Meeting Report :: Archive :: North Florida Chapter of the AMS

Last Update 03/21/07
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October 22, 2002 - Executive Board Meeting

The Executive Board of the North Florida Local Chapter of the AMS held its first meeting on Tuesday, October 22, 2002 at 4:30pm ET. Present at the meeting were the entire officer board: President Stephanie Abrams, Vice President Jeff Wood, Secretary Clark Evans, and Treasurer Joe Smith. The primary topic of discussion was the AMS Local Chapter Officers Handbook and its contents. Other topics discussed included dues, delegation of responsibilities, and planning the next couple of meetings.

Quick calculations suggest that the Local Chapter will likely receive approximately $125 in funds from the collection of dues, a rather small figure. While the idea of raising the predetermined dues from $5 for students and $10 for non-students to an undisclosed figure was considered, the Executive Board decided to keep dues constant for the time being. Dues will be due on or before December 6, 2002 and are payable by cash or check made payable to either President Stephanie Abrams or Treasurer Joe Smith.

The requisite task of compiling a member directory and sending it to the American Meteorological Society will commence with the next general meeting of the local chapter. In regards to members missing meetings, there will be no penalty for missing meetings at the present time. The Executive Board feels that if members are interested enough in the society to pay their dues, it is counterproductive to penalize members for missing a meeting.

Several minor issues from the chapter handbook were summarily discussed, including a chapter bank account, insurance for the chapter, notifying local members of the AMS about the new local chapter, and tax exemptions. Purchasing insurance is likely unfeasible for the chapter at the present time due to a lack of funds. The head of the former local chapter of the AMS in North Florida, Paul Duval, NWS TLH meteorologist, will be consulted in regards to a chapter bank account and registering the chapter as a tax-exempt group. Vice President Jeff Wood was delegated to be in charge of contacting the AMS for a list of all AMS members in the North Florida region; the entire Executive Board will discuss the scope of notification of the new chapter to these members at a later meeting.

Committees and their functions were the next topic at hand. For the time being, the North Florida Local Chapter of the AMS will have the following four subcommittees:

Social Subcommittee - deals with the organization and planning of social events that the chapter may be interested in, including chapter meetings and extracurricular activities. Will report to President Stephanie Abrams.

Science & Education Subcommittee - deals with the local chapter’s participation in local Science Fair judging, grade school visits, and community outreach. Designed to possibly complement or work in tandem with the EXPLORES program already established at Florida State University. Will report to Treasurer Joe Smith.

Newsletter Subcommittee - deals with the compilation, editing, and distribution of the North Florida Chapter Newsletter, to be distributed quarterly via e-mail and on bulletin boards in the Love Building. Will also be responsible for organizing potential postal mail brochures to members of the AMS and the local chapter, likely once per calendar year. Will report to Secretary Clark Evans.

Membership & Speaker Subcommittee - this committee has a dual role in promoting the local chapter to the other local colleges (Tallahassee Community College and Florida A&M University) and encouraging membership for interested parties in the local chapter, as well as brainstorming ideas for future speakers for chapter meetings. Will report to Vice President Jeff Wood.

Each subcommittee will be comprised of at least three members and one Representative At-Large, a de facto leader of their representative subcommittees who reports to the Executive Board member in charge of overseeing the group. The Representative At-Large positions will be elected positions and interested members of the local chapter are encouraged to send nomination e-mails in to Secretary Clark Evans at acevans@met.fsu.edu before the next chapter meeting. Similarly, members interested in working with one of the subcommittees are also encouraged to express their interest in e-mail to the Secretary at the aforementioned e-mail address before the next chapter meeting.

An additional elected position of Historian may be approached in future Executive Board meetings. This member will ideally be the Representative At-Large from the Social Committee.

Another prerequisite of an AMS Local Chapter is to formulate and uphold a local chapter constitution. Due to a lack of time and numerous other topics to be discussed, this topic was postponed to the next meeting of the Executive Board. The same holds true for finalizing committee definitions and Representative At-Large elections.

The meeting was wrapped up with discussion of potential social activities and functions of the local chapter. As the chapter organizes, the focus of the chapter will be on drawing those with an interest in meteorology together in social situations as opposed to mere lectures or working situations. To that effect, the Thanksgiving Dinner was tentatively set for Sunday, November 17, 2002 at 6:30pm, with the location to be announced. The dinner will be a potluck dinner, with a signup sheet for dishes to be distributed at the next chapter meeting.

Finally, three potential expenditures of the local chapter were discussed: t-shirts, speaking engagements, and nourishment at future chapter meetings. Vice President Jeff Wood was delegated to be in charge of determining pricing of t-shirts for the local chapter. To that end, the Executive Board would like to announce a design contest for the design of the t-shirt. Anyone is free to design and submit an idea at the next meeting of the local chapter, provided the following conditions are met:

The AMS local chapter logo must be featured in some location on the t-shirt. The logo can be found on the Internet at http://www.ametsoc.org/ams/amschaps/chapter_logo.gif. Secondly, the name of the local chapter must be featured prominently, though it cannot be featured in a logo designed to complement or replace the local chapter logo found above. Finally, a limitation on colors may prove to be necessary, so it is advisable that designs be limited in their scope of colors to reduce costs of the t-shirts.

While no reward has been set for submitting the winning design of the t-shirt, it is within the realm of possibility that such a reward would come in the form of a free t-shirt. Again, all designs must be submitted for presentation and voting at the next meeting of the local chapter (date and time below).

The initial meeting of the Executive Board was concluded by setting dates for upcoming Executive Board and Local Chapter meetings. The next meeting of the Executive Board will be held on November 5, 2002 at 4:30pm in the Map Room of the Love Building. The next local chapter meeting will be held on Thursday, November 14, 2002 at 7:30pm, likely in Rm. 353 of the Love Building on FSU’s campus. Ideas, comments, and suggestions on any of the above material are welcome either via e-mail before the meeting or in person during the meeting. Students, faculty, and staff of the FSU meteorology department, as well as those with a vested interest in meteorology in the community will be notified of the final date, time, and location of the next meeting in e-mail by Saturday, October 26, 2002.