MINUTES OF COMMITTEE
MEETING
ADC60 – Waste Management in Transportation
July 17, 2005
Charlotte Hilton &
Towers Hotel
Charlotte, NC
Attendees (21): Thomas
Abdallah, Diane Anderson, Jim Barta,
Steve Brown, Steven Eget, Luke Frantz, Connie Hill
Galloway, Kevin Gardner, Steven Gobelman, Jason
Harrington, James Heeren, Ileana Ivanciu,
Mohammad Kahn, Leigh Leventhal, Tom Lewis, Kerry McManus, Charles Pierce, Greg
Smith, Scott Springer, Kenneth Thornton, Terry Wagaman
Welcome – Scott
Springer
Scott welcomed all Members and Friends and thanked
them for their attendance. He provided a brief overview of the committee’s
direction in 2005 by focusing on its mission and goals, as presented in the
2005 Committee Work Plan. He noted that the committee’s name change request is
still under review by the TRB.
Membership Status
Report – Greg Smith
Greg reported that there are 24 members and 161
friends of the committee. The membership is divided as follows: Consultants
(9), State DOT (4), Universities (4), City Transit (2), FHWA (2), FTA (1), Rail
(1) and Legal (1). Total membership includes 1 Emeritus member, 1 young member
and 1 international member, none of which count against the maximum membership
of 25. We can add four additional members to attain full membership and to
improve the committee’s diversity. The current list of members was distributed
at the meeting for changes and revisions. The lists of members and friends will
be distributed electronically for additional updates and subsequently will be
posted on the committee website.
Communications
Subcommittee Report – Tom Lewis
Tom noted that his liaison at the 2005 Annual
Meeting was with Task Force ADD40T, Transportation and Sustainability, which
recently received unofficial word that they would likely be getting full
standing committee status this year. He reminded everyone of the "new and improved"
committee web site and of the recent distribution of the 2nd edition of the
committee's newsletter. He urged all Members and Friends to visit the web site
and look around. The newsletter posted on the website, as are past newsletters.
Tom said he will update the committee's Liaison Form and Skills Matrix and
place them both on the web site. The Liaison Form includes some related groups
with which committee members associate, and act as liaisons with, in an ongoing
effort to facilitate information transfer between these groups and ADC60. He urged the addition of
new liaisons as people feel are appropriate. This is not a rigid
program, but rather an open networking initiative. The Skills Matrix lists
committee members and their respective areas of expertise related to waste
management and EMS.
The goal of the Skills Matrix is to encourage and facilitate interaction among
members and friends when a particular expertise is sought by one and is
practiced by another. Both members and friends will be included on the updated
forms.
Papers and
Presentations Subcommittee – Dave Soltis
Dave Soltis was unable to
discuss papers/presentations due to substantial delays in airline connections.
Website Update – Leigh
Leventhal
Tom introduced Leigh Leventhal of Louis Berger as
the committee’s new webmaster. Leigh gave a presentation that included a tour
of the web site. The new address is www.trb-adc60.org.
The old web site will automatically
redirect visitors to the new site. She noted how it is now “cleaner” and more user friendly. Friends may now sign up on the web site. It
will include a calendar of year-round events pertinent to the mission of the
committee. All members will have new e-mail addresses on the site, which is
formed by the first initial and last name (no breaks) @trb-adc60.org.
Research Subcommittee
Report – Kevin Gardner
Kevin reported that he checked on how other
committees fund research and how other research subcommittees work, but he had
considerable trouble in locating research subcommittee chairs from which he
could get any information. Because of this experience, he is going to assemble
a matrix of state-employed members and friends in order to develop more
awareness of sources for funding research. He plans to report on research
relevant to the committee, and he is seeking assistance with this task from
members and friends. This assistance includes publicizing ongoing research to
maintain current information, formation of a committee-sponsored research section
and posting this information on the web site. He hopes to possibly send
committee members to other groups with common needs and “sell” research needs
at a grassroots level, then nurture it to funding. Kevin suggested supporting
approximately one research need per year rather than using the shotgun approach
to seeking funding. This is a totally new concept for the committee’s efforts.
Kevin noted that past research needs submitted by the committee were not selected
and that the committee received no feedback regarding the submittals
attributes.
Treasurer’s Report –
Steve Gobelman
Steve reported that the current balance in the
Committee’s account is approximately $8700.
Anticipated uses for these funds were discussed, including supplementing
government members’ and speakers’ travel expenses to meetings (TRB, AASHTO, etc.), seed money for
summer meetings, scholarships, assist in obtaining research funding,
advertisement/promotional items for committee meetings and website upkeep. The
committee soon needs to develop guidelines for requesting travel assistance and
other funding requests.
TSE Overview – Greg
Smith
Greg provided an overview of the 2005 Triennial Self
Evaluation report submitted by the committee. Overall, the TSE form was well
received by Group A leaders. Areas in which the committee
needs to improve include increased sponsorship of technical sessions during the
Annual Meeting in Washington,
diversity among member, obtaining approval for publication of technical papers
and obtaining funding for research problem statements. The committee is associated
with a variety of other organizations and should take advantage of these
associations in future endeavors. The proposed committee name change to more
accurately reflect its mission was briefly discussed. Scott stated that this
change is still under review by ADC00
leaders.
2005 Summer Conference
Update – Greg Smith
Greg provided a brief overview of the conference.
Approximately 115 attendees are registered and 42 speakers scheduled. Two
concurrent technical sessions will occur throughout most of the conference,
except for Monday morning and Tuesday afternoon general sessions. An Internal Auditor
training course, taught by the NC State University Industrial Extension
Service, will occur on Wednesday and Thursday. A short course entitled “Aspect
and Impact Identification and Ranking”, taught by the NC Division of Pollution
Prevention and Environmental Assistance, will during a third concurrent session
on Tuesday afternoon. A reception will be held Monday evening at the Discovery Place
science museum, including a screening of the IMAX film “Forces of Nature”.
2005 Strategic Plan
Update – Scott Springer
Scott noted that a committee Strategic Plan was last
completed in 1997. The Strategic Plan includes detailed descriptions of the
committee’s goals. Current goals for inclusion in the Strategic Plan include 1)
Support TRB’s overall mission and goals, 2) support TRB’s
and Section ADC00’s
Strategic Action Plan, and 3) Focus ADC60’s efforts to the greatest
benefit of the transportation industry. These goals basically mirror those of
1997, and include many of the items discussed in the Triennial Self-Evaluation.
2006 Annual Meeting –
Scott Springer
Scott expressed a need for members to volunteer as
leaders for the 2006 and 2007 Annual Meetings. Duties include assistance in
soliciting abstracts and securing presentations, coordinate paper reviews, and
coordinate technical sessions with Kim Fisher.
Upcoming Summer
Meetings – Scott Springer
Scott noted that there are no sponsoring agencies
lined up for summer meetings in 2006 and 2007. These sponsors are typically
governmental transportation agencies. Steve Gobelman
said he will approach Illinois DOT to inquire about sponsorship in 2006. Jim Barta noted that Texas DOT may be willing to sponsor the
2007 summer meeting. Both Steve and Jim are to contact Scott as soon as they
obtain more information.
New Business
Scott reported on a TRB 2005 Mid-Year Update,
including what is/was important to TRB Division A, Technical
Activities. The Annual Meeting attendance was approximately 10,000, with
attendees providing overall meeting satisfaction ratings of 91% Good to
Excellent. The theme for the 2006 Annual Meeting will be “Transportation 2025 –
Getting There From Here”. The Division expressed good progress among
its committees regarding diversity efforts, but asked the committees to
facilitate greater diversity among their respective members. Scott discussed the need for a task group to
work on a critical issues summary. Areas to which the groups efforts include 1)
increasingly congested transportation facilities across all modes, 2) continuing
accessibility challenges, 3) extraordinary energy and environmental challenges,
4) inadequate financing, 5) 20th century
institutions facing 21st century
challenges, 6) vulnerability of transportation facilities to terrorist strikes,
7) lost leadership in highway safety issues, and 8) an enormous stock of
transportation facilities to maintain. Those who volunteer to work with the group
must commit, at a minimum, to devote several hours of their time and attend
several conference calls to coordinate the work. The ultimate goal of the group
is development of a white paper that discusses the committee’s relationship to
the identified issues. Jason Harrington reported on activities of the FHWA
Green Highways Program. He noted a meeting to occur in June 2006 that will
address issues such as urban island heat and cold in-place pavement recycling.
The USEPA will participate and is to seek participation by other natural resources
agencies. Additional information will be forthcoming. Tom Lewis mentioned that
the AASHTO Center
for Environmental Excellence is seeking state DOTs to
champion EMS efforts and to
volunteer for AASHTO assistance in implementing their own EMS programs. Tom also noted that TRB Committee AFN10, Basic
Research and Emerging Technologies Related To
Concrete, is sponsoring a Sunday Workshop at the 2006 Annual Meeting entitled “Environmentally
Friendly Concrete in Transportation.” He reminded those in attendance that the
Annual Meeting is January 22-26, 2006, about a week
later than usual. A group discussion
involved the recent spate of reductions in force by transportation agencies and
a continuing trend in losses of employee funding and efforts to seek more
creative ways of doing business. All generally agreed that
the problems are global and not limited to just a few aspects of the
transportation industry.
Wrap-Up – Scott
Springer
Scott led a wrap-up for the meeting by reviewing
discussion highlights. He urged all committee members and friends to make a
commitment to participate in committee activities on a year-round basis, not
just at the summer and Annual Meetings. Standing sub-committees and other work
groups need more participation.
