High Plains AMS/NWA Meeting Minutes 7 August 2008

Minutes of the High Plains AMS/NWA Chapter Meeting

August 7, 2008

Ten members traveled from near and far to attend the August 7^th High Plains Chapter meeting in Norton, KS. The group gathered at 11 am at Attitudes Restaurant for lunch, held a meeting, and then followed with presentations from each NWS office summarizing their recent severe weather season. For both the Dodge City (DDC) and Goodland (GLD) offices, the severe events of May 22^nd-23^rd climaxed their respective offices’ severe weather seasons. DDC had 61 tornadoes in their CWA during those two days, while GLD reported 21 tornadoes in their CWA. Of note, the widest tornado was 1.8 miles wide, in Clark County, and was rated EF3. Four other tornadoes were at least 0.9 miles wide. Those two days put both DDC and GLD above their yearly average for number of tornadoes. Farther east in Hastings’ (HSI) CWA, Spring and Summer were highlighted with flooding events. To date, HSI is 9 inches of rain above normal. April 25^th was unique in that there was a tornado around midnight 3.5 miles north of Beloit, KS. May 29^th was very active with 16 tornadoes,   including an EF3 which struck Jewell, KS, and in Kearney, NE which was hit by 3 tornadoes!    The North Platte (LBF) office was not in attendance and did not report a summary.

Call to order.   The business meeting was called to order at 12:05 PM. After a round of introductions, Secretary Tim Burke read the minutes of the previous meeting. The minutes were accepted as read.

Treasurer’s report. Treasurer Matt Masek sent the treasurer’s report via email, and President Rick Ewald read the report. Basically, we have $4112.09 in our account; $940.00 in the Jim Johnson Scholarship fund, and $3172.09 in our checkbook.

Old Business. It is now looking doubtful the Wichita chapter will host one of our annual conferences, specifically the 2009 conference. If not, the LBF office should start planning ahead to host the 2009 conference. Our chapter did award this year’s Jim Johnson Scholarship to High School student Jordan Carroll. We will try to get his picture on the website as soon as possible.

New Business. Treasurer Matt Masek sent an email suggesting we should perhaps hold a teleconference Chapter meeting during the summer, with more members likely available to attend. We still need to meet (physically) at least 4 times per year, but this idea is worth looking into.

The 12^th annual High Plains conference is set for Hays, KS September 4^th-5^th. It will be held at the Holidome Convention Center, 3603 Vine Street. All registration, lodging, agenda, and other information is available via our web site: www.highplains-amsnwa.org. We had an overwhelming response to our Call for Papers, with over 30 abstracts submitted. To accommodate all who submitted, we cut each speaker's time to 15 minutes (vs. 20), and shortened the breaks a bit. Look at our agenda – many great speakers will be there. Register NOW!

Adjournment. The meeting adjourned at 12:45 PM. The next meeting will be held during the conference in Hays.

Rick Ewald, President
Tim Burke, Secretary