Minutes of the High Plains AMS/NWA Chapter
Meeting
January 11, 2012
Twenty-two
members of the AMS/NWA High Plains Chapter met for lunch, a meeting and
a presentation on Wednesday, January 11, 2012. We gathered at
11:30 am for lunch at the Town and Country Café in Norton,
KS. This was the largest attendance at one of our meetings in
several years! After a few introductions, and after we had
ordered food, the meeting began while we waited for our food. The
business meeting was followed by a presentation by Scott Meltzer/MIC
GLD on the Local Winter Storm Scale (LWSS). This discussion
centered around how useful would it be if winter storms were given a
ranking, such as hurricanes and tornadoes? Climatology of
numerous strong winter storms were compiled, and then applied to the
Regional Snowfall Impact Scale (ReSIS). This information can then
be used as part of the Call to Action portions of winter storm
products, such as "…a winter storm similar to this in the past has
closed I-70 for 6 to 8 hours…" Scott's presentation generated
many questions and comments, and was well received by the Chapter.
The meeting began at 11:56 am CST.
Treasurer’s report. Scott
Bryant/GID gave the treasurer's report in lieu of Treasurer Corey
King/GID. The balance as of January 10th was $6385.70, with
$2415.00 allocated toward the Jim Johnson Scholarship fund, leaving our
checkbook balance at $3970.70.
Previous Meeting Minutes.
Minutes from the 12/14/11 teleconference meeting were sent to Chapter
members via email prior to this meeting. The only change to the
minutes was to change the Jim Johnson Scholarship POC at Dodge City to
Matt Gerard.
Old Business. The $400
donation to the Wichita AMS/NWA Chapter was sent via mail today.
This was to help the Wichita Chapter with expenses incurred at the 2011
HP conference, and would have been the amount we contributed if there
had been and student presentations at the conference.
Mike Umscheid/DDC gave us a brief update on the tax exempt applications
with IRS. Not much action had occurred since our last meeting in
Dec. Mike has set March 2nd as the deadline to get everything
needed to send to the IRS. The Chapter voted and approved $400
for the IRS filing fee. Once the IRS receives our package, it
will still be 4 to 5 months before it is finalized. Mike noted
this would run into our annual conference time, so one of Chapter
members will most likely have to set up a personal PayPal account for
conference registrations.
We were given an update by several GID members on the upcoming HP
conference in Hastings, NE, planned for August 8th-10th. They are
working hard at attracting more student presenters. Keynote
speakers are being contacted, and Dr. Jay Antle, an area historian, is
lined up as the banquet speaker. There is a rumor of possible
MIC/SOO conference prior to or during the HP conference, but funds may
be limited.
New Business.
New Officers: For 2012, the officer nominations are:
President Chris Foltz/GLD; Vice President Bill Taylor/ LBF; Treasurer
Scott Bryant/GID; and Secretary Tim Burke/DDC. An email vote will
be sent out to all HP members soon by President Chris Foltz. The
Jim Johnson Scholarship committee will consist a member from each
WFO: Shawn Jacobs/LBF, Chris Foltz/GLD, Scott Bryant/GID (chair)
and Matt Gerard/DDC. Letters soliciting student presentations
will go out by Jan 31st, with papers/presentations due back to each WFO
by April 1st.
Much discussion centered on if only the HP President, or all officers,
needed to be members of both national AMA and NWA organizations.
Our current Bylaws need to be amended to clearly state this. A
vote was taken and approved to allow the membership to vote on this via
an email. This should cross your email soon. There was a
suggestion by President Chris Foltz for a HP picnic during the summer,
including families, possibly in June; this will be discussed further
later. .
The meeting
was adjourned at 12:20 PM CST. The next scheduled meeting is Wed,
March 14th in Norton. See you there, and bring a friend!
Chris
Foltz, President
Tim Burke,
Secretary