TIPS Bi – Weekly Meeting Agenda
March 2, 2006
Tele – conference Call

Participants
WRCC: Evans, Ferarese, Greene, Galetovic, Hamm, Morlock, Osborne, Swartz, Trudeau, Welsh
MCRCC: Joseph
ARCC: Dunn, Kosareo, Stoyek
KFO: Gault, Middleton, Rice
Big Stone Gap FO: Morris

TOPIC: Future Meetings

DISCUSSION: Hamm brought up a suggestion given to him to make TIPS team member reports less frequent.  After a short discussion, an alternative suggestion was made to eliminate team member reports in lieu of having team member modify the agenda to include important discussion points.  It was also suggested that items that did not need team discussion but should be announced to the team could be handled by sending the item to the note-taker for inclusion in the notes.

DECISION: Both of the later proposals were adopted.  From now on, if a matter is important enough to need discussion by the team, the team member will modify the meeting agenda on the TIPS Team SharePoint site prior to the meeting.  Email announcements to the note-taker for inclusion in the notes.

TOPIC: Underground Mine Mapping Money Available

DICUSSION: Galetovic brought to the team’s attention that John Craynon’s group in headquarters has $300K available to help states with underground mine mapping projects for FY2006.  There is a short turn-around – proposals need to be in by March 31 and monies will be allocated by May 31.  See the end of these notes for the items that need to be included in proposals.  Get more information from John Craynon – jcraynon@osmre.gov, 202-208-2866.

TOPIC: Customer Questionnaires

DISCUSSION: Welsh and Morlock reported that the mobile computing-needs and software-usage questionnaires are ready for review.

DECISION: Hamm will review and then distribute to the Team for final review.

TOPIC: Software Distribution

DISCUSSION: Hamm will meet with IT to finalize getting software on hard drives and duplication of the drives.  Swartz wants all future requests for software distribution services to go through him for coordination.

DECISION: Hamm and IT will meet and future distribution service requests will be coordinated (requested through) Swartz.

TOPIC: TIPS Steering Committee Meeting

DISCUSSION: There is no change in the situation.  The meeting is happening in Baltimore May 9-11.

DECISION: Participation of TIPS team members is to be determined at a future date.

TOPIC: TIPS National Team Meeting Update

DISCUSSION: Evans reported that the meeting will be held in Colorado to save travel money.  She is soliciting proposals from conference locations.

TOPIC: Training Program

DISCUSSION: Evans visited MCR and AR and had good meetings with the training people at those locations.  Evans also reported that there are 10 empty slots for the Groundwater Vistas course being held in Alton starting March 20 – more students would be welcome.

TOPIC: TIPS Tenet Reminder
DISCUSSION: Hamm reminded us to remember that a founding tenet of TIPS is that we provide standardized hardware and software tools to our customers to facilitate information exchange.

Next Meeting: Thursday, March 16, 2006

Addendum: Underground Mine Mapping Project Proposal Format

• Title of Project:
• Sponsoring Agency (Agency to whom funding will be given):
• Other Cooperating Agencies:
• Amount of Funding Requested:
• Is a severable partial project possible?  Yes/No
• If yes, what is the amount of funding for the severable piece:
• Is this proposal part of a multi-year project? Yes/No
• Other source(s) of funding for the project:
• Is the project a follow up on previously funded projects (e.g., MSHA funded work)?
• Synopsis of the proposed project:
• Proposed start date:
• Proposed completion date:
• Detailed budget, including direct and indirect costs:
• Contact person for the proposal and project: