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Procurement Agency: Conn DOT and University of Maryland
Project Contact: Noreen Hazleton, Coalition staff
Consultant support: Chris Cox

The objective of the Task Force work was to explore whether the Coalition’s growth would require or result in changes in the culture, strategies, program delivery, and resource allocation processes of the Coalition.

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Impact on the Coalition’s vision, mission, structure and culture – resulting from the growth -- was explored either individually or in groups with over 60 people, using the same set of questions to probe for input from members. The results were studied by the Task Force and used to develop their recommendations for the future. A report was issued to the Steering Committee in September, 2003, and then forwarded with those same recommendations to the Executive Board to consider at its December 2003 meeting.

Five broad themes emerged from the review process:

1. Protect the culture [cooperation, coordination, consensus, communication] of the Coalition.
2. Don’t apply one structure to all the committees. An artificial north/south division as a way of doing business for everyone is not the way to proceed.
3. Take advantage of the strengths and opportunities that the larger transportation corridor now presents for the Coalition program.
4. Operational and logistics issues are more difficult. Try some new ways of doing business without jeopardizing the culture.
5. Continue evolving, as the Coalition has done in the past. The Coalition is good at figuring out what does or doesn’t work.

Seven recommendations were made by the Task Force. Briefly, they are:

1. Continue the current programming and planning process;
2. Ask Program Track Committees to identify topics of interest and benefit to broader membership, explore structural options suited to them, and regularly assess responsiveness to member ideas and communications;
3. Develop opportunities to meet as a full Coalition (e.g. Information Exchange Forums, Annual Meeting);
4. Focus on internal growth, not geographic expansion;
5. Explore technology to supplement face-to-face meetings;
6. Capture and document the value of the extensive participation and investment that member agencies have made to Coalition activities.
7. Revisit the overall question in a year – has the growth changed the culture, or have we accommodated to the growth in a way that supports the culture?

At its December, 2003 meeting, the Executive Board discussed the themes and recommendations and generally supported the conclusions.

The Executive Board emphasized that the Coalition needs to minister to the under-served areas of the existing Coalition region, and recognized that sometimes the name “I-95” adds a perception that only highway issues are on the Coalition agenda. They also recognized that the Coalition can look beyond its boundaries, not to expand, but to pool together resources on certain focused issues. Further, the Executive Board realizes that a small staff may have difficulties serving the larger organization and understands that the Executive Director is reviewing that issue within the program development process for the coming year.

9-1T - $24,969k 

10-1T - $5,666

Total Project Expenditures: $30,400