Minutes of the High Plains AMS/NWA Chapter Meeting

May 18, 2006

This meeting started with a lunch at the Town and Country Kitchen in east Norton. The 13 members, one being new, arrived in spurts, due to road construction, office meetings, etc. The lunch was followed by a business meeting, then a presentation by President Dave Floyd/GLD, outlining new means of receiving radar data in the field, such as when chasing storms. His talk centered on remote access to data using GRLevel2 and GRLevel3 software. Many members present thought the relatively inexpensive GRLevel2 software could be a good learning tool in NWS offices, especially since radar cross sections were so easy to produce and manipulate.

Call to order. The meeting was called to order at 1:28 PM. New Secretary Tim Burke/DDC read the minutes from the 1/25/06 meeting, and the minutes were accepted as read. These 1/25/06 minutes were prepared by outgoing Secretary Mike Lammers/GLD.

Treasurer’s report. Vice President Christina Hannon/LBF gave the treasurer’s report for Treasurer Matt Masek/LBF, who was unable to attend. The chapter treasury balance was $1347.61 at the last meeting, 1/25/06, and as of May 17, 06 was at $1630.69. There were several expenses since the last meeting, and some dues came in, but the details of the treasury were not available at the writing of these minutes.

Old Business. A report was given by Matt Gerard/DDC on the status of the upcoming HP10 conference to be held in Dodge City, October 4-6, 2006. The location will be at the Dodge House Hotel and Convention Center, on the west side of Dodge City. A call for papers had been sent out, and 1 abstract had been received as of May 18^th. Two prominent Key Note speakers have been confirmed, and two more are being worked on. Another Key Note speaker is being sought for the Thursday evening banquet, with one lead already being followed up. Matt showed the design chosen for the conference theme and t-shirts; it was popular by most members and will be the background for our conference registration page. This conference page will be a link off our chapter webpage, http://www.highplains-amsnwa.org/, and should be posted by June 15^th. Discussion around the Student paper/presentation contest centered on separating the competition into two categories, one for undergraduates and one for graduates. The prize money for will be divided, and at least given to each 1^st place winner. If there are a large number of submissions, a 2^nd place may be awarded; this will be determined shortly before the conference. The chapter also discussed having a section of the conference for storm chasers, with perhaps a late evening video swap Thursday evening, after the banquet.

There was good support for a pre-conference workshop, probably at the WFO DDC office, mainly for NWS personnel, focusing on new approaches to AWIPS, IFPS, and operations. The logistics of hosting this workshop (time) will have to worked out, and surrounding offices will be notified and invited.

New Business. President Dave Floyd led a discussion on membership. We currently have 44 members, mostly from the NWS. Members should make an effort to recruit new members, especially from sources outside the NWS, such as media meteorologists, professors, emergency managers, etc. Our chapter by-laws state that a quorum at our chapter meetings will consist of at least one-half the current members. Since our meetings typically draw much fewer than one half of our members, perhaps our definition of what makes a quorum needs to be revised, so matters can be voted on and accepted at a meeting. Pres. Dave Floyd will send out an email vote on this issue. Another question that arose was whether or not our chapter was tax-exempt. Dave was going to check with Aaron Johnson/GID and/or Bruce Entwistle/GLD on our tax-exempt status.

Adjournment. The meeting adjourned at 2:09 PM. A next meeting date/place was tentatively set for late July or early August in Hays. Secretary Tim Burke volunteered to try to set up this meeting, and notify all members when this has been arranged. (Our VP, Christina Hannon, will be on her honeymoon at that time!)

Dave Floyd Tim Burke

President Secretary