Introduction

One of Steve Kean's newly formed Working Groups is for "Rates & Tariffs". I
have been asked to lead this group. For those of you who don't know me, I am
in Houston in the U.S./Canada Government Affairs group, in a section called
"Rates/Regulatory Services." Our working group will have about a dozen or so
people from various parts of Public Affairs. You have been
selected/volunteered to participate in this effort by your group leaders.

The Working Group members are:
Ray Alvarez
Sergio Assad
Roy Boston
Mike Grimes
Kyran Hanks
Rita Hartfield
Nancy Hetrick
Tom Hoatson
Paul Kaufman
Valeria Lima
Bob Neustaedter

Having this group will give us a great opportunity to identify needs related
to rate and tariff issues across many business lines and countries, share
resources, problems and solutions, and generally improve the cohesiveness of
Steve's organization One of our first tasks will be to think through and
concretely specify what we expect to accomplish as a group. We do not have
a specific product mandate per se - it will be up to us to figure it out and
deliver it. Some possibilities are - identifying rates and tariffs policy
positions, developing policies where none now exist, but are needed,
identifying rates and tariff resources available to the group, and acquiring
resources needed by the group.

As a preliminary matter, could you e-mail me your group name, position,
location, phone, e-mail address, and "area of expertise". We will assemble
this information in a roster to be distributed to the group.

Early in January, we will be in touch to check availability and schedule an
initial meeting. Please be as flexible as possible. In some cases, we are
many time zones apart and it will be difficult to match everyone's desired
time.

As a second preliminary matter, please give some thought to and e-mail me
what you think a group like this should accomplish. Remember, the roster
above has some of the world's leading authorities on rates and tariffs! We
will compile both the complete roster and your ideas on group goals and
distribute them to everybody prior to our first actual meeting. At that
first meeting, we will talk through expectations of us and of each other, and
the proposed goals.
Please have your inputs to me by January 7. I look forward to working with
you.