The monthly meeting of the CODAP Users Group was held October12, 1995, at Meeting Room A in the Sutton Place Hotel, Ontario, Canada, during the annual conference of the International Military Testing Association. Squadron Leader Herlihy, AL/HRMJ (RAAF Exchange), called this meeting so that representatives of other and allied service might attend. Those in attendance included:

SqLdr John Herlihy    AL/HRMJ    herlihy@alhrm2.brooks.af.mil
Jay Tartell           AFOMS/OMY  652-6623
Jeff Higgs            CF Dir. of Personnel Plans Ottawa, Canada
WgCmdr Ken Dowrick    Australian Defence HQ  Canberra, Australia
Richard Lanterman     HQ, US Coast Guard  Anacostia, DC
Bill Cox              Navy Audit Office, Pensacola FL    
Terri Saraco          Navy Audit Office, Pensacola FL             
                      (Naval.audit@netpmsa.cnet.nav.mil)
Dr. Bruce Gould       AL/HRT     Gould@ALHRT.brooks.af.mil
Winston Bennett       AL/HRT     Bennett@ALHRT.brooks.af.mil
Dr. Jacobinna Skinner AL/HRMJ    Skinner@ALHRM.brooks.af.mil
Larry Looper          AL/HRMJ    Looper@ALHRM
Johnny Weissmuller    Metrica    340-8211
Cindy Luster          AFOMS/OMYO 652-5811
Jimmy Mitchell        IJOA       349-8525; IJOAJLM@AOL.COM
Bill Phalen           IJOA       349-8525; IJOAJLM@AOL.COM
John Fugill           OA Australia

1. The meeting was called to facilitate interaction among those who are interested in and practitioners of the Task Based Job Analysis normally characterized as CODAP. SqLdr Herlihy asked all participants to discuss their areas of interest and their perceptions of where the technology should be going in the future (i.e. research and development priorities).

2. Mr. John Fugill, a former Australian Exchange Officer at AFHRL and currently in private practice with CODAP suggested that one area which has not seem the same degree of research and development (R&D) over the last couple of decades is that of Task List Development. While many improvements or enchancements to software and analysis have been completed, the most recent guidance on task list development is from the 1960's and 70's. He suggested that this is an area which could do with some additional study and refinement, particularly as we get into the automated survey era and have the various capabilities of the computer to aid us both in the development of task lists an other questions as well as collecting data in new and more accurate ways. The majority of the group seconded this suggestion.

3. Mr. Jeff Higgs of the Canadian Forces suggested that his program is interested in recent attempts to cluster tasks based on knowledges; he incidated that they would be willing to support such research by providing a couple of data sets where both task and knowledge data were available (to be sent to IJOA). With reference to equipment lists and clustering on equipment, he indicated that they had experimented with this in past years using a level of involvement categorization or scale but had discontinued the process. They do continue to include lists of equipment in their job inventories and make use of the information in their studies. They are also intersted in the new automated survey technology and will be anxious to try it out when the tools become available.

4. Dr. Jacobinna Skinner, AL/HRMJ, indicated that she is also interested in the skills and knowledge clustering arena. Johnny Weissmuller discussed briefly the Job Structuring technology under development by Metrica for AL/HRMJ, and how skills and knowledges linkages are being developed by Dr. Driskill. This technology is just one part of the JST project and related projects; this will be part of an integrated technology which will ultimately serve a variety of purposes.

5. Mr. Jay Tartell, AFOMS/OMY, introduced two Navy visitors, Mr. Bill Cox and Terri Saraco, of the Naval Audit Office, CNET, Pensacola, FL, who are examining the occupational analysis program of the U.S. Navy (which moved recently to Memphis, TN from Anacostia). These visitors expressed some interest in the Absolute Time Scale work which AL/HRMJ did with the CAS work, as described by Bill Phalen and others. The status of the U.S. Marine Corps OA program was also discussed (some visited San Antonio last year for CODAP training, but there has been no recent contact). We should try to reestablish contact with USMC OA personnel.

6. Mr. Weissmuller and Dr. Mitchell discussed briefly the COAS results and the current development of a survey authoring system, which should be ready for Mr. Tartell's use in early November. Several individuals expressed interest in such projects, and WgCmdr Dowrick indicated that he had the latest version of the Australian Task List Development software (an earlier version was distributed at the InternationalOccupational Analysts Workshop in early June of this year). The WgCmdr expressed a willingness to share copies of this revised version.

7. Dr. Bruce Gould, AL/HRT Technical Director, supported the need for continuing R&D in all of these areas but expressed some concern over how the various basic and applied projects could be funded, given the current budgetary environment of all the US and Allied services. He suggested that the CODAP community needs to find a sponsor or advocate for this line of R&D if the area is to be funded adequately. The emphasis in the future may very well be interservice or across several government agencies (or perhaps jointly with Allied Services), much as we have seen in recent trends in interservice training, etc.

8. The next meeting of the group had been scheduled for 1400 hours, 26 October 1995, at the Metrica, Inc. conference room, 10010 San Pedro Avenue in San Antonio. SqnLdr Herlihy asked if the meeting could be postponed for one week to 2 November, to permit WgCmdr Dowrick to attend, since he would be in San Antonio at that time. The group concurred with this change of schedule.