Multi-Lingual Issue Committee Meeting Minutes

March 19, 2004
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM EST
Teleconference

Roll Call & Confirmation of Quorum (4)
TAP Program Analyst Inez E. De Jesus took the roll call, and quorum was met;

Quorum=4 and there were 6 committee members present and the Designated Federal Official.

Designated Federal Official (DFO)

• Nancy L. Ferree

Panel Members Present

• Linda Bader, Chesterfield, MO
• Elizabeth Brodbine Ghoniem, Winchester, MA, Vice-Chair
• Delford Jones, Griffith, IN
• Sharon Lassar, Miami, FL
• Joseph Meissner, Cleveland, OH
• Bruce Twomley, Juneau, AK, Chair

Panel Members Not Present

• Sharon Stetz, Salt Lake City, UT

MLI Program Owner(s)

• Raymond G. Mills

TAP Staff

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

Welcome/Announcements/Review Agenda
Chair Bruce Twomley opened the meeting by welcoming everyone, and a warm welcome was extended to DFO Nancy L. Ferree.

The Chair had no new announcements for this month.

The agenda was accepted as is by the committee.

Joe Meissner made referenced to an email he had sent out to all earlier in the day entitled “Working with Low Income Tax Clinics on MLI Issues” which will be discussed later on during this call.

Chair Twomley inquired from the TAP Staff for clarification on the dates of the Joint Committee face-to-face meeting which all chairs attend. These dates are Friday, May 7, 2004 , all day and on Saturday, May 8, 2004, half day meeting in Chicago , Illinois . The travel dates will be May 6th and afternoon of May 8th. Twomley reminded everyone that the MLI Issue committee will only have one meeting before this event and he wanted the committee to be aware of this in case there were any recommendations ready to be elevated by this time.

Review/Approve Meeting Minutes of February 20, 2004
Delford Jones pointed out that on page 4, under “Closing Assessment” a clarification needs to be made: “Delford Jones met with the secretary of the Secretary of the Treasury….”. Analyst De Jesus is to make this correction and the committee agreed by consensus that once minutes are modified, they will be considered “approved as amended”.

Review all Action Items from Previous Meeting

Analyst De Jesus confirmed that all actions items were carried over as “agenda items” for this month's meeting; these are:

• Status Report on Elevated Recommendations from Program Owner
• Meissner to draft a “Proposal on Ways to Works with the LITCs”
• Partnering with Homeland Security (U.S. Citizen Packet-Tax Filing Responsibilities)- Ferree
• MLI Referral-Tax Curriculum for ESL Individuals- Bader
• “Draft Recommendation- Partnering with the new Financial Literacy and Education Commission”-Lassar
• Analyst's cost projection for Face-to-Face meeting in New York-De Jesus

Status Report on Elevated Recommendations
Raymond Mills updated everyone by sharing that currently there is a draft memo from Mary Davis, Director, Wage & Investment, Strategic & Finance, (who oversees the Multilingual Initiative Program) which will be shared soon with this committee that responds to the MLI's previously submitted elevated recommendations.

Mills also stated that #5, Recommendation, “The IRS and ESL educators should collaborate on the development and promotion of a tax education curriculum that can be implemented in adult ESL programs across the nation”, is definitely a great legacy for this committee to leave once its tenure has ended. He suggested that during the upcoming face-to-face meeting, the committee work this into the agenda and begin to work on a standardized ESL template.

Guidance from the Program Owner
Mills suggested that the face-to-face meeting in New York in June be a “working meeting” with emphasis on ironing out the committee's current draft recommendations.

Mills stated that partnering with Low Income Tax Clinics (LITCs) Directors should be one of the committee's goals as well. He suggested that a pilot survey to LITC's be created. He has identified 2 LITC's in Brooklyn, New York and 2 in the Washington, D.C. areas. He also shared that the “Spanish” language is the current focus.

Mills emphasized the importance of structure and he supports that the ESL will be a key component to work on.

Bader inquired whether the focus should be on a print or computer program when creating the template for the “Tax Curriculum for ESL's”. Mills responded that having it on-line would be costly and we should try to make it as basic as possible to begin with.

Bader also asked about booklets that are already translated into Spanish and reminded everyone of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) “Money Smart” Curriculum which she had ordered a while back. For example, there is a set on “how to establish a checking account”, etc., but there is none on taxes.

Meissner also stated that he has these and that this is a very good model to follow and suggested that everyone obtain a set and review this product. Mills chimed in and stated that “if each committee member takes a product that is already out there and reviews it” by the time the committee meets in June, they can have a very productive meeting. Action item: Meissner and De Jesus are to order these for the entire committee.* For the record, DFO Ferree sent out during this teleconference meeting, by email to all, the link where one can place an order for these materials, (www.fdic.gov)

Confirm Location of Face-to-Face Meeting & Brainstorm on “Agenda Items”
Based on last month's discussion whereby Raymond Mills suggested to the committee that they should consider to meet in a city other than St. Louis where other languages are being served for example, in New York there are clinics that serves 7 languages. Mills emphasized that there are lots of benefits of partnering with LITC's that have experience with dealing with individuals that speak different languages. It's effective to link with multilingual projects that are already in place.

During this past month, with guidance from DFO Ferree, Analyst De Jesus created a cost projection with justification for the change of location and Brooklyn, NY was selected. The plan is to lodge at a downtown Brooklyn, NY hotel and hold the meeting at the IRS building within walking distance where the New York TAP office is located at no extra cost. The TAP Staff shared that this change has been approved by the TAP Director.

Twomley shared with Linda Bader what had occurred during last month's call since she was not present.

Mills shared that he will be meeting with the LITC National Director Randy Swartz and Alan Goldberg next Tuesday, March 23, 2004 and was planning on extending an invitation to them and would appreciate if he could obtain the draft meeting minutes for today's call so that he could share the committee's plans with them.

Mills emphasized that it is very important for the committee to begin to work on drafting the agenda items for the face-to-face meeting in June in Brooklyn , NY . He suggested that he and Inez draft a template to be shared with the committee and each member is to provide input. As Linda Bader suggested, in order to get on the invitees calendar, it is imperative that this is done as soon as possible. Mills suggested that he and Inez begin to work on this as of Monday, March 22, 2004 . Action item: Create draft agenda for face-to-face meeting on June 3 & 4, 2004. (DFO Ferree will be handling this with Mills instead of Inez, as per TAP operating procedures)

DFO Ferree shared with all that Inez had created a flyer/notice with all the meeting location information. This can be used as an invitation to the guests.

Mills also suggested that representatives from other organizations that deal with multilingual initiative issues be invited to the June meeting. DFO Ferree agreed with Mills suggestions. Invitations can be sent to the following:

• Homeland Security key player(s) from the New York area.
• IRS personnel that deal with assisting ESL individuals from the NY area.
• LITC's directors from the NY area.
• State Department of Education/Brooklyn Educational community.
• Other federal agencies
• Department of Justice
• EEO

Before exiting the call since she had another commitment, Elizabeth Brodbine Ghoniem expressed that she had a conflict with the dates of the face-to-face meeting. The committee discussed changing the dates and Analyst De Jesus reminded everyone that the reason for having each committee lock in dates during the annual meeting was for the purpose of everyone being able to plan their calendars accordingly. Also, the TAP Director likes to participate on as many face-to-face meetings and having dates scheduled and firmed up is vital to everyone in order to avoid conflicts.

Before committee ended discussing this subject matter, Chair asked if there was any opposition to holding the meeting on these dates in Brooklyn, NY and there was no opposition.

Proposal on Ways to Work with Low Income Tax Clinics (LITCs)
Joe Meissner referenced the draft proposal he had sent out earlier: “Working with LITCs on MLI Issues” and “Reach Out to LITC Program”:

For the record, Meissner's recommendations are as follows:

• We need to establish contact with the PITC's that work with ESL taxpayers. We need to get a list of these, with address and emails. (PITC's should be LITC's)

• We then need to communicate with them about our MLI committee, what we are trying to do, and what we have done. We need to draft a one or two page letter inviting them to work with us. Once we establish contact, we might then send a letter with a questionnaire. We would also invite ideas from them on how we can work together. (By the way, the new LITC contracts invite the LITC's to join with TAP on working on all sorts of issues.)

• We need to get copies of the annual reports from these LITC's. Every LITC turns in an annual report. These can be helpful in understanding what they do, what language groups they serve, and the problems and successes they encounter.

• We need to get materials used by these LITC's in educating their ESL taxpayers. We should ask them for any forms and other education materials they find helpful. Meissner noted during the call that during last year's face-to-face meeting in Miami , we were able to obtain materials in various languages.

• We need to begin an effort at identifying various taxpayer materials that are used to educate ESL taxpayers. We could search out various ethnic and language groups to see what they have available. One possible source might be various ethnic and language newspapers and magazines which may publish articles around tax times.

MEISSNER REQUESTED INPUT FROM THE ENTIRE COMMITTEE ON THESE.

It was noted that the current Publication 4134, List of all LITC's in the United States, revised on January 2004, does list the languages served at each location.

Partner with Homeland Security (U.S. Citizen Packet-Tax Filing Responsibilities)
DFO Ferree shared that she has collected lots of information and will be sharing this information with the panel at a later date. This topic is to be moved to next month's agenda. Action item for Inez: Add this topic to the agenda for April 16, 2004 teleconference meeting.

MLI Referral-Tax Curriculum for English as a Second Language (ESL) Individuals
This is pending and committee agreed that is should be added to the sample agenda for the face-to-face meeting in June.

Draft Recommendation-Partnering with the New “Financial Literacy and Education Commission”
This topic will be moved to next month's agenda. Action item for Inez: Add this topic to the agenda for April 16, 2004 teleconference meeting and to the face-to-face sample agenda.

Action item for Chair: Bruce Twomley stated that he would speak to Sharon Lassar offline to learn more about this commission.

News from the Staff
None

Public Participation/Input
None

Closing Assessment
Delford Jones wanted to know if there would be a relation between the ESL curriculum template and the recently revised Publication 1915 (ITIN) the committee had been asked to review by the National Taxpayer Advocate.

Chair Confirmed next meeting: April 16, 2004 @ 1:00 PM EDT

Chair Twomley adjourned meeting.