A combined meeting of the Steering Committee members and Program Sponsors was held on May 15, 2001 as a breakout session during the Annual Workshop.  An agenda had been provided the week prior to the meeting and included the following topics: 1) FTCP commitments in 2000-2 implementation plan; 2) Site discussions; 3) Performance indicators; and 4) Training course status.

The Department’s Facility Representative Program Manager, Joe Arango, facilitated the discussions and opened the meeting with introductions.  The following six Program Sponsors were in attendance: Bob Stallman (Idaho), Bob Poe (Oak Ridge), Lloyd Piper (Richland), Delmar Noyes (Rocky Flats), Roy Schepens (Savannah River), and Ken Ivey (Y-12).  Twenty Steering Committee members were also in attendance.

FTCP commitments in 2000-2 implementation plan:  A draft letter from the FTCP to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board concerning the Department’s analysis of federal technical capabilities for oversight of safety system operability had previously been provided to the Steering Committee members and Sponsors.  The status of this letter was reviewed and discussed; the letter has not yet been sent.  Discussions centered on the roles of Facility Representatives and other subject matter experts in overseeing the contractors’ systems engineers and their activities related to safety systems.  A general agreement was reached that the site/facility specific portion of the Facility Representative training and qualifications is the appropriate place for safety system operability requirements.  It was suggested that the site Steering Committee members and Sponsors might want to go back and review/validate that their training and qualification program covers safety systems and safety system operability as appropriate.  Joe Arango noted that the FTCP was holding a meeting the next day and that this topic was going to be discussed and worked as part of their agenda.  Joe Arango took an action to provide the FTCP’s analysis to the Sponsors and Steering Committee members to keep them informed and to gather their inputs on this topic as it continues to evolve.

Site discussions:  The floor was opened and every site that was represented provided some information and status concerning current topics of interest.  Topics discussed included some increased management involvement and support for the program, current vacancies and recent hiring efforts, recent personnel changes among the Sponsors/Steering Committee, upcoming program expansion to the Kansas City Area Office, and some opportunities for future help on readiness reviews and other assessment activities.  There was a suggestion that qualification time might be tracked as a performance indicator (PI).  It was agreed that the Steering Committee might discuss that at a future meeting and evaluate further a possible change to the quarterly training and qualification PIs.  Joe Arango took an action to add this as a future meeting agenda topic.

Performance indicators:  The most recent quarterly PI report was sent out on May 11th.  Copies of the complete PI database for all of the sites were distributed at the meeting for information and use.  The PI data had been used and referred to in a number of other discussions during the course of the Workshop.

Training course status:  The first two-week segment started in Albuquerque on April 30th and there were 17 Facility Representatives from around the complex in the course.  The course is off to a good start and the final three-week segment is scheduled to start on May 29th.  Lessons learned from the course will be gathered and provided.  Joe Arango will provide feedback and lessons learned on the course to the FTCP as well.  One lesson that has already been identified in the first segment is that there is a lot of tailoring and variation in the qualification cards for the general technical base and functional area competency requirements.  That has provided some practical difficulty in sign offs on qual cards based on the course syllabus which was developed to align with what was intended to be the common competency requirements across the whole complex.  It was agreed that this may need to be discussed and evaluated further by the Steering Committee, and could perhaps be integrated with discussions and efforts related to the upcoming FTCP review and update of the qual standards.