Editor's Note: Tools for Collaboration Series

Our mission in the NWS Communications Office is to create an understanding of, and support for, the NWS mission and operations through communication activities. Our goal is to help employees at all levels talk to each other, be understood, and tell the NWS story to a variety of audiences. Our first undertaking, NOAA's NWS Focus, is one employee communications vehicle, but we've come across a variety of other communications tools available to employees and managers. We plan to highlight these tools in a series of Focus articles, the first of which is in this issue. We hope you'll read these articles and find ways that you can use these tools to improve your own connection to the rest of the organization. If you know of other tools that we haven't covered, please let us know by sending an e-mail to NWS.Focus@noaa.gov.

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President Bush Proclaims Hurricane Awareness Week

President George W. Bush signed a proclamation on May 22, 2001, declaring this week (May 20-26, 2001) "Hurricane Awareness Week." This was the first presidential proclamation in support of the NWS's efforts to provide early and accurate warnings that will help keep people safe and property damage to a minimum during the 2001 hurricane season. The complete text of the proclamation is available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/05/20010522-2.html.

At a news conference on May 21, 2001, at Ronald Reagan National Airport, Washington, DC, NOAA released the outlook for the 2001 Atlantic Hurricane Season. The absence of strong La Niña conditions this year will likely result in an average number of storms, but relatively fewer compared to the last three seasons according to the outlook. Visit the NOAA News site for photographs and video clips of the news conference, as well as the Q&A session that followed.

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The Fifth Annual NOAA Weather Radio/Mark Trail Awards were presented to individuals, communities, and organizations at a May 23, 2001, luncheon on Capitol Hill. The awards recognize outstanding contributions made in using or providing NOAA Weather Radio receivers and transmitters to save lives and property. Mark Trail, the King Features comic strip syndicated in about 175 newspapers with a readership of nearly 35 million people, has been the campaign symbol for the NOAA Weather Radio program since 1997. Jack Elrod, writer and illustrator of Mark Trail, and King Features Syndicate have been strong advocates for publicizing severe weather safety through the use of NOAA Weather Radios. The luncheon was sponsored by the American Meteorological Society and NOAA Weather Radio receiver manufacturers. A complete list of the award recipients is available on the NOAA News site.

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During this hurricane season, FEMA's Hurricane Liaison Teams (HLT) will for the first time include NWS hydrologists for those storms which have the potential to produce significant inland flooding. The HLT has previously included NWS meteorologists only. The HLT provides vital information to the federal, state, and local emergency management community and is activated when a tropical storm or hurricane threatens the mainland United States, Puerto Rico, or the U.S. Virgin Islands. "According to research studies, in the past 30 years more people have died from inland flooding as a result of hurricanes and other tropical cyclones than from any other storm-related impacts," said Jeff Zimmerman from the Office of Services. "Flooding kills people and it's important to get critical information to emergency managers to get people out of harm's way and to better deal with the impacts of heavy rainfall and flooding," he said. Working at the NWS National Hurricane Center, the HLT will work closely with other NWS offices to ensure relevant hydrologic information (such as precipitation forecasts, river and flood forecasts, and their impacts) be provided to the emergency management community.

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Tools for Collaboration: NWS List Server

"awipsinfo," "radiosonde-network," "wcm-talk," and "gisforum" are special e-mail distribution lists bringing together NWS employees and contractors who contribute information, experience, ideas, and answers to help other list members.

The NWS List Server is a piece of software that enables employees to establish e-mail distribution lists on any work-related topic. But unlike, for example, address books created in Netscape Communicator, the List Server lists are self-maintaining. That is, employees choose to belong to a list and enroll themselves because of an interest in a particular topic or activity. If at some point their interests change, they can also choose to remove themselves from a list as well. Members of a list use their existing e-mail system to send messages to the entire list by sending e-mail to one address (listname@infolist.nws.noaa.gov, for example). If they choose to, members of a list can receive a copy of each list message directly in their e-mail inbox. Or, members can choose to receive only daily summaries of list messages, or even no e-mail at all. The messages sent to each list are archived and available to list members for browsing and searching on the web.

"Most of the lists set up so far are for technical purposes," said John Ball, who administers the list server system software. That is, the members have a narrow band of interest, and they communicate technical information and ask questions and get answers to relevant questions by addressing the membership. One of the most active established lists is the "awipsinfo" list, which currently has over 800 members. "A list server allows people to work across time and geography, communicate quickly, and to draw on a collection of people with a wide range and depth of experience for answers and ideas," Ball said.

A few lists have been set up for administrative and program management tasks. An example of this kind of list is the one that was established for those planning of the recent MIC-HIC Workshop. During the months of workshop planning, members from across all NWS regions were able to share information through this list and collaborate almost as easily as if they were all in one location. "This is the second time I've used a list to help coordinate all the tasks involved in setting up a national conference," said Linda Kremkau of the Office of Climate, Water, and Weather Services. "Just simplifying the process of communicating all the levels of detail involved was a big help."

If you'd like to join an existing list, visit http://infolist.nws.noaa.gov/scripts/lyris.pl and browse the available categories. If you have an idea for a new list that would help you in your work, contact John Ball, in the NWS Office of Science and Technology, at John.Ball@noaa.gov.

Next week in NOAA's NWS Focus: Netscape Newsgroups

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The Writer's Toolbox

Ace writer and editor Donna Ayres of the Executive Affairs Office offers some good references for writing and editing to high standards. "Just as sculptors keep a collection of chisels and knives on hand, writers need their own tools to perfect their craft," said Ayres. Below are three web resources she recommends:

• NOAA Correspondence Handbook: Guidance on preparing documents for signature at the NOAA and DOC levels-- a must (http://www.ofa.noaa.gov/rdc/NOAA11.wpd) (NOTE: This is a WordPerfect file. If you don't have a WP viewer plug-in installed, right click to save the document to your hard drive and open it with WordPerfect.)
• The Tongue and Quill (U.S. Air Force publication). A reader-friendly, comprehensive guide to communication covers writing, editing, and formatting. Click on publication AFH33-337 (http://afpubs.hq.af.mil/pubfiles/af/33/afh33-337/afh33-337.pdf-beware, this is a large document)
• U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual 2000. Browse the updated, online version for new features, and find out how to spell that new form of communication we're now so dependent upon. Is it Email, E-mail, email, or e-mail? (http://www.access.gpo.gov/styleman/2000/browse-sm-00.html)

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