Designated Federal Official (DFO)
Nancy Ferree, TAP Program Manager, Plantation, FL

Members Present
Carolyn Adams-Dodds
Ben Chapman
David Jones
Neil Mitchell
Max Scott
Lee Stieger
Chuck Tice

Members Absent
Steve Fulkrod
Joe Hurr
David Meister 
Howard Stahl
Edward Uhrig
Norma Woodard

Staff Present
Donna Powers, Analyst
Sallie Chavez, Analyst
Lisa Gabriel, Secretary
Sidney Gardner, IRS Program Owner
Jim Cesarano, IRS Program Owner

Guest(s) Present
None

Welcome & Roll Call/Quorum
Lee opened the meeting and welcomed everyone. 

Approval of Meeting Minutes
Minutes were approved by consensus with some minor corrections.  Under Welcome and Roll Call/Quorum, Lee Stieger opened the meeting. One page 2 (2nd paragraph) there is something missing.  It was agreed to add “asked Kevlyn”. On page 3, under FAT Update, should read Bob Erickson and not Ben Erickson.  Also on page 3 (first full paragraph), it should be Charmaine Johnson, not Charmayne Jackson.  With these changes, meeting minutes are approved.

Comments from the Program Owner
Program Owner Rep Jim Cesarano stated the SME looked at comments from Sub-Committee on the Pub 3498A. Next step is comprehensive testing which takes place last week of July.  It will be available after that for another review in August or September.

SME requested a short meeting about the scoring of the CP91. The SME would like to talk to folks who score, find out more about scoring. 

Kevlyn, the lead for stuffer elimination team contacted, would like to meet Tuesday at 2:30 pm to talk about the report sent on CP161. 
 
The Notice Review Team has already been assigned their first project and has completed it.  This was Jim Cesarano’s own Notice Review.  He will look at comments when writing review.

The Installment Letters that need to be DAT scored have been sent out.  They are all correspondex letters.  There are some issues about correspondex letters.  Original purpose is response letters, generated to answer taxpayers. There are centralized approved paragraphs put in letters.  There are no records kept of paragraph usage, no statistics on this.

Jim Cesarano stated correspondex letters were previously scored by TAP Members but he and Analyst Sallie Chavez are unable to find the information on how the previous TAP Members scored the letter.  We may need to set up another meeting on how to score these letters.

Some issue with bolding and italics not being an option.  There was a discussion whether this is applicable or not.   

Correspondex is hooked into IDRS (Integrated Data Retrieval System). Master file system is older and IRS is trying to centralize everything. 

Publication 3498A
DAT scoring follow-up on Fulkrod

Notice Review-Letter 4384C
The new Notice Review sub-committee met last month on June 25, 2008.  They discussed the guidelines, rules, pilot program with Jim Cesarano.  They agreed to get back to the Notice Reviewer with comments within three business days and with DAT score within seven business days.    

Notice Review Sub-Committee had three people working on it and responded within the time frame.  If this takes off and we get some volume of letters with three business day turnaround, we may need to change committee members so no one can get too burdened.  We may need to rotate people in and out. 

Direct Mail Marketing Plan
Joe Hurr participated in a conference call with the IRS SME and contractors.  The contractors asked about direct market methods, asking feedback, and answered other questions. The contractors were happy with answers.  There should be no additional requests on this issue.  Closed as completed issue. 

The CP161 committee, scheduled to have meeting next Tuesday.

Installment Agreement Letters
Tice has no information to give on this.  The Program Owner provided a response to the feedback on the CP501, 503 and 504.

FAT Update
Chavez informed Max Scott that Bob Erickson does not have any interest in the FAT.  He asked for any additional comments and he will provide a draft to committee for approval. 

Stieger will get a copy and read and give comments.   

Meeting Close
Follow up on correspondex letters, may need to form committee to look at this. 

Lee Stieger closed the meeting by thanking everyone for attending.  Meeting was adjourned.

*Certification:  These minutes were approved by the committee by consensus.