High Plains Chapter of the AMS/NWA
Minutes of the Regular Meeting
Wednesday, October 5, 2005
Meeting held during 9th Annual High Plains Conference in North Platte, Nebraska

•    Meeting called to order at 4 p.m. CDT by President, Patrick Burke
•    Minutes of the last meeting were read by Patrick. They were accepted and approved as read.

New Business

•    Treasurer requested postponement of reading of the treasurer’s report until the next meeting due to the High Plains Conference being in session at this time.

•    Membership – Two officers will be leaving. They include David Lawrence, Treasurer who will be moving to Blacksburg, Va. Also Patrick Burke, President, will be moving to Norman, Ok. Patrick has agreed to remain as president for the rest of this year and is planning to stay online from Norman.

•    The results of the vote on the Honorary Membership for retirees were: 34 Yes and 1 No. This will be written up in the constitution.  

•     Patrick proposed an idea of a weather update on the High Plains. He identified our new drought outlook product developed by Jerry Killingsworth of Goodland. He also noted several enhancements on the weather web pages. Jim Johnson also added that since our last meeting, an online chat room has been set up in Yahoo. This would be a good way to communicate. Thus far 17 members have joined.  

•    Updates on upcoming national conferences. October 15-20, 2005 is the national NWA meeting. Jared Guyer will be attending. It was also suggested that we create a poster to send to national conferences on what we are doing. The national AMS meeting will be January 29 – February 2, 2005. We should be able to send a poster then.

•    Minority scholarships renewed for the next two years ($2,000 for the next two years)

•    Maybe create a committee to set up a written statement on how to do our annual conferences. Maybe create that group over the next month. Would need recommendation by the start of the next year. It was suggested by Jim Johnson that our online chat room through Yahoo would be a great way to accomplish this. Christina volunteered to be the contact  person for these ideas.

•    Note: Our checking account only has David Lawrence and Bruce Entwistle on it. Aaron Johnson has volunteered to temporarily do this.  

•    With no other business to be discussed, the meeting was adjourned at 4:50 p.m. CDT.