Wage & Investment Reduce Taxpayer Burden (Notices) Meeting Minutes

November 19, 2003
Noon-ET

Participants (Panel Members):

• Mary Balmer
• Anthony DiMartino
• C. Morgan Edwards
• Charles (Skip) Eshelman
• Curtis Feese
• Robin Gausebeck
• John Hollingsworth
• William Murphy
• Thomas Seuntjens
• Eileen Shuman
• George Sullivan
• Virginia Symonds
• Nancy Ferree – DFO

Not Present:

• Phil Bryant
• Ivan Cotman
• David Robinson
• Jeana Warren

Staff Members:

• Sallie Chavez (Recorder)

Guests/Program Owner:

• James (Jim) A. Cesarano, Program Analyst, Wage & Investment, Single Point of Contact
• Dorothy Rucker, Wage & Investment Program Manager, Atlanta Submission Processing

Welcome and Announcements/Roll Call
Committee chair Skip Eshelman welcomed everyone to the conference call and thanked everyone for giving him the opportunity to be the chair of the committee. He thanked Vice Chair Eileen Shuman for preparing the reports for last month since he had not gotten home from the annual meeting when they were due.

Designated Federal Official (DFO) Nancy Ferree also welcomed everyone and especially the new Chair and Vice Chair.

Program Analyst/Recorder Sallie Chavez took the roll call and quorum was met.

Review/Approve Minutes of October 3, 2003
The minutes were approved by consensus.

Comments from Program Owners
Dorothy Rucker took this opportunity to introduce herself to the committee. She is working on the Dynamic Project Team (DPT) to revise the CP-71. She thanked the committee for letting her participate in the call. She stated she has already met with Committee Members Skip Eshelman, Tony DiMartino and Virginia Symonds. She state she would like to attend the face-to-face meeting in February to get the committee involved in some of the things her team is working on. It is too lengthy and technical to discuss on the phone, as it will take approximately an hour and a half. She feels the TAP will be a very valuable resource to implement notices. There are 343 notices and it is slow to improve them. The TAP will be asked to participate in various teams at various times during the improvements. They are very happy to have the resources of the TAP as a sounding board.

Committee Member Mary Balmer asked what other initiatives were going on to improve notices? Dorothy Rucker stated there were many. She is only from Wage and Investments. There is a plan to reinvest the way notices are written. Changes to notices can't be made easily. They are trying to come up with the tools to make changes easier. Program Owner Jim Cesarano stated that there are other divisions that could be working on notices.

Vice Chair Eileen Shuman asked if the matrix that TAP helped on was elevated? Program Owner Jim Cesarano stated that it was. Dorothy Rucker stated that she would be discussing some of this during the face-to-face meeting.

Committee Member Tom Seuntjens stated that they wanted more than one task at a time to work on. He would like to have two or three. Program Owner Jim Cesarano stated that he, Ann Gelineau and Nancy Ferree had a conference call and discussed this. The committee is being involved in the Notice Process Improvement Initiative Team (NPIIT), Dynamic Project Team (DPT) and various other things. The program owners want to make sure that the committee feels they are a part of the process. Andrea Law who is manager in the Notice Support Group wants to meet with the group during the face-to-face meeting in February. There is also a Document Assessment Tool (DAT) that the program owners would like the committee to be involved in that scores notices. They do not have the personnel to handle this and the committee could be a big help to take on this project.

Vice Chair Eileen Shuman stated there should be a face-to-face when there is enough work to do. Committee Member Tom Seuntjens said that subcommittees need to be set up. Many will be leaving at the end of September. They need a full range of items. Program Owner Jim Cesarano stated that he should be able to get a list of items that need to be worked on. The group has been enlarged to include the business side. There also is the notice standardization that needs to be worked. He can get a list together and send it to Analyst Sallie Chavez to be distributed to the group.

At this point Program Owner Jim Cesarano's NPIIT's group joined the call. He introduced them and explained their different experiences.

• Hee Joo Borok
• Amelia Dalton
• Linda Lightner
• Lisa Lindstrom
• Greg Lunnon, Kansas City Site Coordinator
• Tom O'Hare
• Peggy Shaner
• Bill Shartzer, Kansas City Site Coordinator

Program Owner Jim Cesarano states that the TAP is an external stakeholder for the NPIITs group and the draft report will be shared with the committee.

Committee Member Tom Seuntjens said that the committee would be better prepared for the face-to-face meeting to have information up front for the committee to work on for the next 11 months. Program Owner Jim Cesarano stated that there are different teams working with different timeframes. His team is ongoing but he has to have his report done by February 28, 2004 . He will send the 1 st draft of the report to Analyst Sallie Chavez to be shared with the committee.

Committee Member Tom Seuntjens asked who was our program owner? Program Owner Jim Cesarano stated that Ann Gelineau was actually the program owner but he was representing her. Ann Gelineau is the Single Point of Contact (SPOC) for Wage and Investment. Andrea Law is from the Notice Support Group. There are other operating divisions that have SPOC as well.

DFO Nancy Ferree states that the committee asked to be more involved. Now the committee is getting involved. Committee Member George Sullivan asked if we could get all these people to come to the face-to-face meeting. DFO Nancy Ferree stated that they could if necessary.

Committee Member Tom Seuntjens suggested a subcommittee meeting with Dorothy Rucker before the face-to-face meeting. Program Owner Jim Cesarano will get information to Analyst so subcommittees can be created.

Committee Member Tony DiMartino asked if we are locked into the dates for the face-to-face meeting? Committee Member Tom Seuntjens stated the meeting could be changed. Committee Member Tony DiMartino asked if it could be moved to January? DFO stated that the subcommittees could meet and discuss before the face-to-face. Committee Member Tom Seuntjens reminded everyone that the committee would only be allowed to have one face-to-face meeting. Committee Chair asked if they could add a day to the one face-to-face meeting? Committee Member Tom Seuntjens said that this would be to be consulted with DFO Nancy Ferree.

Vice Chair Eileen Shuman stated that she would work with DFO Nancy Ferree and Chair Skip Eshelman on an agenda for the meeting.

Committee Member Tom Seuntjens stated that after Program Owner Jim Cesarano sends the grouping, an email can be sent out. Ask each member to sign up for two subcommittees.

Vice Chair Eileen Shuman asked about the CP71 testing in Oakland , California and Montgomery , Alabama on December 8. Is the committee going to participate in this testing or observe the testing? DFO Nancy Ferree stated she would have to check on that.

Program Owner Jim Cesarano stated that there should be a charter set up for the team that is going to be working on the standardization of the notices after Christmas.

Program Owner Jim Cesarano stated he would get information on what's happening within the SPOC and will send it to Analyst Sallie Chavez before Thanksgiving. He said he knows that Andrea Law wants to get the committee involved in notice standardization and will be at the February face-to-face meeting.

There was a discussion about were to have the face-to-face meeting. It was decided that Atlanta would be a good spot. The group agreed to have the face-to-face meeting in Atlanta in February. DFO Nancy Ferree will look into adding an additional day to the meeting.

Several members of the committee stated they did not get copies of the referrals that the Analyst sent out. This will be discussed at another meeting. Analyst will resend these referrals to the members who did not get them.

Meeting Close
Committee Chair Skip Eshelman asked for any other comments. There were none.

Meeting was adjourned.