Brig. Gen. D.L. Johnson, USAF (Ret.), NWS Director, will host a town hall meeting carried live via a webcast for employees September 1, 2004, from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. ET. This is a change to the date announced last week here in NOAA's NWS Focus. Johnson will give a brief "State of the NWS" talk based on his observations over his past six months on the job, and will follow his talk by taking questions from employees. Open captioning will be provided on the webcast, and a sign-language interpreter will be provided at the NOAA Auditorium in Silver Spring, MD, the site of the NWS town hall meeting and webcast. Employees are encouraged to submit questions in advance via e-mail to NWS.Focus@noaa.gov. In the subject line label the e-mail "Webcast Question."

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Advanced Warning Operations Course Unveiled
By John Ferree
Team Leader, NWS Warning Decision Training Branch

The first week of August marks the beginning of a major training project for the National Weather Service as the Warning Decision Training Branch (WDTB) begins the Advanced Warning Operations Course (AWOC). Why a course on warning operations?

Dennis McCarthy, NWS Central Region Director, recently explained the reasoning behind AWOC.

"We have great tools to conduct our warning operations, a great radar and great workstations," McCarthy said. "We have improvements in those coming along. It's just not those tools, the radar and workstations, it's how we use them, what we do with them, and getting the most out of them. The Advanced Warning Operations Course is what that's all about. It's about bringing experience together with these tools to do the best job possible. This will ensure a healthy future for the Weather Service."

Over the past several years, the WDTB has facilitated numerous Warning Decision Making workshops. These workshops focused on the science, technology, and human factors of the warning decision making process. Attendees to these workshops often gave short seminars back at their local office, but frequently constraints only allowed them to deliver a small subset of the workshop materials. WDTB has converted much of this material to distance learning, added training on the latest severe weather science, and packaged it to allow all NWS forecasters to participate in a more comprehensive experience during the upcoming year.

The Advanced Warning Operations Course will initially consist of two tracks - a Core Track and Severe Weather Track. Each track contains 12 to 14 hours of training material (including evaluation components). Both tracks use a combination of distance learning technologies including teletraining, web-based training, computer-based training on CD-ROM, Weather Event Simulator (WES) simulations, and printed material.

At each NWS office, an onsite facilitator (typically, a Science and Operations Officer or Development and Operations Hydrologist) will help deliver the course, incorporating their expertise on local needs and requirements. Facilitators will attend one of seven three-day workshops starting in August. The workshops will focus on developing a partnership between WDTB and the onsite facilitators, familiarization with the course materials, and training on the new NWS Learning Management System.

Look for additional information on the AWOC main page at http://wdtb.noaa.gov/courses/awoc/index.html.

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Legislators Convene at NOAA Exhibit in Salt Lake City

Brian McInerney(left) and Bob Hansen greet visitors at the NOAA exhibit at NCSL. Photo by Caren Madsen, NOAA Constituent Affairs.

Legislators and legislative staff from more than 40 states visited the NOAA exhibit during the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) 2004 annual meeting held in Salt Lake City, UT, on July 19-23, 2004. The meeting drew about 3,500 attendees for four days of discussions on a variety of issues of interest to state lawmakers including the environment, state budgets, and public health. Topics of interest at the NOAA booth included improved accuracy in weather forecasting, All Hazards NOAA Weather Radio, drought, wildfires, emergency management, coastal hazards, air quality, coastal erosion, and habitat conservation and restoration. Founded in 1975, NCSL is a bipartisan organization that serves legislators and staffs of the Nation's 50 states, its commonwealths, and territories. NCSL provides  research, technical assistance,

Meteorologists from NWS's Weather Forecast Office in Salt Lake City were on hand to talk to legislators, help them navigate the NOAA web site, and hear direct feedback about NOAA services.

"[We] are extremely thankful for the help of NWS Warning Coordination Meteorologists (WCMs) David Toronto and Kevin Barjenbruch, and Service Hydrologist Brian McInerney for their assistance in staffing the NOAA exhibit throughout the conference," said Caren Madsen of NOAA's Office of Public, Constituent, and Intergovernmental Affairs, who coordinated the exhibit.

"We found that the NCSL conference attendees were excited about a chance to talk with real 'weather guys' right on the spot and learn more about weather patterns in their regions," said Madsen. Overall, comments about NOAA services were very positive, particularly in regard to the user friendly format of the NOAA web site.

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Donna Layton: Leading by Conviction, Commitment and Example
By Jessica Harper
NWS Communications Office/Public Affairs Intern

Donna Layton

The NWS Training Center in Kansas City, MO, is dedicated to outstanding leadership development. Thanks to the diligent guidance of the Center's Acting Director Donna Layton, federal employees are given the opportunity to reach the height of their leadership potential. Layton, who joined NWS in October 2001, has risen to popularity as a sound leader and a champion of conflict resolution. Ask any number of employees about the Acting Director and they will praise her ability to settle disagreements with a rare combination of firmness and understanding. "She uses her leadership skills to bring offices together," Master Instructor Sam Beckman noted. "She holds frequent meetings to address issues and discuss options and finds the link between our office and higher level management."

Layton, who recently received a 2004 NOAA Administrator's Award for her support of NOAA's performance goals through an exceptional level of leadership training, has dedicated her career to being an effective leader and helping others do the same.

"Good leadership results from a combination of character and competence," she noted. "Competence gives us the job skills necessary to carry out goals, but through character, we demonstrate the necessary integrity, honesty, trust, and respect."

For Layton, leadership is a balancing act, not something one-sided. It requires skill to accompany caring and strategy to match diplomacy. These beliefs are most evident in her development of and work with the Executive Leadership Seminar (ELS)-a training course that teaches NOAA and non-NOAA federal employees how to communicate with colleagues more efficiently and ultimately become better leaders because of it.

Layton, who was once employed at the U.S. Army, has been involved with leadership training for a little over two decades. In fact, the Executive Leadership Seminar grew out of a similar seminar called Personnel Management for Executives (PME), which she developed while with the Army. Layton carries philosophies learned from her previous job experience into her newer one. "In the Army, I learned the importance of "mission first, people always," she said. It is this type of selfless outlook that endears Layton to her co-workers and ELS participants so easily.

Layton's decision to implement the ELS in April 2002 grew out of a strong desire to offer her assistance to people who needed and wanted it. "From my position with Department of Army, I met such quality people in NWS -- people who expressed a great desire and need to develop themselves in terms of leadership and service," she said. "I believe people skills are needed in the workplace because they are vital to mission accomplishment. Effective leaders remember their actions, more than their words, are a primary form of communication."

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Forecast Office Works with Disadvantaged Youth to Encourage College Pursuit

	Center for Urban Youth and Technology Summer Institute students tour the WSR-88D with members of WFO Albany 's Systems Management Team. Photo by Joseph E. Bowman, Jr.

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Cost Management Question of the Month

Walt Felver from Central Region is the July cost management question of the month winner. For the July question, "During the second quarter, which region spent the least on forecast products?" Felver's correct answer was: Pacific Region, $426,000

Congratulations, Walt!

August's cost management question of the month is:

During the second quarter, which financial management center (FMC) spent the least on systems operations and maintenance? Please state the FMC and the amount.

The following link provides a clue and contains the answer. Link:

http://rims.nws.noaa.gov/qotm/coq_cams_(fmc)_v20.pdf

E-mail your answer to Natalie.Robinson@noaa.gov no later than August 25th, 2004. The first correct answer received wins an NWS shirt.

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Employee Milestones

. Click here to see NEW APPOINTMENTS/TRANSFERS to NWS through July 31, 2004.

. Click here to see RETIREMENTS/DEPARTURES from NWS through July 31, 2004.

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NWS Snapshots

Click here for a look at photos we've received from around the NWS.

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