More than 325 participants attended the 2016 Transportation Association of Canada (TAC) Spring Technical Meetings in Ottawa, April 6-12.
Over 50 committees met, including project steering committees, councils/task forces, standing and sub-committees as well as other groups including the TAC Foundation and the TAC Board of Directors. TAC was happy to host at least 175 people at Saturday night’s member networking reception, to enjoy some food and provide an opportunity to chat with new and old friends.
Key Announcements
Several important announcements were shared by TAC’s Executive Director, Sarah Wells, including:
- A new five-year strategic plan is being developed to set priorities, provide direction, focus resources, and strengthen operations. A consulting firm, Capital Park, has been hired to support the development of the plan, which will be presented to the Board for approval in April 2017. The plan will clearly describe TAC’s mandate and role; include a vision statement that is aspirational and a mission statement that is inspirational; and be based on input from TAC’s Board, volunteers, members and staff regarding the organization’s strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats. More information about the strategic planning process will be shared with TAC members and stakeholders soon.
- The Climate Change Task Force, whose mandate has come to an end, will be transformed into a new structure, ensuring that climate change maintains a prominent and integrated role with various TAC councils. The mandate of the new structure will be to share information among TAC groups and to directly address technical issues relating to climate change mitigation and adaptation. Proposed terms of reference will be reviewed, as will the framework and reporting mechanism for the new entity. The transformed group is expected to include both existing task force members as well as others with interest and expertise in the subject, and will meet in the fall, which occur in conjunction with the 2016 TAC Conference & Exhibition.
- Collaborative agreements were renewed with several key stakeholders for a three-year term including the Canadian Urban Transit Association, ITS Canada and the Canadian Institute of Transportation Engineers.
- To assist councils, task forces and committees in encouraging active participation by volunteers, managing committee membership and ensuring sustainable leadership, the TAC Secretariat is researching good governance practices. Input from councils and committees will be sought in the coming months with the objective of making guidance and reference material available later this year.
- Online and onsite training sessions were offered to council, committee and task force members on theTAC SharePoint Forum, an online community where each group can post meeting information, collaborate on documents, engage in online conversation and conduct user polls. SharePoint is a secure, cloud-based service hosted by Microsoft designed to store, organize and share information. An online link to TAC SharePoint is posted on every page of the Councils and Committees section of TAC’s website.
- Following the launch of TAC’s Learning Program in mid-January 2016, work is in progress to deliver additional webinars on rectangular flashing beacons, asset management and roundabout design practices. Councils and committees can propose webinar topics and speakers by completing an online topic proposal form, available on the TAC website. A list of current and upcoming webinars is also posted online.
- Ten English and nine French publications have been released since April 2015. All of these can be found in the online Publications Catalogue, and ordered through TAC’s Bookstore. Secretariat staff provides updates on these, as well as the status of publications currently in production, via a publication tracking report made available to keep councils and committees abreast of new and upcoming releases.
- There are 12 projects currently in progress, each described at http://tac-atc.ca/en/projects/progress. Of particular interest may be the new edition of the Geometric Design Guide for Canadian Roads, which will soon be presented to the Chief Engineers’ Council (CEC) for their review and approval. Review by the CEC is expected to take several months, with resulting edits and preparation for publication likely to take several more. More information will be communicated as this important document nears completion. There are also five projects in development, described at http://tac-atc.ca/en/projects/seeking-funding
- Two new programs will be piloted as part of the 2016 TAC Conference & Exhibition: a TAC Student Grant program and a program providing funding to support the involvement of international speakers at the conference. Information about the Student Grant program is now online, and applications are being accepted until August 15. The International Speaker Program offers funding to help attract and encourage the involvement of international experts in TAC Conference panel discussions or workshops. Interested council or committee members should contact Jacques Maltais, Sr. Events Manager, for details as applications must be received by May 16, 2016.
A brief survey was sent to all TAC 2016 spring meeting attendees to help the Association collect and analyze valuable feedback provided by the attendees. Responses are due back by midnight, Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday, May 3.
TAC’s Fall Technical Meetings will take place in Toronto, September 22-26, in conjunction with the 2016 TAC Conference & Exhibition.
