Ten individuals met on Wednesday, April 2nd, at the  Smoky Hill Country Club in Hays, KS.  Three of the attendees were new to our chapter; Mick McGuire and Jeremy Martin of the Goodland WFO, and James Connolly of the North Platte WFO. The meeting started off with a fine meal of French Dip sandwich, fries, vegetable, roll, and drink. With several quality chapter members recently transferring, it is nice to see new enthusiastic faces at our meetings.

After lunch, we held a succinct meeting, followed by an intriguing presentation by our guest speaker, Pete Wolf, SOO from WFO Wichita.  His presentation was a report of findings from a study he conducted using the WES training device, stressing the importance of Meteorological Situational Awareness and performance during severe weather events.  A link to Mr. Wolf’s paper will soon be available on our chapter website; check it out!

President Mike Moritz called the meeting to order at 12:20 PM.  The minutes from the 2/4/03 were read, and accepted.
 

REPORT OF THE TREASURY

Treasurer Aaron Johnson reported a current chapter balance of $2173.59.  Since 2/4/03, there was $86.00 in expenses for Ryan Phillips’s travel costs, and $11.63 in deposits, from one membership dues remittance and $1.63 in interest. The treasury report was accepted.
 

OLD BUSINESS

Tim Burke had emailed the WCM’s from each of the 4 WFOs in our chapter area, asking for input on chapter members participating in outreach activities.  Tim is compiling material for the AMS Chapter of the Year application.  He will send this report to the officers for review, before it is sent to AMS headquarters by the May 1st deadline.  Jared Guyer is going to head up the report for the NWA Chapter of the Year application. (Tim plans to share info with Jared). 

Vice President Jared Guyer brought us up to date on the planning of the 7th Annual High Plains Conference, set for October 8-10th in Hastings, NE.  Many of the details are set, and information is being updated on our web site:  http://www.highplains-amsnwa.org.  Several prominent speakers have been lined up, and this looks to be another dynamic conference.  Abstracts are still being accepted, and first-time presenters are encouraged to submit.  Anyone working on a project or paper should consider presenting it at this low-key, non-stressful conference.  We strive to make it a comfortable environment to share your work.  We will once again be offering $500 to the best student presenter. 

NEW BUSINESS

Matt Gerard pitched a proposal for our conference T-shirt.  He would like members to check out the internet site, www.cafepress.com, and give him feedback.  The idea would be to market a T-shirt and perhaps also a mug or hat, take orders and collect money at our conference for these items, and then we could order the items for our customers (from the cafepress site), and then get the items shipped to them.  

Mike Moritz reported on the National AMS conference, and the Local Chapter breakfast he and Dan Nietfeld attended.  His main message was that the national level of AMS really wants information passed upward, on local chapter activities.

ADJOURNMENT

Our meeting adjourned at 1:02 PM.  The next meeting is tentatively set for July or early August, and will most likely be in Hill City or McCook.

Respectfully submitted,

Tim Burke, Secretary    Mike Moritz, President