Steering Committee

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National Training Program Wiki Main Page

Overview and Charge

Members

Co-Lead(s): John Hornback (Metro4/SESARM), Zac Adelman (LADCO)

Members: Paul Miller (NESCAUM), Julie McDill (MARAMA), Michael Vince (CenSARA), Mary Uhl (WESTAR), Brian Foster (AAPCA Training Comm. Co-Chair, TX), Jason Rayfield (AAPCA Training Committee Co-Chair, Mecklenburg County NC), Mark Buford (NACAA Training Comm. Co-Chair, Northwest Clean Air Agency WA), Darcy ByBee (NACAA Training Comm. Co-Chair, Air Quality Division MO NDR), Adam Baumgart-Getz (EPA OAQPS), Mary Ann Warner (EPA OAQPS)

Conference Calls

January 28, 2020

Action Items

Agenda

  • February RTP meeting preparation
  • Work Group updates
  • JTC Transition planning for leadership adjustments for the JTC and Steering Committee (my pending retirement)

Call Notes

February RTP meeting preparation

  • Would like to get ideas on meeting objectives from this group on the call today
  • Is the list of attendees still confirmed (9 attendees), yes; EPA needs a list 1 week in advance, can accommodate last minute additions, but not ideal
  • Zac reviewed the agendas for the JTC at large and senior management meetings; descried allocating more time to the JTC part of the discussion, including how to encourage membership from states/locals
    • Note that the JTC calls are every other month, not 1x/quarter as stated by Zac
  • Directors meeting agenda
    • General conversations about the training vision, roles and responsibilities for implementation, and general objectives
    • Training resources for EPA and MJOs/states/locals to work together to implementation NTS
    • Want to keep conversation relevant to the DD level
    • How to make things work that require SMEs and program development within EPA, examining resources at MJOs and how to interface with EPA; need to engage DDs in the aspects of the training program that are most relevant to what we’re doing and leave with a clear understanding of EPA and MJOs intents and activities in the training program
    • Will discuss resources, staffing and funding at the meeting
    • EPA will distribute a 1-2 page summary describing where they are are with the vision/roadmap and success metrics/accountability measures - can still discuss this in the general steering committee meeting
  • NOWCC may not take an hour, but we should talk about directions and expectations for this program; may be able to use this slot if we go over in another session;
    • EPA would like information on what should be discussed; EPA doesn’t have an hour of input for NOWCC
  • Grant reporting: EPA would like to talk about the process being set up, and EPA is in the process of identifying holistically about the actual requirements; it won’t be a long discussion; can we change or adapt the discussion to what information would be useful to the MJOs; what would benefit the MJOs/states, how could the LMS be developed to provide information that states/MJOs need?
  • Tuesday evening of the meeting will have a reservation at a restaurant; all attending JTC travelers are interested in going to the dinner (9 people)

Work Group updates

  • Delivery WG: finished first major deliverable in working with EPA on training delivery guidance; figuring out where to go next with only a few active members in the WG
  • Planning and Support WG: membership is thin, struggling to find their identify;
    • John: this WG was envisioned as a support WG to help the other WG’s focus on their primary functions, but their role in the training program has not been well utilized; is there a role for this WG?; may think about dissolving and distributing the WG members to other WGs; can possibly engage this WG on NOWCC instructors
  • LMS:
  • Curriculum: Receiving feedback on curriculum and learning objectives documents; round 1 review is completed with collection of comments, lots of engagement; taking time to go through the comments and working with SMEs to check comments for accuracy; will go back out to states and locals, and tribes for the draft final product; when comments received on 2nd batch will initiate review process

JTC Transition Planning

  • Will discuss at the meeting in RTP

Next Call February 25 @ 1:00

December 17, 2019

Action Items

Agenda

  • Review November action items
  • February 11-12, 2020 JTC Steering Committee Meeting Discussion (20 min): status of the planning workgroup, agenda ideas, logistics and head-count
  • JTC workgroup updates (20 min): what are the WGs currently working on, and where are there critical needs
  • NOWCC comments/feedback to EPA (10 min): what input can the JTC offer to EPA for the January train-the-trainer workshop for NACT instructors
  • JTC participation assessment from the December call (10 min): review the current JTC roster and discuss how to improve state/local participation in the JTC

Call Notes

November Action Items

  • Kara: identify a WG liaison volunteer; status: in progress
  • Steering Committee: identify meeting planning committee participation by state and local agency staff; status: falling to the steering committee at-large because haven't been able to identify all of the needed participants
  • Steering Committee: send JTC Steering Committee meeting agenda ideas; status: done, see notes from last call
  • Zac: schedule next call for December 17; status: done
  • Michael: send notes on curriculum WG; status: done

February Steering Committee Meeting

  • Meeting tentatively scheduled for February 11-12
  • Are people comfortable with 1.5 day meeting? Suggesting for 1 3/4 day meeting, run 2nd day to 3:00
  • General meeting approach
    • Division directors will be available around mid-day on the 11th; will have an earlier part of the meeting/prep for conversations with DDs; then have feedback on the rest of the afternoon;
    • February 11 open between 1-3 pm for DDs
    • 2nd day follow up from DD discussions, and then planning
    • EPA wants specific topics to discuss and specific information that we need from the DDs; EPA wants precise information for the DDs
  • Talk about specifics about the program that couldn't be addressed in the roadmap questions; when is it appropriate to raise these questions if not the roadmap
  • EPA responds that the workgroups will be used to address many of these questions, e.g., SMEs
  • MJOs to come up with priority items to discuss with DDs
  • Discussion on funding and EPA not being able to predict the future funding for the program
  • February meeting agenda ideas
    • Funding of the state/local/MJO training programs
    • Instructor development and course updates
    • NOWCC program and resources: how to maximize services and improve instructors
    • Set up the in-person meeting agenda to ensure tangible deliverables. We should try to avoid having the meeting be all discussion/idea based. For example, to develop a work plan each workgroup would breakout to develop the work plans/timelines.
    • EPA course material review process (status).
    • Identify key decision making points/deliverable for the steering committee and JTC; should there be a national training program annual workplan?
    • 2021 priorities: EPA-led course updates, workgroup activities, steering committee and JTC activities
    • Roles and responsibilities of the steering committee, JTC, and workgroups; do we need to develop charters for these entities?
    • Testing expectations of future course materials (student manuals, slide decks, instructor notes and guidance, reference materials, other?), e.g., how to develop a consistent goal for pre- and post-training testing
    • Core needs for a solid national training program; development of key performance indicators (KPIs): how to measure progress/success of the training program?
    • Other EPA topics/needs from the steering committee/JTC to support their work on training
    • Discussion on bigger picture ideas, what are the next steps beyond the roadmap? EPA is wrestling with these; could use a roles and responsibilities document for the JTC
  • What are the expectations/deliverables for the meeting
    • Need to planning for how to support 2021 and beyond
    • Check in on what EPA needs our support on
    • Get training project moving sufficiently this year and beyond
    • Need to talk priorities and how to plan for the future; what level of resources will be available for the future, changes to course development/deployment, how do we figure out where these come from and how they will be paid for; limitations in resources will help drive the priorities;
    • EPA wants a 3-year course development workplan by the end of FY2020, but still need to figure what the priorities are for the courses; trying to figure out how to coordinate across the EPA offices and with states/locals/MJOs; still need to talk about what goes into that prioritization system
    • Challenge has been on collecting information across EPA, MJOs, and states; process could be smoothed if we could discuss criteria for prioritizing courses; if we can't get to that, need to use OAQPS judgement on the priorities
    • What's the bigger picture? workgroups are the place to discuss specific projects and tasks;
    • Questions about EPA bigger picture workplan for the national training program; EPA won't discuss workplans with the MJOs but there are areas; EPA won't develop more specific documents at a finer level of granularity than the roadmap
    • Other interfaces between EPA and JTC, MJOs, states/local, e.g.,
    • Realities of the e-learning side can be frightening because of the resources that are required; how to provide timely training and management of the resources
    • Courses are priorities, but also how to deliver them will impact those priorities; what may be a priority course may get pushed down the list because there aren't resources to work on it; while end goal may be to have a particular type of distance learning, it's not feasible/practical and many need to settle on an alternative; need to talk through that process
  • How to get to the final agenda?
    • First day morning: Check in on 2020 trajectory and begin to synthesize the 2021 plan with inputs from EPA and MJOs;
    • DD meeting:
    • First day afternoon:
    • Second day:
  • MARAMA, CenSARA, NESCAUM, WESTAR will send agenda topic ideas
  • Zac and John will work on getting the draft agenda together over the next couple of days
  • Approach: MJO propose agenda and

JTC Workgroup Updates

  • No critical updates/communications needed

NOWCC

  • Questions about what is in the scope of this program from EPA; currently assessing what's required of the program by EPA; won't be a quick turnaround project
  • EPA is doing homework on this program
  • Comments submitted by Michael and Jeff
  • A lot of comments from the MJOs, but many of them are programmatic rather than on teach best-practices;
  • Need to put most of the comments in to a discussion on NACT program at the February meeting
  • Could the steering committee have a representative at the NOWCC meeting via conference call on the 2nd day? Need to ask Sarah Matthews
  • Sarah is checking about whether an MJO could attend remotely

Next Call January 28 @ 1:00

November 26, 2019

Action Items

  • Kara: identify a WG liaison volunteer
  • Steering Committee: identify meeting planning committee participation by state and local agency staff
  • Steering Committee: send JTC Steering Committee meeting agenda ideas
  • Zac: schedule next call for December 17
  • Michael: send notes on curriculum WG

Agenda

  • Review October action items
  • Workgroup updates: co-leads give 5 minute reports on key, recent workgroup activities and inter-workgroup communications/interface needs (20 min)
  • EPA Updates: progress report on the roadmap, course updates, and other news from EPA partners including EPA/Curriculum Workgroup perspectives on Learning Objectives Review process and next steps (20 min)
  • JTC Steering Committee In-Person Meeting: formation of meeting planning committee for the early-2020 meeting and discussion of target dates and potential agenda items (20 min)

Call Notes

October Action Items

  • Zac: collect and send comments to EPA on their training roadmap
    • Status: Sent October 31; EPA will reply in December
  • Mike: send Curriculum survey to Kara
    • Status:
  • WG Co-Leads: Send Kara points of contact for identifying WG interface
    • Status: done
  • EPA: share results from contractor assessment of the LMS requirements list provided by the LMS WG
    • Status: presented on a webinar November 13
  • Zac: schedule course delivery methods review call in late November
    • Status: webinar scheduled for December 16 @ 1:00 Eastern
  • Zac: send updated course evaluation form to the steering committee for review/sign-off
  • Zac: work with EPA and APTI-Learn contractor to get the new eval integrated into APTI-Learn
    • Status: In progress, working on through the Delivery WG
  • John: form task force to develop an agenda for the next in-person JTC meeting
    • Status: In progress, will form and convene the first week of December
  • MJO Directors/Training Coordinators: develop priorities and learning objectives for 101-level courses to be developed/updated online in the next year
    • Status: In progress

Workgroup updates

  • General communication
    • Use this Wiki as the platform for sharing information between workgroups.
    • Wiki to include each workgroup’s call schedule.
    • Schedule another walk through of the Wiki for the JTC committee workgroup members.
    • Wiki could also be used as a reference on JTC committee calls to provide updates (e.g., JTC steering committee calls could be conducted as a webinar).
  • Planning & Support
    • MI participant left her position, now seeking another state participant; her role was as a workgroup liaison
    • Talked about WG recruitment, seeking a new person/interest to get a new liaison in place
    • Webinar from the curriculum WG
    • Good idea to have a liaison, but could fallback to WG co-chairs and Zac/John to take on this role as liaison
  • Delivery
    • Moving from delivery methods to other scope
    • Maintaining and updating instructor list, working with Support
    • Instructors/auditors evaluation form
    • Thinking about other aspects of delivery now, thinking about the entire training experience, not just delivery methods, and what else fits in to the scope
    • Is the LMS process going to answer the question of what type of trainings delivery tools are available?
      • In August EPA received a document from LMS workgroup that includes delivery, those are criteria that EPA has used to narrow down the universe of LMS's; working to use this to narrow down the procurement process; everything that delivery WG is looking at will be included in the procurement for the LMS; Chris and Jeff have also been working on the LMS WG to bring the delivery concepts into that WG
    • Will support for all of the delivery options be part of the basic LMS functionality, or will be an add-on, separate tool that links to the LMS?
      • Expectation is that the LMS will handle the e-learning delivery (it will be seamless to the users, may be more complex on the back end)
  • LMS
    • On last call discussed further clarifying assessment of the LMS features
    • Criteria are uploaded to the wiki, can refer to these criteria and provide input directly to the LMS WG co-leads
  • Curriculum
    • Documents developed for topic learning objectives
    • Will send to AAPCA and NACAA training committees for feedback from the states
    • OAQPS plans to share curricula to the tribes through ITEP
    • Want to confirm the process with the JTC Steering Committee
    • Michael to send notes on curriculum

EPA Updates

  • Putting comments together on response to roadmap in December
  • Curricula learning objectives being developed with EPA regions; building relationship between OAQPS and the regions, and getting the regions back into training
  • LMS webinar last month; next webinar 12/11
  • Delivery webinar 12/16
  • Checking that the ask for updating the evaluation in APTI-Learn is possible
  • Collecting existing training materials, while working on learning objectives updates; collecting technical materials for supporting updates
  • Looking at 100-level course priorities, and the effort to update/develop these courses; trying to figure out resource needs to develop vs demand
  • Want to look at developing a long-term prioritization system
  • Reviewing selection criteria for LMS
  • Planning for NOWCC instructor training in December

JTC Steering Committee In-Person Meeting

  • Decided that we should have a steering committee meeting before JTC at-large meeting; need planning items from this committee
  • Feb 12-13 at EPA in RTP, traveling in on the 11th; EPA needs to check if space is open for Feb 13
  • Meeting planning workgroup
    • 3-5 people; EPA (Mary Ann), JTC co-lead (John), 1 MJO training coordinator (TBD), 1 local (TBD), 1 state (TBD); latter two could be selected from NACAA/AAPCA co-chairs or other interested local/state agency staff
    • MO is in both NACAA and AAPCA
    • John seeking volunteers from MJO training coordinators
    • John will talk with AAPCA and NACAA for state/local volunteer
    • Commitment will be 2-3 1-hour hour calls by the end of December to plan the meeting (date, topics, length of meeting, announcement)
    • Need to craft focused topics for the directors
    • Group conversation, break outs, specific discussions with DDs
    • When is the committee call? Need to form the committee first; EPA needs to know space and DD roles/activities
  • Agenda ideas
    • Set up the in-person meeting agenda to ensure tangible deliverables. We should try to avoid having the meeting be all discussion/idea based. For example, to develop a work plan each workgroup would breakout to develop the work plans/timelines.
    • EPA course material review process (status).
    • Identify key decision making points/deliverable for the steering committee and JTC; should there be a national training program annual workplan?
    • 2021 priorities: EPA-led course updates, workgroup activities, steering committee and JTC activities
    • Roles and responsibilities of the steering committee, JTC, and workgroups; do we need to develop charters for these entities?
    • Testing expectations of future course materials (student manuals, slide decks, instructor notes and guidance, reference materials, other?), e.g., how to develop a consistent goal for pre- and post-training testing
    • Core needs for a solid national training program; development of key performance indicators (KPIs): how to measure progress/success of the training program?
    • Other EPA topics/needs from the steering committee/JTC to support their work on training

October 22, 2019

Action Items

  • Zac: collect and send comments to EPA on their training roadmap
  • Mike: send Curriculum survey to Kara
  • WG Co-Leads: Send Kara points of contact for identifying WG interface
  • EPA: share results from contractor assessment of the LMS requirements list provided by the LMS WG
  • Zac: schedule course delivery methods review call in late November
  • Zac: send updated course evaluation form to the steering committee for review/sign-off
  • Zac: work with EPA and APTI-Learn contractor to get the new eval integrated into APTI-Learn
  • John: form task force to develop an agenda for the next in-person JTC meeting
  • MJO Directors/Training Coordinators: develop priorities and learning objectives for 101-level courses to be developed/updated online in the next year

Agenda

  • Workgroup updates (20 min): Co-leads give 5 minute reports on key, recent workgroup activities
  • Interfaces between JTC Workgroups (10 min): How are you expecting to interface with other WGs? What information do you need, and when?
  • Training delivery methods presentation by EPA contractor (10 min): November Steering Committee call?
  • EPA Updates (10 min): Progress report on the roadmap, course updates, and other news from EPA partners
  • Planning for face-to-face meeting (10 min): Jan-Feb 2020 timeframe

Call Notes

  • MARAMA Update - Marc Cohn taking over for Julie as MARAMA ED
  • Roadmap update - MJO/JTC group met last week to discuss roadmap comments; have a draft version of comments that we’re working on, started from comments provided to EPA at meeting in RTP, will add examples and clarify, collecting comments from the JTC community; still seeking feedback to send back to EPA by the end of the month; Zac will synthesize comments and put a draft out to the steering committee by Oct 31;

Workgroup updates

  • Planning & Support
    • Talked to Curriculum WG about helping to determine priorities and develop process
    • Looking at courses identified by curriculum WG, need to review the LMS to see if the course objectives are accurate
    • Intro courses are crucial for updating, expecting a lot of turnover in air agencies, will need the 101 level courses;
    • Kara is happy to help with learning objectives and curriculum priorities
    • Action: Mike to send curriculum survey to Planning & Support
    • Working to provide interface support between WGs; need to know what these interfaces are
    • Last WG call on 10/15, selected a WG member to be the liaison between other WGs, to check in with the other WGs, find out about support needed; other WGs should expect to be contacted about interfacing discussion; who’s the best point of contact in WGs? WG co-leads; Planning & Support member will not join the other WGs but will be more in a role to touch bases
    • Use the wiki to identify interfaces and points of contact
    • Action: WG co-leads to send interfaces to the planning & support WG, and ask for facilitation of the interfaces
  • Delivery
    • Worked through delivery method terminology and options document
    • Have a summary document with EPA (Chris) who will be using that for informing work on delivery methods decision support
    • Have a revised evaluation instrument that we need to communicate to EPA and their APTI learn contractor for putting in as a new prototype into LMS
  • LMS
    • Last call melded online training that MARAMA has been using to see how it can integrated into the new LMS
    • Developed a list of characteristics that EPA is taking back to fold into the list for the new LMS system
    • Close to having a list of characteristics to fold into a contract; hoping for draft contract language later this year
    • Timeline for finalizing requirements will be needed sooner than later, if EPA had a solid 90% solution moving forward, can start with procurement process
    • How can the steering committee weigh in on this process? Can we see this list in the steering committee? Steering committee thought the ball was in EPA’s court
    • EPA action: share results from contractors assessment of the list provided by the LMS WG
    • EPA wants to start work on the contract as soon as possible because it will take time
  • Curriculum
    • Working on course priority list; seeking priorities from states and EPA
    • Not sure on timing for having a discussion with EPA on the course priorities, but will hope to have more info later this week
    • Will be setting a shared place for people to access information on priorities and WG efforts;
    • Jeff: feel like we’re not going about id’ing priorities the right way, lots of resources are available right now; can we change the focus from looking at courses as they are currently, to what we need; example is to shift focus on developing an online air quality management 101 curriculum, and then roll out from there, to permitting 101, enforcement/compliance 101, functional area X 101; afraid we’ll lose the current resources soon and questioning that we may not be focused on the right things; suggest to get 101 course catalog online, then move on to speciality areas; material may already exist, how to repackage these with modern delivery methods?
    • EPA: for the 1st year the course update process has been guided by the JTC; there is senior mgmt attention now, need to work on a system to make priorities, rather than working on priorities for the next year; there is a process for FY2020, what's the process for determining priorities for subsequent years?
    • John: there is a pipeline, need to start prep work for future years; clearly a need for long-term planning, we support the 2020 work, need to identify areas that can start as soon as the work queue begins; for the priority setting process, huge need for basic courses to support both face to face and e-learning; could invest in deliverables that pay back quickly and often if we get these new basic courses out sooner than later (2021); in 2020 create expectations for online versions of intro courses in the different areas, in 2021 finalize a longer term priority system, will front load a lot in the pipeline
    • Michael: agree that intro courses are a high priority; EPA is adding resources that can help figure out the best way to deliver courses; if we want to take a course and turn into online, do we need to do classroom course first, or can it go straight to online; what's the right order?; how to figure out we’re all on the same page and speaking the same language; JTC members need training on how adults learn and are using the same language
    • Are there any issues for going this direction for EPA?
      • EPA: Conceptually in agreement, details will need to be worked out, key thing is to finalize the learning directives in the curricula because they will be the OAQPS contract with the community identifying the specific topics and timing of the courses; will then be EPA identifying the priorities within those learning objectives; EPA is crafting the learning objectives/topics; working on delivery options and figuring out how best to craft materials into different formats
    • How can the process be leaned to make the process move forward more quickly?
      • EPA has been focused on learning objectives; a couple things we can do to work together: starting next week EPA will be looking for people to focus on 3-4 courses; need to know what those priorities are; need to figure what the processes for getting OAQPS input up front in MJO course development are, to streamline that process;
      • Is the community already exploring the learning objectives for 101 level courses? There is a need for local/state agency input on the learning objectives for these courses to guide what future courses will look like;
    • EPA is challenged by sharing their process with regions/MJOs before putting content out more broadly; EPA is planning for the first time to roll out content to the regions first to get input before the more general release; will be an opportunity for input from state/local through the JTC to EPA on the process
    • Oil and gas course review from MARAMA serving as a case study for getting EPA to review MJO-developed material
    • Could use more people on the Curriculum WG to help out with the work; waiting for EPA to get through reviews on learning objectives
      • What’s the timing for this? First learning objectives will come out to the EPA regions next week, need to meet with regions before more details on the process;
      • How many courses/subject areas learning objectives are being worked on? Working first on ideal curriculum before looking at existing materials, looking to get this to the JTC in December/January; looking at existing training materials now and taking learning objectives from that material; will compile and look holistically at the learning objectives for the current curriculum
    • From the standpoint of working with regions, SMEs will probably go quickly, but regions may not care as much about the learning objectives because it hasn’t been their responsibility; they may want to understand these, but it’s the MJOs who have had the most experience with the learning objectives, more so than the regions; if this is the case, timelines will accelerate; don’t to wait around for nothing;

Interfaces between JTC Workgroups

  • How are you expecting to interface with other WGs? What information do you need, and when?
  • Curriculum: Worked with outreach on long-term priority planning; looking at past efforts from JTC WGs on what can be leveraged
  • Delivery: Looking to work with LMS and Curriculum on the delivery methods list

Training delivery methods presentation by EPA contractor

  • Zac to schedule a separate call in late November
  • Call will focus on methods for delivery and options, informed by delivery WG

Planning for face-to-face meeting

  • Reserved room at EPA RTP, need to narrow down; Feb 17 is a federal holiday, try to avoid
  • Propose a smaller steering committee to craft the agenda: EPA, 1 workgroup, + Zac & John; Mary Ann from EPA
  • Zac to send updated evaluation to steering committee for review/sign off; work with EPA to implement into LMS

September 12, 2019

Action Items

Attendees

Agenda

  • Communications and coordination between the work groups, explore current work group activities that intersect with other work groups (10 minutes)
  • Follow-up to last week's RTP meeting
  • Course update priorities, near-term needs (15 minutes)
  • EPA Training Roadmap comment planning, preparation for September 24 St. Comm. discussion of road map and feedback that is needed 5 minutes)
  • Curriculum development presentation by EPA (15 minutes)

Call Notes

  • John's pre-call charge to the WG co-leads:
I would like each work group to tabulate communication needs and overlaps (negative and positive) between workgroups that we need to start working on.  Please do so from your work group's perspective – what you can do to help other work groups and what they can do to help your work group.  Be prepared to suggest ways to ensure adequate communication and proper coordination and where there may be a need to refine the duties among the work groups.

Communications and coordination

  • How do states integrate their evaluations with the national efforts?
    • We need to determine what all of the different efforts are and how to pull these together
  • MARAMA is working on how to do online training, including accountability and assessment
    • Putting a paper together on how to do a good webinar, how to use interactive features, how to use pre- and post-test, need to review in the Delivery WG
  • Delivery WG
    • Expect to create a decision system for course developers to determine the best delivery format for their materials
    • Expect to create a list of features/parameters needed in an LMS to support the most common delivery formats for training
    • Need to interface with both LMS and Curriculum WG's on the timing of when they need information on delivery; what would be the best format to receive the information
    • Need to interface with both LMS and Curriculum WG's on their current thinking around delivery and where they see needing support in this area from the delivery WG
    • Overlap with the Planning and Support WG on instructor list, training materials evaluation, and communication of these items; need to better define the roles
    • Identified some communication breakdown with the LMS workgroup in their work to get information on delivery methods from an EPA contractor; would like to be pulled into these discussions
  • Curriculum WG
  • LMS WG
  • Planning and Support WG

RTP Meeting Follow Up

  • MJOs agreed to provide feedback by the end of September, will discuss at the 9/24 Steering Committee Mtg
  • EPA is not seeking a consolidated form of comments, looking for individual comments from MJOs; also gathering comments on the roadmap from the EPA regions

Course update priorities

  • What is the level of detail needed in defining the course priorities? Course only, or course + delivery format?
  • Need to get some priorities identified and quick progress made
  • See Curriculum WG priorities table of 25-30 courses; the table has high demand courses with materials that are outdated
  • Can EPA provide a list of the courses that they're working on
    • Debbie identified CEMS, AERMOD, Ambient QA/QC
    • FY2020 looking at permitting courses, working with AQPD to identify the trainings to work on in FY2020
  • EPA needs a list from the MJOs to develop longer term workplans
  • MARAMA will share their oil and gas course with the national community, hoping EPA can use an publish these materials
    • EPA would like to be involved early on in the course development process to contribute to learning objectives of the course; it will expedite the OAQPS review
    • Who is the contact point for reviewing the O&G course materials
  • It will be helpful for the MJOs to identify the courses that we plan to develop/update and get EPA plugged in early
  • Charge for MJOs to tabulate courses they are working on (or looking at working on) and send to EPA; want to make courses generally usable by the larger community
  • What happens next to develop the coordination process with EPA? Will add to the agenda for the 9/24 steering committee call
  • What are the 3 courses?


EPA Training Roadmap comment planning

  • Comments can run into October, if needed
  • MJOs will work through comments that seem to be in conflict, before sending to EPA
  • Timing of the delivery of these comments will be set on the 9/24 call


Curriculum development presentation by EPA

  • See slides
  • Identify learning objectives for all courses
  • Want to develop curricula that could be customized into a training program based on a agency/student needs
  • Develop draft curricula by early 2020

March 22, 2019

Action Items

Attendees

Agenda

Call Notes

  • What are all of the interfaces between the different WGs?
  • EPA advisors: Kristen advising on Curriculum; Adam and Eric advising on LMS WG; Adam advising on Steering Committee; need for advisors on Planning/Support and Delivery WGs
  • John needs to have conversations with the different WG leads to reconcile tasks; e.g., Planning/support WG a better place for evaluations than delivery WG
  • WG are tasked with developing their own scope, and providing updates to John

WG Updates

  • Planning and Support
    • Communication: it has to do with helping special communications, not that they will be communicating all training opportunities across the country, it's how compile and present needs for the training program; not to replace the role of the MJOs
    • While EPA won't co-lead, will be EPA advisors, need to set up call with OAQPS and all WGs to identify advisors:
    • Will need to have periodic updates on LMS functionality (updates and existing functions/refreshers)
    • Take on evaluation reports from delivery
    • Evaluations and reporting, developing examples for enhancing communication at the MJOs would be a value added role for this group
  • Curriculum
    • Need to get people who have interest in the subject matter, and people with needs for the subject matter
    • There is a good baseline of courses by functional area and APTI-Learn additional areas; started on creating a listing of courses that are outside of APTI-Learn that are being created by the MJOs; using pivot tables for grouping courses, where is there overlap by multiple function areas; what do we have and where do we want to go; what will be the future for training;
    • Michael Vince will be a co-lead of the curriculum WG
    • How does this WG mesh with the previous WG2? WG2 worked on leveraging state/locals for updating course updates; working on finding SLT staff on curriculum reviews, have had 3-4 organizational calls to create this process
    • CEM workgroup is a good model for how the process of updating courses will work
  • Delivery
    • Knowledge transfer, how do we best transfer information to create knowledge; includes not only methods, but also what's going to be needed in the future?
    • Reviewed scope and identified tasks that would take less effort (by carrying forward work that's already been done) vs those tasks that would be more labor intensive; we identified task 5 as being the biggest challenge, need expertise to help us figure out what the possibilities are for delivering training (e.g., blended learning)
    • Need to recruit learning experts
    • Survey what's currently out there for online courses
    • Develop the ask for recruiting at the MJOs, and states
  • LMS
    • Looking at schedule for LMS update, current contract expires May 2021
    • need to gather criteria by this summer, have these criteria finalized by next fall
    • procurement process with gov't needs to be considered, including what the options are for LMS
    • Schedule to get feedback from workgroup by July
    • EPA has contracting funds to create a fundamentals of LMS primer; this primer can be delivered to a wider audience
    • Will need to interface with other WGs on criteria for the LMS

February 7 2019

Action Items

  • Zac: Schedule a standing monthly meeting for the Steering Committee
  • John: prepare a presentation for the JTC meeting on the new structure, reorganization, and recruitment of WG leads/members
  • Phil: answer nomination for the Curriculum WG co-lead
  • Adam: designate an EPA co-lead for the steering committee
  • Adam: designate EPA advisors/co-leads on Communications, Delivery, and LMS WGs

Attendees

Zac, Adam, Kara, MaryAnn, John, Doug, Phil, Brian, Jeff

Agenda

  • Review previous call notes and action items
  • Decide on steering committee co-leads
  • Review revised JTC straw proposal and new JTC structure; discuss leadership on different workgroups/teams
  • 2019 JTC workplan and role of the steering committee
    • Develop brief charges for each of the JTC workgroups (see John’s straw proposal)
  • What is the message about the steering committee/JTC reorganization that we will present on the JTC call next week?

Call Notes

Previous Call Action Items

  • John: update Straw Proposal, send to Zac for review; circulate to this group; status: done, see attached
  • Zac: develop a conceptual model of the new JTC structure; status: covered by John’s straw proposal table
  • MaryAnn: check about EPA involvements in steering committee leadership, and EPA involvement in the steering committee calls; status: done
  • Zac: try to schedule a meeting before the JTC call next week; status: done

Decide on steering committee co-leads

  • EPA will get back to us on who can co-lead, either Adam or MaryAnn
  • John to co-lead on the MJO side; endorsed by the group
  • Zac to help with logistics

Review revised JTC straw proposal

  • John: should try to streamline workgroup names to help with communications; does course library maint move to needs assessment?; question about having contractors involved in the course development workgroup, may be a conflict of interest to have them involved in planning
 Proposal for Workgroup Rename
 * Steering Committee 
 * Communications & Needs Assessment Workgroup = Communications WG
 ** Coordination Team
 ** Subject Matter (e.g., Modeling) Teams
 * Course Library, Updates, & Development Workgroup = Curriculum WG
 * Training Delivery Work Group = Delivery WG
 * Learning Management System Work Group = LMS WG
  • Adam: issue with contractors being involved in driving work that they would be contracted to do, but could help by reporting to WG; workgroups are a way for succession planning, can workgroups help to develop people into new roles?; training delivery: delivery of training (online, distance learning, etc) may be moved into the LMS group, look at the LMS in terms of what do we need it to do, including delivery
  • John: can share responsibilities between workgroups; need to have a vision for the LMS before selecting the system; hope there will be interface with EPA along the way in the LMS visioning/procurement/development process; can we circumvent any restrictions (contractual?) that happened during the last LMS development cycle; there will need to be interface between the delivery and LMS WGs
  • Adam: looking into LMS contractual issues that came up last time, trying to avoid issues in the past; need to exercise every option so that the MJOs/states can provide input to EPA before the RFP is written
  • Phil: there are active workgroups in the JTC now, e.g., WG2 is working on using the NACAA and AAPCA committees to do course updates, how do we respect the ongoing work of those WGs?
  • Kara: WG 3 lead, wrapping up and see a lot of overlap with communications and needs assessment
  • Zac: Need to reorganize the current WGs into the new structure, continue to support ongoing work and decommission groups who's work is complete
  • Reorganize JTC:
    • WG2 (course updates) --> Curriculum WG
    • WG3 (instructors) --> Communications WG
    • WG4 (LMS) --> LMS WG
    • WG5 (courses) --> Communications WG
    • WG6(inventory of courses) --> Curriculum WG
    • WG7 (prioritization) --> Curriculum WG
  • Need to add description of scope for the steering committee on the straw proposal, e.g., discuss/monitor training resources with EPA and facilitate discussions between WGs

WG/team leadership

  • Proposal to have EPA co-lead + state/MJO co-lead on each WG
  • EPA can't commit the staff to co-lead all of the WGs; don't have the people
  • Can EPA be included as an advisor, if they don't have leadership role? Find a co-lead who is a good leader, and a second co-lead who is more of a subject matter expert/practitioner
  • Need to get EPA's participation, when possible, at full depth engaging and leading/active in the WGs; EPA team is building now and will need time to develop the staff to be involved
  • NESCAUM and WESTAR endorse the new structure
  • Is there an issue with AAPCA/NACAA being involved as co-leads in the WGs? It's a resources issue, extend the net as widely as possible, there is no issue here
 WG Leadership Proposal
 * Curriculum WG: Kristen Rhea (EPA) and Phil Assmus (NACAA) nominated, but he needs to think about it
 * Communications WG: Kara Murphy (NESCAUM) and ??? 
 * Training Delivery WG: Zac Adelman(LADCO) and ???
 * LMS WG: Julie (MARAMA) and Kevin Vaughn (VA), need to confirm

JTC call message

  • John to develop some bullets and send to steering committee for review
  • Bottom line is to convey the objectives and structure, WG interfaces, needs for leaders and recruitment of members, talk about stimulating interest

Final thoughts

  • Need further conversations on EPA resources, follow up on the meeting in November; organize this through the steering committee;
  • EPA will put forward names for advisory roles, possible future co-leads

February 5 2019

Action Items

  • John: update Straw Proposal, send to Zac for review; circulate to this group
  • Zac: develop a conceptual model of the new JTC structure
  • MaryAnn: check about EPA involvements in steering committee leadership, and EPA involvement in the steering committee calls
  • Zac: try to schedule a meeting before the JTC call next week

Attendees

Zac, Adam, Kara, MaryAnn, John, Michael, Phil, Brian, Jeff, Julie

Agenda

  • Steering Committee charge/scope and structure
  • Communication principles
  • Membership: MJOs + National Orgs + EPA, do we need a state? Or trainer rep?
  • 2019 JTC workplan and role of the steering committee
    • Develop a workplan template and scope for the training material subject matter teams
    • Develop a workplan (process/timeline) for LMS upgrade
    • Engage with EPA on resources, funding, in-kind contributions, allocation
    • Coordinate on next regional surveys for setting training priorities

Call Notes

Steering Committee charge/scope and structure

  • JTC was formed to create a structure for collecting information on training that was national in scope, gathering information on national training needs, including courses, instructors, logistics, and making decisions on how to prioritize work to grow/improve the program
  • Hourglass model envisions the JTC as the top of the hourglass, the collection point in the process, and funneling that a steering committee that works to organize the inputs, and set priorities; the steering committee then distributes these needs into actions/workgroups that draw from a broader community of expertise to accomplish the goals of improving the training program; the work of these groups are funneled back through the steering committee for review/evaluation, and back to the JTC for distribution to the SLT community through the national training program
  • Steering committee would sort through this information, and prioritize; develop a coherent national training strategy, convene workgroups, and provide guidance/support to accomplish the goals of the strategy
  • Create structure under the steering committee that work on actions and activities, possibly organized by functional areas, push out work products, include JTC and potentially other active/ancillary participants in these workgroups
  • MaryAnn: in working with WG2, a chart was developed to visually represent this process (19 July 2017 Training Strategy straw proposal); John to resend to group for review, actual workgroups TBD, will change from the original proposal based on the current needs/direction of the community

Communication principles

  • This wiki can be used for notes and distributing information/materials across the JTC
  • Need to develop this area further: what are the rules of engagement?

Membership: MJOs + National Orgs + EPA

  • Do we need state reps on the steering committee? Yes, to ground truth the activities of the steering committee, it would be good to include the agencies that we serve
  • AAPCA and NACAA membership could serve a dual purpose, both as national and state reps
  • Request that the AAPCA and NACAA training co-chairs participate as state reps; can we get all four involved? need to respect their time availability
  • Are there other strong active state/local counterparts who we would consider?
    • Julie: helps to have a smaller group in a steering committee
    • John: steering committee members may need to be assigned to track what's going on in the course update workgroup, rather than have co-leads of the different workgroups on the steering committee
    • Zac: could have a structure where the workgroup co-leads get assigned to the steering committee; may create a larger number of people than we want in the steering committee
    • John: course update group needs a couple of strong leaders to organize a larger number of workgroups and heavy work load; trying to limit duplication of effort and focus the coordination activities
    • Julie: let's figure out what the subgroups are going to be, and then come back to determine representation
    • John: don't have a revised strategic plan, need to conceptually go through the plan to help solve the organizational structure; at some point we need to develop a revised strategy that we work from
    • Who else gets involved? National EPA, regional offices, contractors? Will be determined the membership by scope and scale of the workgroup efforts; only other EPA office involved in JTC is OECA, their targeted audience is EPA folks, may not need to be on the steering committee

JTC Structure

  • See John's updated National Air Quality Training Program straw proposal
 Proposed new JTC committees/workgroups
 * Steering Committee
 * Communications & Needs Assessment WG
 * Instructional Services WG
 * Learning Management System (LMS) WG
 * Course Library, Updates, Development (Library) WG
   - Library Coordination WG
   - Subject Matter Teams: Intro to Air Pollution, Pollution Control, Ambient Monitoring, Emissions, Modeling, Planning, Permitting, Inspection/Enforcement, HAPs, Stationary Sources, Source Sampling/Monitoring, Mobile Sources, Climate Change
  • Course Library, Updates, & Development WG
    • Do we need a single organizing group for course updates with sub groups working on topic areas; need a coordination effort above the topic area groups (see proposed structure above)
    • Coordination level in this WG will organize the subject matter teams; need to isolate the JTC steering committee from being too involved in the minutiae of the course updates
    • Coordination layer produces more structure, but it could help with organizing the broad work under 10+ subject matter areas; can we expect that people are going to be able to commit to the level of work needed to get this work done?
    • Concerns about the large scope of this WG, need to be careful about the organization, commitment, and oversight
    • As JTC is not staffed by subject matter experts, looking to this structure to engage/involve experts in reviewing and updating training materials
    • Will subject matter team co-leads really be interested in participating in discussions with other teams? Coordination committee will need to have a charge to constrain the conversations, to the extent possible, to general issues that apply across WGs
    • Coordination committee would probably be a more appropriate place for contractors and states; need to identify the charge of the coordination WG
    • Library WG will focus on identifying priorities and mechanics of course updates, not deployment
  • LMS WG
    • Engage with EPA on plans for LMS updates
  • Communications and Needs Assessment WG
    • Organize periodic needs assessment through the states/MJOs
  • Instructional Services WG
    • Focus on e-learning, distance learning, deployment of materials
    • Rename to Training Delivery?

General Topics/Next Steps

  • Organize another call before the JTC meeting next Tuesday; focus of the call will be to look at the proposed structure of the new JTC WGs and figure out how many people are needed to coordinate, think about co-leads, and set a series of charges for the co-leads to begin forming these WGs
  • Who will lead the Steering Committee? Does it need to include an MJO and EPA person, or could it be just MJOs? MaryAnn will check with Adam and report back
  • How important is it to work around Adam's schedule? Can we have meetings if he is not available? Who else is critical to have on the calls?
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