Washington, DC

PDF Document

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Day 1: Tuesday, February 11, 2003 - 8:30am - 4:30pm

Attendees:
Board members in attendance: Holly Billie, Joe Colella, Susan DeCourcy, Mark Evanko, Barbara Foley, Vera Fullaway, Carole Guzzetta, Lorrie Laing, Nancy Lang, Janet Lassman, Tami Levitas, Arturo Lopez, Artie Martin, Traycier Mitchell-Medina, William Merritt, Cathy Morris, Angela Osterhuber, Julie Prom, Matthew Young

Board members not in attendance:
Dr. Marilyn Bull, Don Dupray

Other Attendees:
Phil Gulak, NHTSA Carmen Torrent, NHTSA

Meeting minutes:
Jackie Beatty, NSC

Welcome and Introductions - Traycier Mitchell-Medina, Acting Chair

General Orientation
Roles and Responsibilities:

National Child Passenger Safety Board - Traycier Mitchell-Medina:
Traycier welcomed the new members and provided an overview of the Board's responsibilities in providing oversight for the training program and certification.

AAA -Matthew Young: (Certifying Body):
(Handout: Power Point Presentation on AAA Certification Process)
Several changes have been made to the certification and re-certification process. As of December 31, 2002, AAA no longer offers CPS Liability Insurance. Those individuals who purchased policies prior to that date will be covered through the anniversary date of their policy in 2003. Effective January 1, 2003, AAA will no longer be accepting cash or purchase orders as a form of payment. Also, the fees for the certification and re-certification have increased to $20.00. This information is included in a letter AAA is preparing to send out to the States, Regions, Technicians, and Instructors.

NHTSA: Phil Gulak/Carole Guzzetta:
Welcomed the new members - NCPSB Orientation Manuals was distributed to the new members. Manuals included information on the website, policies/procedures, by-laws, and previous meeting minutes. Carole Guzzetta also covered some of the key topics to be discussed, curriculum revisions, instructor candidate process, communication plan, database issues, international issues, re-certification packet distribution, and "other" language issues.

Committee Orientation Presentations

Curriculum - Joe Colella, Chair
Training program's focus is on teaching people to teach people. We need to ensure the curriculum is as up-to-date as possible and appropriate for technician function. The exam itself has been criticized - can it be approved? What about the literacy level? Steve Anderson has been contracted to work on the update of the curriculum. The curriculum should be out in June. The amount of work is greater than anticipated.

Certification - Artie Martin, Chair

Re-Certification - William Merritt, Chair
The re-certification process is cumbersome and the decision to change to a two-year re-certification is appropriate. We need to implement a one-day renewal course for those persons who have fallen through the "cracks". There is a need to continue the close relationship with AAA. We need to clarify and improve the protocol for the appeals process. All appeals should been sent to the National Safety Council for coordination and record-keeping.

Communication - Carole Guzzetta, Chair
Focus needs to be placed on clarifying the roles of various organizations involved in the administration of the program: Board, AAA, NHTSA and the States. We are continuing to work on the periodic mailings to the technician and instructors. Goals and responsibilities: NCPS Board Brochure (rough draft) would like to get finalized and mail out.

Membership Committee - Traycier Mitchell-Medina

Diversity - Holly Billie, Chair
This is a fairly new committee that was formed in 2002. The NCPSB committee chairs make up the Diversity Committee. Please check the minutes from the October, 2002 meeting for details of what Carmen Torrent presented. We need to professionally evaluate literacy level of the curriculum.

Quality Assurance - Mark Evanko, Chair
Every committee chair sits on the Quality Assurance Committee. Documentation is important.

Sub / Committee on Special Needs - Dr. Marilyn Bull, Chair
Barbara Foley spoke in the absence of Dr. Bull. A special curriculum for parents/technicians/instructors has been created. NHTSA has funded curriculum development. You do get to learn installation of special training from this two day course. The NHTSA website will have a list of persons who have completed the two day course in the near future.

Sub / Committee on Future Development - Julie Prom, Chair

NHTSA - Tami Levitas
(Handout - Guide to implementing Child Seat Inspections)
Reviewed upcoming products including: 1. Guide to Implementing Fitting Stations; 2. CPS Training Brochure; 3. Revised Technician Report.

LUNCH: Literacy Level Briefing -Holly Billie
(Handouts: Power Presentation Literacy Level Review, Crash Dynamics, Riffenburgh & Associates Client List)

Elections: Traycier Medina-Mitchell
The nominations for NCPSB chair were: Joe Colella and Julie Prom. Joe Colella won the elected chair. Traycier Medina-Mitchell was nominated for Vice-Chair and accepted. The Board agreed to continue the rest of the elections on Wednesday, February 12, 2003.


Day 2: Wednesday, February 12, 2003 - 8:30am - 4:30pm

Attendees:
Board members in attendance:
Holly Billie, Joe Colella, Susan DeCourcy, Mark Evanko, Barbara Foley, Vera Fullaway, Carole Guzzetta, Lorrie Laing, Nancy Lange, Janet Lassman, Tami Levitas, Arturo Lopez, Artie Martin, Traycier Mitchell-Medina, William Merritt, Cathy Morris, Angela Osterhuber, Julie Prom, Matthew Young.

Board members not in attendance:
Dr. Marilyn Bull, Don Dupray

Other Attendees:
Phil Gulak, NHTSA
Carmen Torrent, NHTSA

Meeting minutes:
Jackie Beatty, NSC

Recap of February 11, 2003 - Joe Colella, Chair

Committee Report Outs - 1st Group

Quality Assurance Meeting - Mark Evanko, Chair
The committee recommended changes to the AAA letter to better clarify key points. The following changes were made yesterday to the AAA package: need to include that AAA will only accept checks, visa, master card, and money orders as payment. There are no longer grace periods effective immediately. All courses must be registered with AAA.

The survey that was created was never sent out by AAA. Mark will submit a copy of the survey to Matthew Young at AAA. All comments should be sent to Mark by the COB on February 21, 2003.

A task group to review policies: was created:
Matthew Young, AAA Mark Evanko, Dorel
Carole Guzzetta, NHTSA Angela Osterhuber, Traffic Injury

A task group to review procedures was also created:
Lorrie Laing, GHSO Janet Lassman, ENA
Susan DeCourcy, NHTSA Region VII Carole Guzzetta, NHTSA

Diversity - Holly Billie, Chair

The translation from the English Curriculum into Spanish was reviewed by field reviewers. Reports indicated it was a good translation; however, the translation was high level Spanish and contained regional terms. Carmen Torrent will work on addressing regional terms before finalization of the Curriculum. The Spanish Curriculum will be available June 2003. The Spanish-English Glossary will also be published as a stand-alone document.

It was suggested that a workgroup be formed to finalize the Spanish Curriculum and after some discussion it was decided that the translation of the curriculum would remain as the role of NHTSA. Carmen Torrent suggested creating some fluency guidelines for instructors.

Handout: Literacy level sample was reviewed. Hollie asked everyone to review the sample to be discussed by the board chairs via e-mail.

Elections - Joe Colella

Curriculum Committee Chair: Julie Prom nominated and consented
Certification Committee Chair: Artie Martin nominated and consented
Re-certification Committee Chair: William Merritt nominated and consented
Communication Committee Chair: Angela Osterhuber consented on an acting basis until NSC fills Carole Guzzetta position.
Membership Committee Chair: Traycier Medina-Mitchell nominated and consented
Diversity Committee Chair: Holly Billie nominated and consented
Quality Assurance Committee Chair: Mark Evanko nominated and consented
Special Needs Committee Chair: Dr. Marilyn Bull
Work Group Policy Chair: Angela Osterhuber
Work Procedure Chair: Lorrie Laing

Committee Reports:

Certification Committee - Artie Martin:
There were a number of appeals to be considered. Jackie Beatty will mail out appeal decisions. The Committee re-iterated the need for improvements in the protocol for appeals and decided that all appeals should be sent to the National Safety Council for a docket number then the appeal will be sent to the certification or re-certification chair.

Re-Certification - William Merritt, Chair:
All appeals should be process through the National Safety Council. The board's secretariat should fill this process assigning a case number then forwarding the appeals to the appropriate committee chair.

Communication Committee - Angela Osterhuber, Acting Chair:
Sue Harris is working on a marketing plan. The layout version on the certification card will be revised to show AAA Certified instead of NHTSA Certified.

Membership Committee - Traycier Medina-Mitchell, Chair:
Traycier is asking for more participation from the board to join the membership committee. There will be 5 positions opened in December, 2003. The 5 positions available will be in Diversity, Injury Prevention, At-Large, CPS Advocate, National Law Enforcement. The board suggested using the website, Lifesavers, & AAA to advertise these openings. Flyers will be made to distribute as well.

Task Force Committee Chairs: Proposing several changes to the by-laws. NHTSA Region should be 2 years instead of 1 year. Term limits for all position except Board Secretariat.

Next Meeting Date:

June 19 - 20, 2003, place to be determined.