UTFS Fare Media Committee

Joe Simonetti, Metavante, Vice Chair

Rick Stern, Booz-Allen & Hamilton

Goals and Objectives:

• Resolution of Committee voter eligibility rules
• Changes and plans for the Magnetic Fare Media WG
• Update on the program IP Policy

Tim stated that the goals of the call were to resolve the voter eligibility issue discussed on the 10/28 Committee call, update the committee on changes in the Magnetic Fare Media WG and next steps, and finally to provide an update on the IP Policy. Joe Simonetti chaired the meeting in Henry Rosen's absence, but will leave the call at 12:25 due to a conflicting meeting.

The issue of voting eligibility was discussed on the 10/28 teleconference. The members agreed to the following rules:

1. The committee will conform to the by-laws requirement of attending 2 consecutive meetings.
2. Fare Media Committee will hold 2 meetings prior to calling the vote on the "Trends" document.
3. The next meeting will be Friday, Nov 21 at Noon Eastern Time.
4. If discussion if final at that meeting, an electronic ballot will be called.
5. Those organizations that were eligible to vote at the 10/28 meeting will remain eligible.

Tim W. will email a current list of eligible voters to the committee.

Joe S. stated that the committee discussed the issue of eligibility to vote for approval of the "trends" document. The issue was that the by-laws require that an organization needs to attend 2 consecutive meetings to establish eligibility to vote, but that is for the Task Force level. Given the 3-month hiatus of the Fare media Committee, only 5 organizations were eligible to vote. Tim stated that the committee leadership met to develop a strategy to present to the Task Force leadership for endorsement. This was done. The strategy was sent to the Committee in an email on 11/6. Tim paraphrased the approach:

1. The committee will conform to the by-laws requirement of attending 2 consecutive meetings.
2. 2 meetings will be held prior to calling the vote on the "Trends" document.
3. The second meeting will be Friday, Nov 21 at Noon Eastern Time.
4. If discussion if final at that meeting, an electronic ballot will be called.

Bob Murray will become the Fin Mgmt Committee’s Systems Work Group Co-Leader. Rich Lobron will become the Magnetic Fare Media Work Group Chair. Robert Reavis will assist Rich. The work group must work on the following documents:

1. Ticket Specification Document
2. Test Document
3. Magnetics
4. Data document

The work group will schedule a meeting for December to begin to work again.

Participation is needed, specifically regarding printing/inks and QA.

The Work Group has made no progress in the last few months due to a lack of availability on the part of participants. Bob is splitting his time between WP1 and WP4 and is actively trying to transition the group lead to Robert Reavis of BART. He expects the group, and Robert, will be up and running within 30 days.

Bob stated the groups priorities are:

1. The ticket specification- right now this is more of a guideline not a spec.
2. The testing document- Traci Rozier of CTA has done a great job on the document to date, however it must be modified after the completion of the specification.
3. Magnetic/Data Elements document- this must be divided into two documents to conform more with the ISO standards for magnetic tickets. The documents would be a data document and a Magnetics document (reading/writing to magnetics, number of tracks, coercivity, printing/inks, etc.)

Bob stated that needs areas are printing/inks and QA.

The IP policy Task Force ballot has kept open due to slow receipt of ballots. An electronic letter urging quick response was sent over Tom Margo’s signature.

A Comment Resolution Form is being compiled as the ballots are being received. It is anticipated that the ballot will close around the Thanksgiving holidays.

Draft "IP 101" training for all committee/work group leaders is currently in review by the Task Force leaders.

Dave stated that the Task Force balloting group is currently balloting the policy, however those ballots were returning slowly. Tom Margro, the Rail CEO Chair, authorized a letter over his signature be sent electronically to encourage more rapid return of ballots. This letter was sent last week and it is already taking effect.

Dave is compiling a Comment Resolution Form as the ballots with comment are returned. This form will be used to resolve all the comments received. Dave anticipated receipt of most ballots by Thanksgiving.

The Rail CEOs Steering Committee approved the use of the policy on an interim basis. To implement the policy, Dave created an "IP 101" training package for the use of various committee and group leaders to implement the IP Policy. This includes how to implement the policy at all levels including, Letters of Acknowledgement, calls for patents, and Letters of Assurance.

Additionally, the Fare Media Committee asked for the development of standard language describing the various document types (i.e. Standards, Recommended Practices, Guidelines/Specifications, Research/White Papers). This is also under review by the Task Force leaders, who meet on Nov 13.