Attendees on the call… Not available for the call…
William Alexander Katy Morgan
Michael Page Alana Nehring
Barry Reichenbaugh Kelly Savoie
Dan Bickford
David Perkins
Sean Potter
Kelly Beatty
Dan Satterfield
Maureen McCann
Our discussion began with an introduction and welcoming of the new board members and a salute to those stepping down.
We also did a short weather round table about how warm and dry much of the month of February has been in our various markets.
I provided an update on the speakers scheduled for the Station Scientist Session on Wednesday afternoon June 22nd.
Gov. Bill Ritter – 41st Governor of Colorado – The New Energy Economy
Dr. Sandy MacDonald – Past President AMS - The Global Energy-Carbon Dilemma Can be Solved
Prof. Scott Denning – CSU - Simple, Serious, and Solvable: Climate Change Communication for Public Audiences
Paul Douglas – Communicating Climate Change to a Conservative Audience
Dan Satterfield / Ed Maibach / John Cook – Communicating Science
Mike Nelson – Global Warming – The Facts and the Future, We Have the Tools, We Have the Talent
I have attached a preliminary line up for the afternoon session. Please feel free to make comments or suggestions.
2017 Station Scientist Session
We are planning to have 30 minute session for each speaker as offering less would do a disservice to our invited guests. It should also keep us pretty much on time for the length of the session.
David Perkins was introduced to the board. He explained the concept of bringing him onto the board as a coordinator of scientific materials for broadcasters. This position would need to be okayed by the AMS as David would come on board in some type of paid position through the society.
Maureen mentioned to the committee that David would need to get a proposal ready by March 9th in order for the AMS to consider such a position this year. David and Maureen will work to try to make this happen.
Maureen also reminded us that the next broadcast conference will be in conjunction with the AMS General meeting in Austin, TX next January. This will be the first time the two conferences have been together since San Antonio in 2007.
There will be a deadline for abstracts for the Austin Conference on August 1st.
We will have a short turnaround for the following conference, Tim Heller and Cheryl Nelson will be co-chairs. There will not be another broadcast conference for 18 months – June of 2019.
Maureen also urged us to remind our broadcast colleagues to nominate or submit entries for the AMS Station Scientist Award. The rules of this award have been recently revised and can be accessed through the AMS website, or send Maureen a note if you have questions. As board members, we cannot nominate, but we can encourage others to do so.
Kelly Beatty is going to present some terrific information on the upcoming solar eclipse. This year, there appears to be a “Solar Eclipse Session” that will be separate from the Station Scientist session, Kelly felt that his presentation would best fit in that session.
Kelly is also going to check with Doug Heady and Jenn Rosen at AMS in regard to a table in the exhibit area.
Bill Alexander commented on the importance of mentoring younger meteorologists in a breadth of natural science information. We need to provide broadcasters with a wide range of scientific information to give to our viewing audience. The more information we can provide, the better we are trusted as Station Scientists.
Dan Satterfield mentioned that an expansion of materials for social media would be beneficial.
Sean Potter mentioned that Karen Fox from NASA was planning to be at the conference and would be available for new updates on GOES 16. Sean also pointed out that CYGNSS will be operational in March. These small satellites were launched from a NASA L-1011 airplane and will use some new techniques to measure wind speeds in hurricanes.