Director's Dialog: Corporate Board Membership?

Thanks for the information presented recently in Focus about the NWS Corporate Board. My question is, isn't the NWSEO represented on this board?

Thanks again,

--David McGinnis, Meteorologist, Key West, FL

Thanks for your question.

Although NWSEO is not on the NWS Corporate Board, the NWSEO President has an open invitation to address the Board on matters of interest to the union. NWS and NWSEO form the National Labor Council which functions as a national problem-solving group and as a forum for pre-decisional input on decisions affecting the workforce. For more information on this Council, see Article 8 of the NWS-NWSEO Collective Bargaining Agreement.

--John Jones, NWS Deputy Director

Good morning,

I read NOAA's NWS Focus this morning and couldn't help but comment on the Director's Dialog column concerning "What is the Corporate Board?"

I think the point needs to be made that a corporate board of directors for a company that has several thousand employees generally consists of members inside and outside the organization. One reason for this is that "outside" members can be more open about their opinions concerning the direction of the company and are not afraid of being fired by the Chairman of the Board, since they are usually not otherwise affiliated with the organization on whose board they sit. Another reason is that members outside of the organization many times see things a bit differently than those on the inside and bring fresh ideas to the table. Unfortunately, that isn't true with the NWS. The members of the NWS Corporate Board all report to the Director in some fashion. Therefore, how much candor can there really be?

It seems to me, the NWS would be well served to include members from NOAA, academia, the private sector, FAA, etc., on the "corporate board." The inclusion of members outside of the NWS would foster fresh ideas from a different point of view which would only help to make an excellent organization even better.

--Walt Felver, Grand Rapids, MI

Thank you for your question regarding Corporate Board membership. We use the term "Corporate Board" because it is composed of agency leadership, and is somewhat analogous to a private corporation's board of directors. The board of directors in an organization helps oversee the company and its management, and often is given ultimate power to direct corporate operations. Like private industry, our board focuses on the future and health of the agency, provides corporate oversight, and strives to make decisions that position our agency to thrive in today's changing environment.

Different laws govern Federal agencies and corporations. Among these is the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), which prohibits us from including private interests on our Board. FACA allows private interests to only serve on advisory government committees. Because the Corporate Board makes decisions, non-federal representatives can not serve on our board. This FACA restriction is designed to prevent outside groups from exerting undue influence in the federal decision-making process.

While we cannot invite these interests to sit as Corporate Board members, we actively pursue their views and ideas by inviting them to meetings as speakers and panelists. We place enormous value on the contributions of our partners, and routinely bring representatives in to provide the board with fresh ideas and views - complimentary or not. A few recent guests include: John Snow, University of Oklahoma; Jim Block, Meteorlogix; Kelly Redmond, Western Regional Climate Center Desert Research Institute; Ron Miller, at the time Chief Information Officer, Department of Homeland Security; John McLaughlin, News Channel 8, Des Moines; and John Armstrong, Chair, National Research Council Committee on Partnerships in Weather and Climate Services (which produced Fair Weather: Effective Partnerships in Weather and Climate Services). The August Board meeting will include presentations from Peter Ewins, United Kingdom Meteorological Office, and Pierre Dubreuil, Canadian Meteorological Service, to review weather and climate service delivery in other countries.

In addition, we gather public input through our strategic planning and requirements-gathering processes. Federal partners, such as the FAA, sit on many of our multi-agency decision-making councils, including the ASOS and NEXRAD Program Management Councils, and work very closely with our operational policymakers here at headquarters. The Office of the Federal Coordinator for Meteorology (OFCM) also works to bring federal agencies together for decision-making and discussion, on topics such as lightning data requirements.

As a NOAA line office, NWS shares a common vision and strategic plan with all of NOAA. Part of the challenge is to effectively link NWS goals with the overarching guidance NOAA gives us. The matrix management approach implemented by Admiral Lautenbacher has us participating with our counterparts in other NOAA line offices on teams addressing cross-cutting issues. While there are no NOAA members on the NWS Corporate Board, NOAA guests have also addressed the board, and one of the Board's committees, the Science and Technology Committee, includes members from NESDIS and OAR.

--John Jones, NWS Deputy Director

AMS Meeting to Feature NOAA-Wide Exhibit

A new approach to exhibiting at the American Meteorological Society's annual meeting will bring the NWS and all NOAA line offices together into one large exhibit.

The 84^th annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) is set for January 11-15, 2004, in Seattle, WA. Traditionally, the NWS is the biggest NOAA exhibitor at the conference, with other NOAA line offices and labs building and staffing individual booths in the AMS exhibit hall. For the first time, to support Admiral Lautenbacher's efforts to unite NOAA, the NWS will lead and participate in a NOAA-wide exhibit based around the themes and goals of the NOAA Strategic Plan.

"The AMS meeting and exhibit hall gives NOAA an opportunity to showcase organizational goals and priorities," said Randee Exler, Director of the NWS Communications Office, who is leading this effort for the NWS and NOAA. "The exhibit will allow all of NOAA, including the National Marine Fisheries Service and the National Ocean Service, to reach out to an audience that is highly interested in and attuned to environmental topics."

As part of its program review earlier this year, NOAA established four goals in the areas of: ecosystems management; climate; weather and water; and commerce and transportation. These four program areas are now part of a matrix management framework, where organizational goals are shared by all six NOAA line offices.

By working together, this new NOAA exhibit can travel to other shows and meetings throughout the year and introduce new audiences to the full scope of NOAA's important mission. For example, the exhibit structure will stay in Seattle for the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in February 2004.

Updated List Covers New NWS Directives

In the last month, eleven new NWS directives have been posted, including directives on topics such as river forecasts. Revisions to several directives, including 10-8 Aviation Weather Services and 10-9 Hydrologic Services Program, have also been posted.

Bookmark the following link and check back regularly for new and updated NWS Directives.

• http://nzone.nws.noaa.gov/DirectivesTracking.nsf/NewPostings?Open

Hawaii Congressional Delegation Staff Briefed on Benefits of Storm/TsunamiReady at National Advisory Board Meeting

The NWS National StormReady Advisory Board held its annual meeting at Pacific Region Headquarters in Honolulu, August 12-14, 2003. The Board meets in person each year to discuss key program issues, improve program policies, and review program accomplishments over the past year.

"This year's Board meeting was a great success," said Steve Kuhl, National Warning Coordination Meteorologist (WCM) Program Manager. "The Board addressed some important issues that were raised by our field WCMs. Ideas on how to increase program visibility and better serve our emergency management partners were discussed." Kuhl said the Board will be forming several issue teams, to consider, for example, developing some new StormReady/TsunamiReady marketing tools including printed materials and presentation aids, and to study StormReady designation standards.

As part of this year's meeting, the Board met with staff members from the offices of Senator Daniel Akaka and Congressman Ed Case, and Jeff LaDouce, Pacific Region Director, briefed the staff on the benefits of Storm/TsunamiReady.

"It was very beneficial to have the Congressional staff visit us at Pacific Region Headquarters, and explain to them the benefits of the StormReady and TsunamiReady program," said LaDouce. "We strongly support the program in the Pacific and hope that it will continue to grow throughout our region."

The briefing was followed by a tour of the Richard H. Hagemeyer Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, to educate the Congressional staff and StormReady Board on the important role the center plays in issuing tsunami warnings throughout much of the Pacific.

The National StormReady Advisory Board includes:

National WCM Program Manager Steve Kuhl; National WCM Program Manager Assistant Donna Franklin; Regional WCMs Joel Cline, Pacific Region; Aimee Devaris, Alaska Region; Jeff Lorens, Western Region; Walt Zaleski, Southern Region; Jim Keeney, Central Region; Rick Watling, Eastern Region (Rich Kane, WCM at the Pittsburgh, PA, Weather Forecast Office represented Eastern Region at this meeting); International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) representative Bob Goldhammer; and National Emergency Management Association (NEMA) representative Dave Liebersbach.

Service Hydrologist Gives Conference Talk On Great Flood of 1993

An NWS expert was a guest speaker at the Iowa U.S. Geological Survey District conference commemorating the 10-year anniversary of the Great Midwest Flood of 1993.

Jeff Zogg, the Service Hydrologist for the NWS Quad Cities, Iowa/Illinois (Davenport, IA), Weather Forecast Office, discussed meteorological and hydrologic conditions leading up to the flood; the meteorological and hydrologic conditions during the flood; and what the NWS has done differently since the 1993 great flood.

"One key component of what we've done since the Great Flood of 1993 was develop and implement the Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service (AHPS)," Zogg told the audience.

The conference was held in Coralville, IA, near Iowa City, where the Iowa River at Iowa City reached its second highest level ever, and water levels at Coralville Reservoir, about nine miles upstream from Iowa City, peaked at the highest level recorded since the reservoir was completed in 1958. That level was five feet above the elevation of the emergency spillway. This was the only time in the reservoir's history the spillway had been topped. Water went over the spillway for 26 consecutive days.

Zogg invited the conference attendees to an upcoming AHPS users' workshop NWS is hosting August 28, 2003, in Davenport, IA.

Other local and federal officials spoke about new technology, new procedures, and other changes in flood-warning systems and mitigation that have come about in the past 10 years, as well as challenges that still lie ahead. The public, as well as local, state, and federal officials, were also invited to attend.

Area political figures were involved as well. Staff representatives for U.S. Representative Jim Leach and U.S. Senator Tom Harkin also spoke at the conference.

"This conference provided great interaction between the NWS and its users, and it provided excellent visibility for the NWS too," Zogg said.

Also On the Web...Federal Agencies, Research Community to Develop Weather Research and Forecasting System

NOAA and the National Center for Atmospheric Research will partner with the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Navy, and the Federal Aviation Administration to develop a new weather forecast system for the research and operational forecasting communities. The new development, called the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF pronounced "wharf") system, is the result of a landmark cooperative effort among scientists at partnering public and private agencies. Read the NOAA news story here.