Multilingual Issue Committee Meeting Minutes

August 20, 2004
1:00-2:00 PM ET

Roll Call & Confirmation of Quorum (3)
TAP Program Analyst Inez E. De Jesus took the roll call, and quorum was met. Quorum=3, and there were 6 committee members present and the Designated Federal Official. (100% attendance)

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

MLI Program Owner(s)

• Raymond G. Mills

TAP Staff

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

Public Participant(s)

• Amy Korytowski, National Women’s Law Center

Welcome/Announcements/Review Agenda
Chair Twomley opened the meeting by welcoming everyone and extending a special welcome to Ms. Amy Korytowski from the National Women’s Law Center who was representing Ms. Cristina Begona Martin Firvida.

Review/Approve Meeting Minutes of June 3 & 4, 2004
The minutes were approved with no objections, and praise was given to Inez for the minutes being thorough and detailed.

(There was no July 16, 2004 teleconference meeting; it was cancelled since only one panel member signed on.)

Review All Action Items from Previous Meeting
DFO Ferree reviewed the following action items with the committee:

On Page 8, Action item for the entire panel: Letter of Support to Immigration, regarding alerting immigrants before they reach the United States of what is expected of them. Status: Pending

Page 8, Coston, Ferree, Twomley, Goldberg, to get together to define next steps for communicating with Low Income Tax Clinics (LITCs) and TAP. Bruce invited and Joe Meissner accepted the opportunity to join this conversation. Status: Pending, DFO and Program Owner will take the lead and this issue will be carried over to the next meeting’s agenda.

Meissner shared that the Low Income Tax Clinic National Director Randy Swartz and ESL Manager Alan Goldberg will be visiting the Northern Ohio area sometime in early September 2004, and he will be involved with this venture.

Page 11/12, Response Letter to the National Women’s Law Center regarding “How to Improve Services for Limited English Proficient Tax Filers”. Status: response letter from the MLI Chair on behalf of the committee was mailed on July 9, 2004.

A second follow-up response is required from Program Owner Mills to the National Women’s Law Center:
“To provide a detailed account from the IRS of their initiatives to date on how they provide meaningful access for Limited English Proficient taxpayers to the tax system.”

Page 12, Mills to address and respond to the panel on Kiosks questions previously submitted-Status: Pending, Mills stated that this information should be available by September 2004 since the manager who will be updating him on this has been in a car accident and he needs to follow-up on if he can obtain this information via somebody else.

Page 14, Mills is to draft LITC Annual Survey-Status: Pending.

Page 15, top of page, ESL Partnering Opportunities with Stakeholders, Follow-up once Sally Sandy is funded-Status: Pending.

Page 15, mid page, Mills will share “elevated recommendations” responses with the panel as soon as they are available and ready to be shared. Status: Mills shared that there has been some minor editorial changes to this document and it is not ready to be distributed; it is awaiting the signature of Mary E. Davis, Director, Strategy and Finance, who is in charge of the Multilingual Initiative Project Office. As soon as it is signed, Mills promised to forward it to the staff and MLI Committee. He expects this to happen no later than August 31, 2004. He appreciates the committee’s patience.

Page 15, bottom, Mills is to share Global Hue Report with the panel-Status: since this document is very large it was decided that it will be made available to those who are interested in obtaining a copy of it. (It is a detailed geo-demographic study of the top Limited English Proficient areas in the United States and it also entails qualitative Hispanic Market Research and IRS LEP Hispanic Research and Implications as of October 2003.)

Action item for Program Analyst Inez E. De Jesus: send an email out to the entire committee requesting who is interested in obtaining a copy and to send report out accordingly.

Page 17, MLI Panel Member will be invited to attend the next Executive MLI Initiative Council Meeting on August 26, 2004 in Crystal City, outside Washington, D.C.- Status: Mills shared that there has been a lot of changes with this meeting and it will now take place in Atlanta, GA; unfortunately, an invitation was not extended to the committee but hopefully an invitation will be extended for the upcoming November 2004 Executive MLI Initiative Council Meeting. (Pending)

Status Report on Formal Response Re: Elevated Recommendations
As noted earlier, the response from the Program Owner is expected by the end of the month.

Guidance from the Program Owner- “Next Steps”
Mills inquired if the panel members had attended this year’s tax forums since they have been so informative. He stated that he had not been approached by any panel member during the focus group sessions. There are two additional tax forums forthcoming, one in San Antonio and the other in Las Vegas.

Mills shared that the IRS Multilingual Initiative has bilingual brochures in English and Spanish. Linda Bader inquired if the committee could get copies of these.

They are entitled as follows:
Publication 4346, Opening the Door to Spanish-Speaking Customers
Publication 4346A, Basics of Tax Processing
Publication 4346B, Why Should I Pay Taxes
Publication 4346C, IRS Toll Free Telephone Service
Publication 4346D, EITC 2004
Publication 4346E, Understanding Your IRS Notice
Publication 4346F, Getting Help With Unresolved Tax Problems

Action item for Mills: will send these electronically to the TAP Staff office for distribution among the panel members.

LITC Surveys Timeline
Mills shared that there has been dialogue between him and Randy Swartz and Alan Goldberg and he will be meeting with them during late September 2004, and will keep the panel informed.

Immigration Orientation Guide Report
Mills shared that there has been communication with Laura Patching from the USCIS, United States Citizenship & Immigration Services, and her staff. They have inquired on what they can do from a multilingual initiative perspective regarding their new Immigration Orientation Guide and developing information related to taxes.

Mills is trying to arrange a follow-up call with USCIS and plans on coordinating it for sometime in late September 2004. (Currently Mills is involved with the 2004 Nationwide Tax Forums). Action item for Mills: to coordinate follow-up meeting with USCIS and MLI Issue Committee.

Mills emphasized that working with USCIS is a great partnering opportunity.

News from the Staff
DFO Ferree shared that we are in the midst of finalizing the interview process and ready to make selections for new members. Information will be made available via the area committees by the end of August or early September 2004. We are also in the midst of planning for the Annual TAP Meeting in November in Washington, DC. There will be an orientation segment on November 3, 2004, from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM. (Travel a day before or early morning on the 3rd of November) The Annual Meeting will begin on November 4th thru November 6, 2004, Noontime.

DFO Ferree reminded the committee that the Issue and Area Committee Annual Assessment form is due to the Joint Committee by the 15th of October 2004. She suggested that a sub-committee be established to complete this task; Chair Twomley expressed that since this is a small committee, he would appreciate input from all members. The following was agreed on:

Action item for Inez: Inez is to send out a copy of the self-assessment form to the entire committee, requesting feedback be received by no later than Friday, September 10, 2004. The staff issues or comments are to be submitted to the Chair only and visa versa, comments regarding the Chair should be submitted to the staff in order to protect anonymity and provide a comfort level for free expression and honesty.

Delford Jones inquired if it was too late to provide feedback to the in-coming panel members and DFO Ferree responded that he could do so through his area committee.

Public Participation/Input
Chair Twomley introduced Ms. Amy Korytowski from the National Women’s Law Center and it was noted that Program Owner Raymond Mills will be responding to this organization with a detailed account from the IRS of their initiatives to date in regards to addressing Limited English Proficient taxpayers’ access to the tax system. Action item for Mills: follow-up letter to the National Women’s Law Center. Ms. Korytowski shared her email address.

Joe Meissner inquired if the letter sent to the TAP MLI had been shared with anyone else or with Low Income Tax Clinics. DFO Ferree addressed that these may be raised via area committees and mentioned that there is a TAP Area 2 committee.

Ms. Korytowski shared that she would share all this information with Ms. Firvida, and Chair thanked her for her participation.

Closing Assessment: Confirm Next Meeting: September 17, 2004 at 1:00 PM ET

Before the end of the meeting Chair Twomley shared that he will be attending the Joint Committee’s face-to-face meeting in Denver on September 10 and 11, 2004. He mentioned that one of the agenda items for this meeting is regarding the chairs’ role for the transition; should chairs continue in the chair role for the one year term or should they be mentors? Bruce stated his inclination to avoid a blanket policy and leave it up to individual committees and invited the committee to give him guidance. Based on the conversation that followed it was agreed that he will take back to the Joint Committee from the MLI Issue Committee, that this should be left to the individual committees to decide.

Twomley also inquired from Linda Bader if Sally Sandy had received funding yet and Linda shared that Sally Sandy was being asked to reduce monies and she is currently in the process of reviewing the program to see where she can make a cut.

Twomley also mentioned that for the good of the order, it is important to capture communication with LITC’s and how to do so more effectively.

Linda Bader mentioned that in Area 5, it was learned that just in Ohio, there is a new identification number being developed by the State in order to be used in lieu of a social security number in order to curtail identity theft.

Meeting was adjourned by Chair Twomley.

*These minutes were approved by consensus on September 17, 2004.