Universal Transit Farecard Standards (UTFS)Task Force

Fare Media Committee has an issue regarding the Magnetic Fare Media deliverable. Comments were made regarding proprietary information in the original source document offered by a vendor.

The IP Policy would cover this instance (and others like I that may crop up) even though it pre-dates the policy. A letter of Assurance and other policy procedures still apply.

Tim W. is engaging appropriate WG members to determine the IP implications and will report back to the group.

Tim brought up that an issue has developed in the Fare Media Committee's Magnetics Work Group. Lisa Bucci of S&B raised the issue in regards to a draft deliverable being reviewed in the Mag WG. Lisa had two points:

1. She was unsure what type of document the deliverable was and pointed out that the boilerplate language developed by APTA was not on the document.
   
2. That she believes there may be proprietary content in the document and that the source document used was submitted by Cubic.

Henry concurred that these were the issues. Tim stated that the boilerplate language had been shared with the WG leader for inclusion in the doc. Dave Phelps added that the document states it is a "Product Guideline for Magnetic Strip Instruments " and that the WG must decide the doc type before it forwards the document to the Committee. Tim asked for help with respect to the IP issue since the program has not implemented the IP policy. Tim did state that he was engaging the former WG leader, Bob Murray, to get his insights. Tim will try to determine the IP implications and report back to the group. Dave stated that this will be an ongoing issue with any document that contains proprietary information and we must simply implement the policy with these documents (obtain Letters of Assurance, etc.) moving forward.

Tam stated that a TCIP meeting was held Jan 21 in Annapolis, MD. Tam and Henry R. are the co-chairs of the TCIP Fare Collection Technical Working Group (TWG). Tam proposed that the fare collection portion of TCIP be brought into UTFS and the Financial Management Committee's scope be reassessed. Tam stated the reason for this scope change is that TCIP addresses more data than UTFS such as Maintenance and Status/Alarm data. Tom Parker asked how the members present received this suggestion. Dave Phelps stated that it gave them some concern. The TCIP contractors suggested progressing the work currently done and filling in the gaps through tight coordination with UTFS members.

Tom Parker suggested a joint meeting between himself, Tam, Henry, and Dave to strategize coordination with APTA's contractors. Dave stated that they have an APTA contract and they can't lengthen the timeframe of that contract. Dave identified Dianne O'Neill of ARINC and John Fayos of Critical Link as the major interfaces with the TCIP program.

The Fare Media Committee next meets on Feb 9 and the "Trends" document will potentially go out for electronic ballot.

The "Farecard Procurement Procedures" document has been posted to the web site for committee review ending Feb 9.

The Magnetics WG is reviewing the magnetics deliverable.

The Steering Committee has developed 9 work tasks. Two tasks will be completed by the Steering Committee and three will be completed by a contractor. The Committee is finalizing a statement of work for a consulting project.

The next call is on Jan 27. Only three people called into the Jan 9 call.

Tam stated that the work package teams are meeting on Feb 10-12 in Chicago. The schedule is:
WP3- Feb 10
WP1- Feb 11
WP4- Feb 12

The WP4 research study was awarded to Booz Allen. Tom Peacock is investigating whether they have a notice to proceed. APTA will send a notice to the entire task force of the contract award.

Glossary definitions must be coordinated across all working groups. Tim W. will update and distribute the glossary of terms.

Tam reported that the Work package teams are meeting in Chicago on Feb 10-12. WP3 meets on the 10th, WP1 meets on the 11th and WP4 meets on the 12th. Additionally, there will be a joint meeting of all WP's in the afternoon of Feb 11 to discuss to ensure ongoing coordination. The WP4 meeting will include a presentation by Booz Allen. Tam is finalizing logistics with the WP leaders. Tam asked Tom and Dave from APTA if the contract was final and if a notice to proceed was needed or could Booz Allen begin work. Tom would have to check within APTA, but he believed they could begin work.

Tim suggested that APTA send an official notice of the contract award since there are rumors circulating among the UTFS membership, many of whom bid on the work. Tom and Dave agreed to do this.

Tam stated that a concern was raised in his committee that a common glossary must be agreed to by all working groups and work packages. Tim W. has consolidated a glossary and distributed it, but it was a compilation of terms from various groups and some terms are defined in different ways. Tam stated that he must work through the coordination within his committee. Tim will update and distribute the glossary based on definitions voted on in WP1.

IP Training

• IP training Webinar was held on Jan 16. Approximately 30 people attended.
• Dave will issue a Q&A from the session to the task force.
• A second training session will be in March.
• Dave and Kristin O'Grady are available to answer specific questions.

IP Policy Update

• Still only 8 votes received.
• A re-circulation ballot may be necessary due to substantive changes resulting from comments received.
• A major IP Policy comment is that the Policy state that royalty-free licenses are only for Transit Agencies in transit applications. There is a potential for a business member to interpret this as stating that they may not be able to get a royalty-free license, but this is only the case if a business member requests a license for non-transit applications.
• The impact of the change is to potentially postpone the formal adoption of the Policy for 60-90 days.
• This does not affect the interim implementation schedule agreed to on the Jan 8 leadership call.

Dave Phelps reported that the IP training Webinar was held on Jan 16. Approximately 30 sites were on line. Greg Garback attended the dry run and provided valuable comments to improve the training. The presentation included a PowerPoint presentation as well as various reference documents (Letter of Assurance, etc.) and templates. The session spurred good comments and questions and Dave will issue a Q&A to the task force. Dave anticipated another training session when enough people have asked for one. He anticipates that the second session will be in March. Dave and APTA's legal council Kristin O'Grady are available to answer specific questions.

Dave gave a general status update on the IP Policy. He suggested that the report to the Rail CEO Steering Committee on Jan 27 include the following:

· The IP Policy is still in ballot stage and that there are still not enough votes in to establish a quorum. Approximately 25 votes are needed and only 8 have been received

• Resolution of some of the comments will require substantive changes and may therefore require a re-circulation ballot.
• A re-circulation ballot would render the current, non-quorum for the IP ballot a non-issue.

The major comment received is a request that the Policy state that royalty-free licenses are only for Transit Agencies in transit applications. There is a potential for a business member to interpret this as stating that they may not be able to get a royalty-free license. Dave's assertion is that this is only true in the case that a business member would ask for a license for a non-transit application.

The impact of the changes is to potentially postpone the formal adoption of the Policy for 60-90 days.

Tim W. asked how this turn of events affects the implementation schedule agreed to on the Jan 8 call. Dave stated that it would not (see last minutes for implementation schedule). Tim also asked the status of the personal calls and the assignment of calls to the leadership members. Dave answered that they have not begun yet.