Boston, MA - September 7-9, 2008

TFLEx Workshop
Sept. 7 - 9, 2008
Summary Notes

notes by Terry Cordell, posted 10-17-2008

The Fall 2008 TFLEx Workshop was held in Boston MA, and hosted by Wes Wallace and the MBTA. Our sincere thanks go out to Wes and his staff for the wonderful job they did in making this workshop a successful event. Twenty-five people registered for this workshop. Everything was well organized and the presentations were informative. Thanks again to everyone at Boston's MBTA!

The regular Business Meeting was chaired by Joe Costello on Sunday afternoon. Minutes of this meeting are attached as a separate document. All members are encouraged to attend the Business Meeting.

The main topic of this workshop was capital planning and programming. Jon Davis, Deputy General Manager/CFO of the "T" in Boston, welcomed participants and gave an overview of the MBTA's current and planned capital projects. Grace Gallucci, Deputy Executive Director of Research, Analysis and Policy Development, Chicago RTA, presented that agency's new role in oversight of the region's capital improvement program. Michelle Caldwell, Los Angeles MTA, Micael Ocbahanes, DART, and Victor Rivas, MBTA Boston, then shared their agency's approach to capital planning.

After lunch, Peter Butler, Director of the FTA's Region I Office of Planning and Program Development shared his agency's perspectives on working with transit agencies in developing capital programs.

The remainder of the afternoon was devoted to Needs and Leads. Attached is a table of all the Needs and Leads discussed in this session.

The morning of day two of the Workshop was devoted to Succession Planning. Lydia Grose, Manager of Track and Civil Engineering, SEPTA Philadelphia, gave a fascinating presentation developed by the 2007 Leadership APTA class on strategies for attracting young talent from Generations X and Y to public transportation. There was a great deal of discussion on the differences between the generations and how they communicate differently. This was followed by Mary Ann Collier, Director of HR, San Joaquin RTD, facilitating a discussion of the need for every agency to build a foundation for effective succession planning. Irene DeMers, DART, presented her agency's initiative on succession planning. DART has developed a solid program to create an internal pool of talent from which to draw DART's future executive leaders. Irene's presentation is available on the TFLEx website and she can be reached at idemers@dart.org for further information on their leadership development program.

The afternoon session began with a conference call with representatives from Morgan Stanley discussing the current and long-term prospects of diesel and CNG fuel costs. Members shared their agency's initiatives regarding how they control fuel costs.

The Workshop wrapped up with Ray Garton showing members a preview of what the new TFLEx website will look like and how it will work. The new website was approved at the Business Meeting and will be developed by Ray over the next several months.

The Spring 2009 Workshop will be held in Chicago on April 6-8. The topic of the workshop will be Public Private Partnerships in transit. The RTA will be hosting the event and we will be reaching out to the entire transit industry for the second day of the workshop. More information will be forthcoming shortly but please mark your calendars now to attend this workshop.

All presentations from the Fall Workshop are available on the TFLEx website at www.tflex.org.

Capital Planning and Programming
Succession Planning

(Field of Study: Finance)
September 8-9, 2008
September 7, 2008 - Business Meeting
NOTE: the business meeting is on a SUNDAY (revised)

Program Content/Learning Objectives

As infrastructure costs increase and grant funding decreases, it is incumbent on finance professionals to become a part of the solution in finding ways to continue to fund and construct major capital projects. It is also important that finance executives recruit and retain the best talent available to ensure that the next generation of transit finance professionals is ready for the challenges they will face. This workshop will concentrate on capital programming issues at the local and federal levels and make participants aware of how those issues will affect their continued ability to fund capital projects. Participants will also learn the issues in dealing with succession planning as it relates to brining along the next generation of transit finance professionals. After attending this conference, participants will be able to:

• Understand how different transit agencies are developing criteria for their Capital Improvement Programs to maximize return on investment.
• Understand how the Federal Transit Administration sees its role in helping transit agencies successfully fund and complete capital projects.
• Understand how Generation X and Generation Y are fundamentally different from the current generation of finance professionals and the benefit they can bring to the industry.
• Understand how important good succession planning can be to their agency in ensuring continuity in multi-year capital programs.
• Identify and share best practices through "Needs & Leads"

Group-Live Delivery Method
Program Level: Advanced
Pre-Conference Reading Material Provided
No Prerequisites*
Earn 13 CPE credits

* This program is at an advanced level of continuing education. Although no prerequisite course or work experience is needed to participate in this program, working knowledge of finance and transportation practices and policies is required, as well as knowledge of the program topic.

To register for this course, contact, Irene Demers, at 214-749-2630 or visit our Web site, www.tflex.org. For more information regarding refund, complaint and program cancellation policies, please contact Irene Demers at 214-749-2630.

Transit-Finance Learning Exchange (T-FLEx) is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State boards of accountancy have final authority on the acceptance of individual courses for CPE credit. Complaints regarding registered sponsors may be addressed to the National Registry of CPE Sponsors, 150 Fourth Avenue North, Suite 700, Nashville, TN, 37219-2417. Website: www.nasba.org