zephyrtransport / management Goto Github PK

• Divide and conquer spreadsheet.
• Set deadlines.
• Follow up.

For the ITAPC Chairs -

We understand that limited exhibit tables are available for $1,500, and that exhibit-only registration includes one complimentary registration. The detailed information can be found at
https://trb.secure-platform.com/a/page/travel_analysis_and_planning/travel_analysis_patrons

To ensure that Zephyr Foundation is listed in the program, please register by May 6, 2023. We look forward to hearing back from you soon.

At the 3/31/2023 Board Meeting, the boarded voted on and approved this action.

• Update (2/17/2023)
  • Ohio DOT will get a 5-year organizational membership
  • TODO: Joe and Lisa to connect

• Talk to Leah
• Leah says greenlight was challening
• E says Salesforce is overkill
• Hani says Salesforce was challenging

Desired outcome: a resource that agencies can use to pull boilerplate or have ideas about what to include in RFPs or Position postings.

Initial thoughts on data that would be useful....

RFPs:

• cost per scope .
• level of detail in scope (outcome-oriented vs prescriptive) .
• review from agency on how well this procurement worked (is that possible?) .
• technical requirements to insert into scope including various data or management standards .

Positions:

• salary per region and level
• responsibilities
• requirements vs suggestions
• approaches to get a diverse applicant pool
• organizational structure

Currently no one can start the zoom meeting except Joe.

Background: When I sign in to the Zephyr zoom account, it asks for a verification code which is sent to [email protected]. To sign in to the [email protected] account, it uses 2FA and asks for a code sent to Joe's phone.

• Update (2/17/2023)
  • Board members are now account admins
  • Stored the historical chat history to the Zephyr Admin folder
  • We will fall back to the Free Account after 2/18

• Update (2/17/2023):

  • There is a difference btw getting a unique ID vs getting registered and getting grants from the gov. We might never have been registered before with sams.gov.
  • Currently in the process of getting fully registered. The account info is in the Tech sheet on Google Drive.

So that it doesn't disappear/is more broadly accessible.

Was gently reminded that we don't have our latest meeting minutes up on the web.

Draft for discussion here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BPEZFKq5KfnmkW-jCqtuNWx4uorZOGnZst3DOtR4_sw/edit#

This is due annually on August 31.

Lisa completed this on August 25, 2023.
Instructions noted here: Annual Corporation Report Readme
Report saved here: Zephyr 2023 Annual Corporation Report Online.pdf

GTFS-Ride may need better support/connection to Z-Board.

See information in #46

• frequency and length
• topic
• presenters

Now that we're officially a 501(c)3 nonprofit, we need to ensure that the Board and committee chairs know how to stay 100% within the law.

• Update (2/17/2023)
  • Lisa to email Rosella

(From Rick Donnelly)

We talked earlier this year about the idea of a focused workshop on machine learning in travel forecasting. Eric Miller and I have batted this idea around over drinks on and off again for two years, as I’ve been keen to put something like this together with him using Transport Canada funding. Alas, we've been crazy busy enough that it stubbornly remains right beyond our focus. Then the idea surfaced again in your list of possible Zephyr activities. I've talked to several folks since then to get an idea of what might be entailed.

The goal of such a workshop would be to impart enthusiasm and skills through one or more focused projects that participants would complete together and showcase to the profession. My vision for this is a mashup of successes in other realms, including the TRB Chan Wui & Yunyin Rising Star Workshop, Data Science for Social Good (DSSG), the Santa Fe Institute's Complex Systems Summer School (CSSS), the TNU Computational Psychiatry course (which I’m very seriously considering for myself this summer), and of course the week-long discrete choice modeling courses at MIT, Sydney, and in Europe. And those are only the ones I’m familiar with. They’re each aimed at different audiences, of course, but I see several common threads:
Competition appears to be stiff for attendance at all of them
Leading firms or labs in each industry compete for the graduates
All are heavily underwritten by grants or corporate sponsors
The course cost is very pricey by our industry standards (although worth every penny of it)
All are held in academic settings, with several offering on-campus accommodations
All have top faculty and industry leaders teaching the course
Most are designed for graduates of other programs, and for high-achievers rather than mainstream students
Most have production of either individual or group portfolios as key goal
Many are geared towards cultivating academics rather than practitioners
Although all are full-time intensives, the length of the courses I looked at varied considerably. They range from one week to an entire summer. My guess is that a two-week course would be ideal for us, although 3-4 weeks doesn't appear out of the question (but pricier).

I don't see any of these factors as particularly onerous for us to match other than the financial hurdles. Ideally Transport Canada or FHWA would put together a scholarship program to cover cost of public sector participants. Doing so would ease the financial pain and make the scholarship more palatable to state and local governments, who would view accepting private money from any source as problematic gifts. Obtaining the seed money will admittedly be challenging, but I’d rather abandon this idea only after exhausting a concerted effort rather than assuming it as foregone conclusion if that is only serious objection.

I like the DSSG model the best. Like the CSSS, it is 12 weeks in duration. However, they are unique in their approach of combining cram courses in data science with real-world projects. They’re trying to emulate TED by expanding the course to select locations and wanting to have mini-conferences showcasing their projects. I’d really like to emulate that in our realm. We could put together something close to DSSG — but a quarter of the duration — like “data science for transport planning” (DSTP), which would have more immediate appeal to broader audience in our profession, or a more focused “machine learning for transport planning” (MLTP). In either case we’d present a series of lectures and labs on fundamentals taught be industry experts (read: from outside our profession), followed by one or more projects that the participants would work on. If we used Uber or Lyft data, perhaps combined with other public or private data, we’d have endless possibilities for very practical projects that participants could adapt over and over in their careers.

I see this as a great target for young and emerging professionals in our field. If we had 16-20 participants we'd be probably be running at max capacity. If we could team up a few data science educators with a few of us (to run the projects) we might have a great shot at this. I haven’t thought much about venues for this, although several come quickly to mind — including partnering with DSSG or SFI. I’m guessing we could put together a 2-3 week program that would cover the essentials, which is as long as most public sector folks would be able to escape for in any case. I’m still keen to see if we can get Transport Canada to underwrite an initial offering. If we succeeded there we could export it it far cheaper than we’d be able to create it. I’m not sure we can get the same federal sponsorship in the USA, if for no other reason than lack of sense of urgency at USDOT to get smart about this.

I don’t know where to take this from here. Almost everyone was evasive about their actual costs, so we’ll need to dig deeper for that or work up cost estimate ourselves if we take this to next step. I’ve spent a lot of time investigating these programs, but don’t understand ZF well enough to know how to take this from idea statement like this to solid proposal we can shop around, or whether Zephyr board of directors will support this. How do we take the next step?

We still need an OSS policy; January draft is good starting point. Include Rosella, Lisa, Hani, Dave,

• Are others interested?

• Simon
• Xinbo
• Amanda
• Leta
• Jason

We've been targeting transport planners, when in fact we need first and foremost an organizer and fundraiser.

Per Hani, adding a gift policy to bylaws would be a good idea; (we have not had any gifts offered yet.)

Find some boilerplate from another foundation and use that.

• Draft email: Zephyr Communications > Communiqués > 2024 02 Membership Drive

Rosella is working on this.

Joe, Lisa, Hani, Billy, Elizabeth -- others?