MEMORANDUM FOR: Anchorage AMS Members and Affiliates

FROM:   Kristine Nelson, Anchorage Chapter.

SUBJECT: Minutes, Anchorage AMS Chapter Meeting,
                    Sept. 14, 2007  

Call Meeting to Order: The meeting was called to order by Kristine Nelson, President, at 11:15  a.m. The meeting was held at the Aviation Technology Center at Merrill Field in Anchorage. 

• Introductions around the room of the Leadership Committee:
• President - Kristine Nelson
• Vice President - Lisa Reed
• Secretary - Jackie Purcel
• Treasurer - Darrell Randall

Treasurer’s Report:  $1801.86  + $450 for local scholarship

Old Business:

Honorary work from the 2006-2007 Anchorage AMS Chapter Members:
- Our chapter won honor roll status this past season. 
- We were published twice in BAMS.  Once for the Fred Hirschmann aurora photography meeting and the other for John Whitney’s presentation on the Selendang Ayu! 

Recap of 2006-2007 Forecast Contest winners:

Jackie Purcell and Todd Foisey were the first snowfall winners.
The official measurement was 1.4" on the Oct 26th at the forecast office. You each were a tenth off the official measurement on Oct 25th:  Jackie had 1.3" and Todd had 1.5". 

Brett Shepard was the lowest temperature winner with -14F on Jan 20th.  The actual temperature was -15F on Jan 9th.

Ed Wentworth was the lowest pressure winner with 960mb on 01/08/07.  The actual lowest pressure was 959 Dec 20th. 

Heidi Strader was the first snowfall forecast winner for the 2006-2007 season with 84.6”.  The actual snowfall was 84.3”. 

New Business:

Scholarships

• Local:  $450 local scholarship available thanks to Earth Day 2008 activities.  No one has put in an application, yet.  We may need to extend the deadline. 

• National…Deadline for applications is February 8th, 2008 and must be postmarked by that date.  The Deadline for AMS HQ receipt of Anchorage chapter scholarship recommendation will likely be March 07th, 2007.   The Minority/Industry Scholarship is not out at this time.  Here is the webiste: http://www.ametsoc.org/amsstudentinfo/scholfeldocs/index.html#6

• Larry Rundquist will be forwarding the scholarship information to a woman who heads an organization where one of its objectives to provide educational opportunities for Alaska natives. 
• More ideas are needed for reaching out to rural communities?  Past application numbers have been small to say the least.  We’d like to increase those numbers. 
• A request was made for Jim Peronto, Jackie Purcell, and other media folks to advertise AMS National Scholarships on the air.  
• WSOs will be requested again to walk out to local communities, schools, etc to spread the word about the scholarship. 
• Other ideas were solicited from the group. 

 
Possibility of combining the NWA with the Anchorage AMS Chapter:
Jackie Purcell will look into critical issues such as whether the Anchorage AMS would still be eligible for the AMS Honor roll if we combined with the NWA. 

Science Fair: 

The Alaska Science and Engineering Fair will be March 21st-23rd.   Judging will be on Saturday, March 22nd and the Awards Ceremony will be on Sunday, March 23rd. 

Request was made for Chapter Members to think about volunteering to judge and/or to help with the awards ceremony. 

Donations:

• Kristine is working on getting donations from Allure Day Spa.
• Request was made for chapter members to help gather donations as well.

Annual AMS Meeting:

• Jim Peronto will be updating the Anchorage chapter poster for the AMS Annual Meeting. 
• James Partain will be attending the Annual AMS Meeting and volunteered to take our Chapter poster to the meeting. 

Next month’s speaker: tbd 

Christmas Party:

• Jim Peronto is looking into a wine tasting presentation and tasting for our Christmas Dinner. 
• We will again collect Toys for Tots in return for a free desert courtesy of the Anchorage AMS Chapter. 
• Suggestions for location?
• Villa Nova was last year’s location and worked out great. 
• Other suggestions were solicited.

Other items:
James Partain mentioned the climate conference call occurring on Tuesday, Sept 18th.  Everyone was invited to attend. 

Main Event:   

Robert Kelly, the Chief of Forecast Operations at Hydrometeorological Prediction Center (HPC), Camp Springs, MD gave an overview of HPC products and services as well as future support planned for Alaska.  Robert’s meteorological experience stretches across much of the United States from a forecaster in Fairbanks, Alaska to Boston, Massachusetts to tropical Hawaii as the Director of Operations, to finally his work at HPC. Robert was a chief forecaster for five years at HPC before becoming the Chief of Forecast Operations at HPC and has also logged time at the Central Pacific Hurricane Center.  HPC is a national center with a diverse range of meteorological programs. The Forecast Operations Branch supports nearly all the programs of a WFO ranging from Air Quality to Precipitation, Medium Range to Winter Weather. Forecasts are issued in the form of graphics and gridded data, and every forecast desk issues a forecast discussion.
 HPC provides gridded forecast and model analysis to NWS and private industries.  Currently Alaska benefits solely from the model analysis.  HPC is working to expand Alaskan services to the gridded days 4-7 forecasters to allow Alaskan forecasters to focus on the short-term.  

There are seven different forecasts desks at HPC producing a range of products from surface analysis, QPF charts, model diagnostics, winter weather, tropical predictions, verification, and more.  HPC is able to adjust the models real time to enhance forecast output.  However, the general forecast produced by HPC does not contain the meso nor micro meteorology.  Local Forecast Offices are responsible for adding value by applying local knowledge of weather,  marine, and geographical features. 

HPC support of Alaskan Weather Forecast Offices will be in the form of medium range products (days 4-7). 

Our next meeting will be announced at a later date.

Adjournment:  
The meeting was adjourned by Kristine Nelson at 12:35 pm.