared information regarding a recent federal program of $1.5 million dollars allocated to the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services on a national level. NTA Olson expressed an interest in obtaining additional information regarding this program and the areas in which pilots most likely will be created. Jones promised to get this information to Ms. Olson as well as to the MLI Issue Committee members and program owners as soon as possible. (Action item for D. Jones).

The committee expressed an interest in learning more about this program since it may relate to Limited English Proficient (LEP) and English as a Second Language (ESL) immigrants and the MLI program.

Delford Jones also shared his contacts with the “Hispanic Voices” newspaper Iin Indiana and that a representative from the State of Indiana is on the Hispanic Council, by the name of John Aguilar.

Roll Call & Confirmation of Quorum *5- taken by TAP Program Analyst Inez E. De Jesus.

• Quorum =5
• Total Members Present=7 and DFO

Panel Members Present

• Linda Bader, Chesterfield, MO
• Elizabeth Brodbine Ghoniem, Winchester, MA, Vice-Chair
• Nancy L. Ferree, Designated Federal Official (DFO)
• Delford Jones, Griffith, IN
• Sharon Lassar, Miami, FL
• Joseph Meissner, Cleveland, OH
• Sharon Stetz, Salt Lake City, UT
• Bruce Twomley, Juneau, AK, Chair

Panel Members Not Present

• Kenneth Logan, Blue Springs, MO

MLI Program Owner(s)

• Toni M. Cross
• Raymond G. Mills

TAP Staff

• Inez E. De Jesus (Program Analyst/Scribe)

Review/Approve Meeting Minutes of October 3, 2003
The minutes were approved unanimously.

Review on ESL Initiative (English as a Second Language)
Linda Bader began by inquiring if everyone had received the pre-read materials entitled “Adult Education Short-Course on IRS Compliance” & “The Outline of Proposed ESL Tax Curriculum” documents sent out earlier this week, and all confirmed they had. She also expressed her gratitude to Program Analyst De Jesus for assisting her in getting this information out to all.

Panel member Bader shared with the committee that she has learned that funding is needed in order to get a tax compliance curriculum written. She had recently met with Sally Sandy, the instructor from St. Louis that has been working with her on this matter, and learned that the current draft curriculum cannot be tested unless a grant or some type of funding is approved and provided. Bader also shared that Sally Sandy believes “a test” would be intimidating to some students.

Linda Bader proposed that if this committee has a meeting in St. Louis , MO in June 2004, Ms. Sandy could be invited to meet with the committee and have the opportunity to share her perspectives and experiences directly with the panel.

Linda Bader also addressed two other resources of information with the committee that might be useful in developing a curriculum:

• To analyze the current FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) program; FDIC insures bank accounts. (Smart Money and Adult Education Program) Bader has received their 30-pound curriculum that is used and available in English and Spanish since it is geared to a Spanish population.
• To analyze IRS Website- the “How of Taxes” on the IRS website, it seems to Ms. Bader that this tool is underutilized.

Program Owner Toni Cross inquired from Vice Chair Elizabeth Brodbine Ghoniem about partnering with Low Income Tax Clinics (LITC's) at Bentley College . Ms. Cross proposed an alternative to the ESL curriculum proposal since it would be difficult to come up with the money necessary for ESL curriculum development from the IRS, and, therefore, as an alternative, committee should consider having LITC's (as part of their commitment to do outreach) go to ESL programs to present tax information. In part because LITC's may not cover all of the people and geography that ESL programs do. Chair Twomley suggested both models ought to stay on the table before the committee, and the subcommittee should pursue and evaluate both models. (Linda's ESL and Elizabeth 's Bentley College model)

There was discussion about Global U, which has done some research on immigrants arriving in USA , which concluded that what they need is basic understanding of their tax obligations similar to what some LITC classes do. All agreed to use/piggyback on what already exists.

All committee members agreed that they support wholeheartedly Linda Bader's proposal on a tax compliance class for ESL individuals.

Action Item: Program Owner Cross made the following request from Linda and the committee:

• How much funding will be needed to fund the ESL initiative?
• A breakdown of how monies will be spent?
• Development cost.
• Training cost, for example, cost to train the teachers.
• Delivery cost, if there are any other costs, just indicate them on the list.

In order to get funding from the Advocate, we need to provide sufficient substantiation.

The committee applauded Linda Bader for all her efforts in working with this project.

Planning Session on ESL Program Owner
Chair Twomley asked Ms. Cross if she already had covered the discussion under ESL heading and she agreed that she had covered this topic under the ESL Initiative heading.

Program Owner Toni Cross made a commitment to elevate this committee's concerns once she receives a detailed breakdown of projected cost.

Toni Cross shared that she supports the idea of the MLI Issue committee members partnering with LITC's. When Ms. Cross made inquiries from the committee on their individual experience with their local LITC's, these are the responses received:

Sharon Stetz - has made contact with the LITC in Salt Lake City , Utah . There are foreign students that speak English that visit this LITC with their tax issues.

Elizabeth Brodbine Ghoniem - the LITC in Boston does a lot of outreach. Part of their charter is to do outreach. What Bentley College does is it reaches out to ESL individuals.

Joe Meissner - shared his experiences with LITC's in Ohio and shared how usually the first grant is limited to $100,000 or less and this is a matching grant. Also, there are two different types of LITC's, one is to represent taxpayers who already have problems with the IRS, as legal representation, and the other aspect of LITC's is to educate the taxpayers. The LITC's should not be filling out tax returns for individuals unless it is part of the current tax issue they have with the IRS that is being resolved. LITC's cannot charge for their services.

In response to Bader's questions, Meissner shared that the population that usually visits LITC's versus ESL classes are those less familiar with taxes or recently arrived individuals with very basic taxes or with a tax bill.

Linda Bader - reminded everyone that currently there is no LITC in St. Louis, and that she would like to get one at the St. Louis University.

Committee agreed to continue to pursue target audience(s) for ESL and also to partner with LITC's.

Toni Cross's Summary on Committee's Focus :

• 1) ESL/LITC partnering
• 2) Direct contact with LITC's
• 3) Bader will do further work regarding the cost estimates for the ESL

Initiative.

* Formation of a new TAP/MLI/ESL Sub-committee with the following participants was created:

• Sharon Stetz, Chair of sub-committee
• Linda Bader
• Elizabeth Brodbine Ghoniem

In conjunction with the Program Owners, Cross and Mills.

Sharon Stetz shared that she has been selected to attend the LITC National Conference in D.C., during the week of December 8, 2003 , and this will be a great opportunity to partner with LITC's on a national level and to learn how they are currently handling ESL's individuals. The committee agreed that this is a great idea.

Chair Twomley suggested that each committee member make contact with their local LITC's and alert them of Sharon Stetz's presence at the conference with the goal of networking and obtaining all the updated information related to what LITC's are doing in relation to the ESL issue.

Summary
1) Committee agreed to continue to work with LITC's and attempt to model the Bentley College program. Committee agreed that it would be a good idea to work with a model that can be tested nationwide, keeping in mind that we are dealing with different populations.

2) Continue FDIC program as a resource.

3) ESL and LITC connection.

4) As part of Linda Bader's continuing exploration of an ESL curriculum, Linda will attempt to get an estimate of the cost.

5) Program Owner Cross suggested that a focus group be set up during the LITC conference whereby Sharon Stetz can get answers to questions the committee has. Cross will contact LITC Grants Administration Acting Manager Susan Gilbert to see if this can be arranged. The key concerns are: what do they have going on currently and what are the best practices. Action item for all: Please send all your questions directly to Sharon Stetz prior to her leaving for the conference on December 8, 2003 .

6) Linda Bader shared that she has the curriculum from Bentley College and will be sharing it with Sharon Stetz.

News from the Staff
Announcement was made that Bernie Coston has been selected as the TAP Director. He currently served as the Executive Assistant to the Director of Systemic Advocacy. (Members had questions regarding Mr. Coston's detailed background, and staff informed committee that since this is a new appointment, further information would be forthcoming, as managers will be meeting with him during the week of November 24th .)

DFO Nancy Ferree reminded the committee of the importance of filling out the “TAP Speaker's Report” form whenever they do outreach activities related to the MLI Issue Committee. Also, if there are any costs involved, prior approval is required since there are budget concerns. The committee was also reminded that this is also another way for the staff to capture outreach activities that are incorporated into a monthly status report.

TAP Program Analyst De Jesus informed the committee that Publication 4134, which lists all the Low Income Tax Clinics (LITC's) throughout the country, is currently being revised and that she has placed an order for them; as soon as the revised publication(s) arrive, Inez will be mailing these to all members and program owners. She also indicated that the new publication would be coded indicating which clinics serve LEP's (Limited English Proficient) individuals as well as the language that is available.

2004 Face-to-Face Meetings (Vision & Timeframe)- Only one face-to-face meeting-
TAP Staff shared the news that due to budget concerns, each area committee and issue committee will be having one face-to-face meeting each, and the Joint Committee has been allowed so far to have 2 face-to-face meetings. Since the budget has still not been approved, it was suggested that any face-to-face meetings scheduled for January 2004 should be placed on hold for now.

This resulted in the Committee agreeing unanimously to:

• change the January 15 and 16, 2004 face-to-face meeting, to a teleconference meeting on January 16, 2004 at 1:00 pm est instead, and
• The one face-to-face meeting will be on June 3, and 4, 2004, tentatively in St. Louis, MO.

Public Participant/Input
None  

Closing Assessment
Chair thanked everyone for their input.

For the record, next teleconference meeting will be held on Friday, December 19, 2003, from 1:00 pm- 2:00 pm EST, same dial-in number and participant's code.