APTA: Financial Management Committee Systems Work Group

Systems Work Group – Work Package 4 Meeting

Meeting Minutes: Mar 31, 2004

Participants:

S&B wished to have the IP discussion added to the minutes from New York. Two issues were raised:

The lack of an agreed IP policy is impeding progress within WP4 (as well as the other activities).
A general letter from APTA for Booz Allen to request material from third parties was not sufficient to prevent material disclosed to the group from being used in future patent claims, or prevent the owners of the material from claiming rights and fees for the material in the future.

With respect to item i): It was agreed that such a statement should be added to the minutes to reflect the discussion undertaken, reflecting the general consent that the lack of IP policy is affecting progress. The statement suggested by S&B is:
’Lisa Bucci of S&B stated that until all WP4 participants have signed IP Policy Letters of Acknowledgement in which they agree not to misuse information obtained through UTFS for their own advantage, UTFS should not receive any documents, which are not already in the public domain (ie. the WMATA document). Because UTFS is still lacking an IP Policy, progress is impeded.’
With respect to item ii): It was explained that the material obtained by Booz Allen on behalf of APTA would not be submitted to the group, and would be used only by Booz Allen to support their research. A draft request letter has been prepared by Booz for APTA to review and approve. Leisa Moniz will follow this up.

ACTION: Contact APTA to find out response to Booz draft request letter – Leisa Moniz

Volpe have sent a letter to APTA (Tony Koneki, Tom Peacock, Tom Parker, Dave Phelps) expressing concerns that the IP policy has not been completed. APTA responded that a new version of the policy should be available for review in a couple of weeks. Dave Phelps will give an update on the April 5 Finance Committee call.
APTA intend to have the final policy ready for ratification at the June 6 Rail CEO meeting in Miami.

The majority of public standards required have been obtained. Information from specific project and vendors is on-going. Organizations involved with tolling systems are also being contacted.
A draft report, for review by the group, will be available April 30.
Bob Murray is still the technical liaison with Booz Allen, and is supposed to be having weekly status meetings.

The action items outstanding (as discussed in New York) need to be completed over the next 2 to 3 weeks. The target is to have all items ready for final review and voting at the next face to face meeting. This means that the actions need to be completed at least 2 weeks before the face to face to allow for input and modification.

There is general dissatisfaction with having a meeting in Washington on April 29, as discussed in New York. An acceptable alternative may be to meet in Los Angeles at LACMTA’s premises during the week of May 10. May 11 or 12 are the preferred days. Meeting duration of 5-6 hours will probably suffice.
The following organizations represented on the call will attend the next face to face, with preference of location in brackets:

Since the venue preference is an even split, it will need to be decided in participation with the preferences of WP1.

ACTION: Present the two options to WP1 – Members of WP1

It was decided the next call will be held April 21 at 12 noon EST. Since David will be away, Darshana kindly volunteered to chair the meeting.

Meeting closed 1:00pm pm.

Next Meeting: April 21, 12 noon EST

Call in number: 1-866-687-3615 US/Canada, +1 (210) 453-6803 International

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