P2Rx meeting
Dallas, Texas
May 21-23,
2001
EPA Region 6
offices
Attending: Regions 1-2 - Andy Bray and Terri Goldberg
Regions
3-4 - John Calcagni and Sharon
Johnson
Region 5 -
Deb Jacobson, Gary Miller, Todd Schumacher, Bob Iverson
Region
6 - Ed Gonzalez, Fernando Parra
Region
7 - Rick Yoder, Kathy Cardwell
Region
8 - Mike Vogel, Laura Estes
Region
9 - Isao Kobashi
Region
10 - Crispin Stutzman
USEPA -
Beth Anderson
Guests
Sam
Coleman, EPA Region 6; John Cross, USEPA; Scott Butner, Greg Geyer
Day 1 - May 21
Sam
Coleman, head of EPA Region 6, welcomed the group to Dallas and spoke about the
other Pollution Prevention (P2) events taking place in Dallas this week. He urged P2Rx to work closely with industry
to inform people about the P2 efforts underway across the nation. He said that industry feels it does not get
the credit it deserves for the P2 efforts it makes. Coleman also urged P2Rx to count energy and water conservation
when calculating the benefits of P2. He
said energy and water will be increasingly important issues in the future.
Center reports
All
of the Centers reported on their recent activities. Written reports, newsletters, brochures, etc. that were handed
out will be included with this written report.
Region
10 - Crispin said that PPRC has had some staff changes recently and told who is
now working for the Center. (Note, Crispin's report was before the announcement
that came later in the conference that Blair Henry has resigned as Executive
Director of PPRC. Blair's successor is
Chris Wiley, a long time PPRC employee who can be reached at cwiley@pprc.org.) The Northwest portion of the country is experiencing a drought
and hydro is the chief electrical source in the area so there could be power
problems soon. PPRC hopes to have some
reports on the issue up on its website next month. She reported that PPRC also is developing a "measure"
database for its projects.
Region
9 - Isao reported that energy is the major environmental issue now in his
region. Industries are rushing to find
alternative power supplies, and some of these have fairly high pollution
factors so pollution issues will get worse as the energy crisis grows. Isao said that his region will have a
conference in the California Wine County on October 24-26. They are planning on 250 participants. Isao reported that some of the largest firms
in the Silicon Valley are working on the new "Sustainable Silicon
Valley" initiative. The firms are
finding that developing an Energy Management System (EMS) goes a long way to
better environmental management. He
said that Regions 9 and 10 are working together on the "e-waste"
system. His region also is working on
hospital P2, and plans to develop information on the issue to put it up on the
web.
Region
8 - Mike reported that there has been tremendous population growth in the
"front range" of the Rocky Mountains. Tellus has given a grant to Peaks to Prairies to study growth
problems and community development in this area. They will be trying to put P2 issues into the front of community
development planning. Mike also
reported that Peaks to Prairies is working on a "clean, quiet
snowmobile" project for Yellowstone National Park. There are some three million visitors to Yellowstone
each year, and efforts are underway to get information on P2 issues at the park
in the hands of each visitor. Mike adds
that because of the drought in the area, there are major dangers of forest
fires again this year.
Region
7 - Rick discussed his Topic Hubs and said they are going well. His Center is trying to track where users
are going on the web site so that news stories can be fine-tuned specifically
for the user. He also has placed
"footers" on each page to remind users of upcoming meeting and other
sessions. Rick reminded everyone that
they can be a "Google" search site for free if they are connected to
a University. P2RIC also is in the
process of putting digital videos up on its website.
Region
6 - Eddie reported that his Center is moving beyond information to providing
assistance. Mexico has asked if the
Southwest P2 Center could help develop assistance centers for Mexican
industry. Mexico is experiencing huge
factory growth because of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement). Southwest P2Center also is developing a GIS
site for the trucking industry so truckers can see where all the official waste
sites are located. The information will
be in both Spanish and English. Eddie also he is making a special effort to go
to all of the state's in his region to get them involved in P2Rx. He is making progress in making state
agencies more involved in P2 efforts.
He now has 3,000 schools in his "Watt Watcher's" program where
students can identify waste in schools and inform school officials how they
could be corrected.
Region
5 - Deb reported that the GLRPPR meeting will be in July in Madison,
Wisconsin. There has been a lot of
interest in the meeting, and there should be good participation. She said that
some design improvements are being developed for the GLRPPR website. She said a project on Mercury reduction and
health care P2 is underway and this will be a Topic Hub before long. GLRPPR also is working on a P2 comic book
project with AWMA. The Topic Hub on
printing is being populated, and quality review of the material is the next
step. Deb has gone to each state's
website to find information on regulatory integration, printing and mercury for
use in the Topic Hubs. And, more than
200 contacts, including industry specialists have been placed into the contact
database.
Regions
3-4 - John reported that for the P2 Infohouse, 28 industrial sectors have been
done, and two more are in the works to be done by the end of the summer. He said the P2 Infohouse has over 10,000
references. He is creating expert mail
groups in his states to keep them informed and to help keep this information up
to date. He also has developed peer
review workgroups in his states to review quality help keep it current. John
reports that his search engine is getting more "hits" and his
"Ask Rudy" service is getting several call daily. His vendor database now has 4,000
contacts. His Region also will be hosting
a DoD meeting in Atlanta on June 24-26.
Region
1 & 2 - Andy reported that Karen Thomas is the new school education
coordinator in his office. He said he
would use information from a new manual that will be printed soon to populate
the Metal Fabrication Topic Hub. Region 1 & 2 also is looking at an Innovate
P2 "profile" and other ways to make their website more attractive.
Terri
reported that New Jersey is now back as a member of NEWMOA after being separate
from the group for awhile. She said the
NEWMOA annual report is now up on the website.
Terri said a thermometer exchange in her region has been a good
opportunity to educate the public. One
exchange done in Vermont was utilized by 1/3 of the state's population. NEWMOA has launched a new Mercury listserv. The region is developing some P2 efforts for
marinas and is working on P2 efforts in schools from Kindergarten through High
School. It also is developing an
Environmental Management Accounting workshop with the EPA.
USEPA report
Beth
Anderson reported that the PPIS money available to P2Rx has been cut about
2-3%. The P2Rx Center grants have been
read by all of the EPA Project Officers.
Beth feels this will provide better understanding among the project
officers of what other centers are doing and how it all fits together into a
national effort. She said the reviewers
liked the quality of the Centers' documents.
Comments will be coming from the Project Officers soon and some of the
Centers will have to modify their grant proposals. She said the Project Officers want to see how the various Centers
are working together on the Topic Hubs and want to see further cooperation
between Centers on making the Topic Hubs a valuable resource. A condition will be added to the award
notices that funding is contingent on delivery of Topic Hubs in the current grants
by September 30, 2001.
Beth
said that the two remaining proposals for the Program Manager position
beginning in 2002 will be re-examined to see if they need to be changed because
of items that are agreed upon during the session. She will have a conference call with those people reviewing the
proposals at 1 p.m. EST on June 12. The scoring mechanism that will be used in
judging the proposals was distributed.
There was discussion on the percentages given for each portion of the
mechanism. A slightly modified form was
agreed upon.
Mission and Strategic
Planning
The
planning session began with a discussion on the P2Rx Mission Statement. There are several Mission Statements that
appear on various websites, publications, etc.
The group discussed what it wanted in a Mission Statement, and the
following statement was agreed upon:
"P2Rx is a national
network of regional centers dedicated to improving the dissemination of
pollution prevention information in the service provider community."
It
was agreed that this Mission Statement should be placed on the P2Rx website and
used in publications where it is appropriate.
Participants
next discussed the goals of the organization.
Discussion centered on the ten general goals sent out by Jini Cook
earlier. Those present felt that those
goals could be combined into four goals:
1.
Provide
seamless access to high quality, synthesized, peer reviewed P2 information and
expertise
2.
Minimize
duplication of effort by developing information, organizing outreach efforts
and producing publications
3.
Build
a distribution channel for hard copy materials and access to electronic P2
information
4.
Promote
networking of the service provider community
Based
on those goals, the following objectives and tasks were developed.
Goal 1 Provide seamless access to high quality, synthesized, peer
reviewed P2 information and expertise
Objective 1.1 – By
September 30, ’01 all initial topic hubs will be implemented and
on-line
Objective 1.2 – By
_____ implement a consistent format and set of standards for building topic
hubs, programs database and other products
Objective 1.3 – By
______ adopt and implement a minimum quality assurance protocol
Task
1.3.1. – Document current practices
Objective 1.4 – Coordinate
the collection and addition of information added to topic hubs, programs database
and other products
Task
1.4.1 – Conduct a gap analysis
Objective 1.5 – Expand
the measurements used to include more outcome measures
Goal 2 Minimize duplication of effort by developing
information, organizing outreach efforts and producing publications
Objective 2.1 – Communicate
among Centers to establish a process to select topic hubs and a rationalization
scheme
Task
2.1.1 – Conduct annual assessment of accomplishments and plan for new
Task
2.1.2 – Develop an organization scheme of topics and subtopics
Objective 2.2 – Develop
an organization hierarchy for all of the information on the P2Rx web site and
regional centers web sites
Objective 2.3 – Identify
and share products of mutual interest
Objective 2.4 – Foster
collaboration among regional Centers for implementing topic hubs and other
products
Goal 3 Build a distribution channel for hard copy materials
and access to electronic P2 information
Objective 3.1 - Foster
content sharing among P2Rx Centers and with targeted client groups
Objective 3.2 – Use
the programs database to create topical communities of mutual interest through
specialized listerves
Objective 3.3 – Identify
hardcopy repositories available to and used by our clients
Objective 3.4 – Make
all national products available on the P2Rx web site
Objective 3.5 – Identify
key distribution targets and channels – federal, state and local
Goal 4 Promote networking of the service provider community
Objective 4.1 – Pursue
regional opportunities to facilitate networking
Objective 4.2 – For
each topic hub identify strategic national partners and develop collaborative
relationships
Objective 4.3 – Identify
local priorities and convene forums to determine how to meet their needs
Goal
teams were assigned to further develop the objectives and tasks for each goal.
Goal 1 - Fernando, Todd
& Kathy
Goal 2 - Sharon, Rick, Andy
& Kathy
Goal 3 - Fernando, Crispin,
Todd & Laura
Goal 4 - Andy, Isao, Mike
& Ed
Day 2 - May 22
Functional Specifications
Isao
lead the discussion about this topic.
There was general agreement on the document that was presented, with a
few minor word changes and additions.
The document will be re-written by Bob and Isao and posted on the P2Rx
web site.
Content Sharing
Gary
Miller led the discussion on content sharing.
There was discussion on how much content should be shared and in what
manner. It was determined that the
solicitation should include the language on content sharing that we agreed to
in the Functional Specifications document.
It was agreed that any content sharing plan must make certain that
everything is searchable by full text and field; e.g. author, title, abstract,
keyword. The web group will meet
tonight and discuss the technical aspects of content sharing.
The
content solicitation will be re-written and sent to the Centers for a vote via
e-mail. Rick agreed to take the lead in
creation of a "style guideline" to be used in Content Sharing. He
will work with Kathy, Laura and Andy on this assignment.
Web Committee report
The
Web Committee met the previous night, and Andy reported on items
discussed. The group talked about the
process for adding terms. Kathy has
drafted a decision tree that will be used in the process. The group is modifying a list of vocabulary
terms on specific subjects that are not covered by the current list of
vocabulary words. It was felt that when
a Center is initially creating a Hub, it should review the Thesaurus, select
key words and then if necessary Kathy and the others will add the new
terms. This should not be done after
the Topic Hub documents have been catalogued.
The check should be performed at the beginning of the process.
Fernando
and Andy will create an electronic version of the Thesaurus that will be placed
on the P2Rx web site. It also will be
integrated into the various Centers' sites.
Other
topics discussed included:
¨
Rate
a Link - this is mainly ready to go.
Some minor details are being addressed
¨
Rate
this Function - There are two pieces to this; a "rate this page" and
a "rate this function." Which option to use has not yet been
resolved.
¨
Integration
of Hubs and Programs database - Fernando has worked to integrate these two. A
mechanism has been created to show programs from other Center's sites when a
user selects "Where to go for help." It also will show regional and
national programs that have contacts on that topic. It will sort these alphabetically. This program also includes a
feature where if there is a bad link, the system will send an e-mail to the
regional Center's web master and will send a message identifying the possible
problem to the original author of the Hub.
¨
Todd
has agreed to create a task checklist to accompany Hub guidance documents. This will give step by step directions for
implementation of a Hub.
What are priorities
concerning the Hubs in the next six months?
Participants
felt that the following items are a priority after the first set of Topic Hubs
go on-line on September 30, 2001.
2
The
matrix that appears on the P2Rx website needs to be updated
2
The
web group needs to develop a Topic Hub management document. It would outline
items such as the checklist, maintenance of a Hub, Hub populating guide, etc.
2
An
assessment team should look at the first set of Hubs to review them, suggest
ways they could be "cleaned-up", look at strategic opportunities to
use the information on the Hubs, etc.
This group will be Isao, Mike and Gary Hunt
2
The
Topic Hubs should be demonstrated at an upcoming NPPR meeting
2
A
process should be developed for selecting new Topic Hubs. Rick, John and Andy will work on this
2
P2Rx
needs to continue its efforts to expand communication with the USEPA
2
A
marketing strategy needs to be developed concerning the Topic Hubs
Future Meetings
The
group discussed the need for a meeting in the Fall of 2001. Members will be on the lookout for meetings
where we could combine our resources.
Rick said it is important to meet early enough so that the Centers can
develop a joint funding plan for the next year to present to USEPA as a
group. He suggested late October or
early November. Isao said he is having
a meeting in California in October, which might be a good opportunity. He will send additional information out
concerning this session.
Other
possible dates for future meetings were discussed, including during the SBAP
meeting in Chicago July 1-3, 2001; the NPPR meeting in Portland, Oregon in
April of 2002; and the multi-state working group meeting Rick will hold in
Nebraska in September of 2002.
Prioritizing Strategic
Action Items
The
group was asked to come up with ideas for action items and products that it
would like to see P2Rx work on in the future.
Ideas presented were:
ã Develop P2 news by topic
format to put on web sites, listservs, and other collections.
ã Target services providers
like OECA, DoD. Develop a product or
service we can use to work our way into their infrastructure
ã Build on/expand the National
P2 Electronic Library. How do we make
it stronger, what do we feed to the collection?
ã Listservs - examine their
effectiveness, should some of them be consolidated
ã Build a mechanism for
systematic feedback through surveys, focus groups, etc.
ã Look for innovative P2
technologies and link with the "Technology Diffusion" initiative
currently underway
ã Local government capacity
building - develop "how to do it" plan, provide training for this,
training could even be on-line
ã Integrate P2 information
technology into schools such as community colleges
ã Develop a one-stop locator
for shared documents
ã Develop sharing of
successful strategies from Centers for regional capacity building
ã Develop search engines
ã Create new web tools for
site management delivery
ã Make P2Rx web site more of a
hub than an administrative/management tool for members only
ã Do more marketing, one item
is to do a systematic registration with Search Engines so that P2Rx comes up
higher on searches
ã Integrate energy savings and
water conservation measurements into Topic Hubs and other information developed
by Centers
Participants
did multi-voting on the topics. The
topics of Search engines and Develop P2Rx web site each got six votes. The topics of P2 News, target service
providers, expand the national library, and link with innovative technology
diffusion each got five votes. The
other topics received two or less votes. Volunteers were sought for each of the
top vote getting issues. The volunteers
and topics are:
Each
group is to characterize the product and how it addresses one of the P2Rx
goals. The groups also should recommend
if P2Rx can do the project next year or in the future, and whether funding
should be sought for the project. Each
group should prepare a one-page document on the topic and send it to Jini Cook
by Friday, June 29.
Search engine
Participants
had a general discussion on installing a search engine on the Topic Hubs. Discussion centered upon:
è
Having
a Yahoo or Google style index that goes across all web sites and ties together
the various Center sites
è
Need
to explore "Dog Pile" type search capabilities
è
Need
to explore opportunities to incorporate with search engines on other service
provider's sites.
è
Check
on other URL's to include in the search function/scope need criteria
Governance Document
The
changes made in the Governance Document during the last Administrative Call
were reviewed. There were further
discussions concerning language in the document. Several changes were approved to make the document simpler. It
also was agreed that the language agreed to in the P2Rx Executive Committee
document should be incorporated into the Governance Document. Bob and Crispin will rewrite the document
based on the changes approved at this meeting.
It will then be sent to the Centers for an e-mail vote.
P2Rx Executive Committee
Gary
Miller passed out an updated version of this document based on input from Isao and
Gary Hunt. In discussion, the group decided that the committee's duties could
be simplified. Duties 2,4 and 8 were
eliminated. It was decided that the
P2Rx Centers would select the members of this committee, which will be
rotated. Bob will rewrite the document
as agreed upon by the Centers and incorporate it into the Governance Document.
Administrative Process
Overview
The
document prepared by Jini was discussed.
It was felt that the language where it says "Administrative
Group" should now be changed to "Executive Committee." WMRC will re-write this document based on
suggested changes and using wording from the Executive Committee and Governance
documents.
P2Rx Survey/questionnaires
for our customers - Mike Vogel led this discussion
The
discussion was about how this needs to be an on-going process so P2Rx can
establish a baseline result.
n
There
needs to be a mechanism to actively receive input from our customers
n
P2Rx
needs to identify service providers that we want to query
n
Need
to determine what they know about P2Rx
n
Use
the feedback to act as a marketing and a measurement tool
Gary
Hunt and Mike Vogel will draft a baseline-input form that all Centers can
use. The goal will be to address
awareness and needs. Beth warned that
EPA has severe legal limitations on the amount of surveying we can do with P2Rx
funds or under the P2Rx effort.
Partnership document
Andy
presented the document for review by the group. No action was taken on the document.
Day 3 - May 23
Andy
reviewed what the web group discussed in its meeting last night. He said the group decided that the content
sharing solicitation should read that proposals must respond to the Functional
Specifications passed by P2Rx. That
way, all respondents will be working from the same information. The solicitation also should be put out
without the $4,000 price tag placed on it.
The web group felt that it was important to see what someone might
charge for the work instead of setting the price up front. The group also felt that to get content
sharing completely developed it might cost more than $4,000, and the extra will
have to come from other sources available to P2Rx or the individual centers.
Andy Bray, Todd Schumacher and Gary Miller will rewrite the content sharing
solicitation document.
Andy
reported that more work needs to be done on the Topic Hub management
document. He felt that this work can be
done over the listserv.
Marketing of P2Rx - Mike Vogel leading
discussion
The
group felt that P2Rx needs to decide
·
What
is the product we are selling?
·
Who
is the audience we want to reach?
·
What
is the message we want to convey to the audience?
·
What
media will be used?
·
P2Rx
needs to examine the customers and determine what the customers need from us in
terms of publicity media and message
·
The
"P2Rx Brand" needs to be marketed as the source for impartial,
trusted pollution prevention information
Ideas
discussed included:
K A brochure that can have
inter-changeable parts that can be used in different ways for a variety of
audiences
K A standardized Powerpoint
presentation that is available on the web - anyone speaking about P2Rx can use
it and we can be certain that the same message is being put out everywhere
K Distribute notification of
all P2Rx news items on all of our list servs
K Put notification of all news
items on the P2Rx website and make available for all center's individual web
sites
K Develop a P2Rx information
sheet for inclusion in the EPA pocketbook
K Develop a P2Rx newsletter
(electronic and printed)
K The P2Rx website needs to be
continually examined to see that it is customer-friendly, interesting and
attractive. Also, methods to get P2Rx
site higher on search engines will be explored.
K Prepare canned messages
about pollution prevention topics and get them to various news media. That way when a story comes up about a
pollution issue, reporters will have an "expert" source to use from
P2Rx.
K P2Rx should work at getting
its message out to trade associations
The
discussion also turned to the Topic Hubs.
There were thoughts that some type of "roll-out" announcement
is needed for when the Topic Hubs come on-line. There was discussion about an overall "Topic Hub"
announcement in time for the October coming on-line. But there was no agreement on the timing of such an
announcement. The group also felt that
a Topic Hub template needs to be developed so that when a new topic hub comes
on line it lists what is now available, what is featured in the new hub and
what benefit it would have to customers.
The center that populates the Topic Hub will provide the information for
the announcement.
A
work group was put together to explore marketing issues. The group will be Mike Vogel, Bob Iverson
and Rick Yoder.
Program database - Laura Estes leading
discussion
A
task list for the program database as it relates to the Topic Hubs is being
developed. The Web Group will discuss
it during its upcoming conference calls.
It is expected that a draft of a document listing deadlines for this
project will be completed by the end of June.
Technology presentations
Scott
Butner informed the group about what he is doing in terms of content sharing
with the National Compliance Assistance Clearinghouse. He said the Clearinghouse uses a "Yahoo
style" directory and currently has 4,000 links. He hopes to have 10,000 links by the end of 2001. He would like
to get his site and the P2Rx site linked.
Scott also spoke about the controlled vocabulary that he uses. He said it is not as extensive as the
controlled vocabulary recently approved by P2Rx.
Greg
Geyer said that others find P2Rx valuable as a distribution channel. He cited the example of how CCAR is working
with Toyota to provide information to its dealers as a way we can work more
closely with clients. He feels there
are plenty of potential partners for P2Rx, but they need to be identified and
the products needs to be packaged in a way the partner can use.
Later,
Greg and Scott continued a discussion on technical issues with Andy, Rick,
Crispin (and Bob for portions of it).
They went into detail about developing the "News"
function. Greg currently is doing this
for the GLRPPR site and he will develop how much it would cost for P2Rx and for
each center. Greg and Scott will design
a system strawman to present to the web group in the future. Greg will give a
walk through of the system at a future conference call for the web group.
John Cross presentation
John
Cross of the USEPA spoke to the group about some of the developments in the
organization. He said the Bush
Administration is putting an increasing emphasis on
"innovation." Although he
said what constitute innovation is not clearing defined, there may be ways that
P2Rx can find funding through this new emphasis.
John
said there is a new initiative in Congress to provide $25 million to states for
compliance assistance. He said this
could include Pollution Prevention efforts and provide programs and funding for
P2Rx.
John
also mentioned the following in answer to questions from participants:
¨
The
"match" required with EPA grants is much despised and there are
efforts to eliminate it. However, so
far those efforts have not been successful.
¨
As
with any new administration, there have been delays in getting administrators
approved. So far, only two of the top
EPA administrators have been approved.
There are still dozens awaiting approval.
¨ P2 needs to be sold as an integrated approach that works with compliance assistance efforts and contributes to energy and water conservation.
A
planned meeting with Ken Zarker of NPPR was postponed because the majority of
P2Rx representatives had to catch airplanes to return home. Ken will be invited to participate in an
upcoming Administrative Conference Call to determine how P2Rx can partner with
NPPR.
An
idea bank was posted during the meeting.
Ideas that came up during the session were placed in "the
bank" and participants were invited to add additional ideas as they though
of them. The following ideas were
posted:
-
Create
expert workgroups
-
Create
topic peer review groups
-
Look
for other ways to validate quality
-
Add
P2 and water savings to appropriate topics
-
Add
P2 and energy savings to appropriate topics
2.
Additional
topics to address
-
trucking
& P2
-
Auto
salvage yards
-
Vendors
-
DoD
-
Electronics
-
Supply
chain management
-
EPP
3.
Web
site content and tools
- Provide
more digital video
-
Develop
an integrated contacts/programs database
-
Content
sharing between Centers and outside network
-
Innovative
technology P2 profiles (NEWMOA)
-
Virtual
P2 planner
-
Develop
training service
4. Key relationships to foster
-
SBDCs
-
DOD
-
Regulatory
agencies including USEPA’s Offices
-
Mexico
and Canada
4.
Others
-
Improve
measurement to address outcomes
-
Obtain
content from National Labs (DOE)
-
Consider
adopting new listserve software
-
Spanish
version of web information and publications