William M. Hartzler is awarded the MMS Corporate Leadership Award for his efforts in working with the Solid Minerals Operational Model. Mr. Hartzler and RAG have helped advance RMP’s Reengineering Initiative by placing six coal mines in the Solids Operational Model. Mr. Hartzler has complied with all requests of the Model Team by providing data and testing new reports in the reengineered system. Specifically, he has ensured that all of RAG's data (contracts, sales summaries, and Production & Royalty Reports) were submitted to the Model Team on time. This includes approximately 50 coal contracts, and Production & Royalty Reports for the period January 1998 through December 1999.

Mr. Hartzler has been the industry leader in setting the tone that other partners in the Model followed. When the Model Team was attempting to obtain coal contracts from the six industry partners, he made it clear in the all-partners meetings that RAG believed MMS had the authority under the lease and regulations to obtain this data. Their position influenced several companies to provide the contracts, which greatly advanced the work of the Model Team.

Mr. Hartzler has also worked with the Model Team in developing the Production & Royalty Report to identify and define the data elements on the report that satisfied requirements while imposing the least reporting burden on industry. For example, he reported sales data for 1998, even though it was not required, in order to test the allocation tool for retroactive pricing adjustments.