NWS Director Notes Achievements and Challenges During Town Hall Meeting/Webcast

Technical difficulties reduced the quality of the September 1, 2004, town hall meeting/webcast for employees participating via the Internet. An alternate version of the broadcast with improved audio has been posted to the webcast site; the previous version with open captioning remains available. Click here for a look at the presentation visuals. Following are highlights of the session.

Brig. Gen. D.L. Johnson, USAF (Ret.) described his first 7.5 months as NWS Director as "awesome" and told about 200 NWS employees attending the town hall meeting at the NOAA Auditorium in Silver Spring on the state of the weather service that, "We are world-class at providing environmental information." During the one-hour session, Johnson discussed agency performance and issues. He also answered employee questions.

Successes

Fire Weather: Among the successes during his tenure, Johnson discussed the fire season in Alaska, Hurricane Charley, and the Illinois Tornado. "This is the worst fire season on record in Alaska. About as much acreage has burned as the size of the state of New Jersey," he said. Johnson noted that we are an "integrated part of the team."

Hurricane Charley: "The Hurricane Center did an industrial strength job on Hurricane Charley," he said. "I was a little unprepared for some of the backlash...Max Mayfield and Lou Uccellini tell me that if you don't have a thick skin you need to grow one- and I'm in the process of doing that."

Illinois Tornado: Johnson called the July 13, 2004, Roanoke, IL, Tornado a "good news story" where someone paid attention to a watch, took action to a warning and consequently saved about 130 people when a tornado barreled through and demolished a manufacturing plant.

Employee Recognition Coins: Johnson knows our successes are directly linked to the hard work of our employees. He spoke about his philosophy on recognizing employees for good work and explained the significance of the special NWS coins he occasionally gives to employees.

Performance

The NWS is not meeting four Government Performance Requirements Act Performance Measure goals for FY 04: Tornado Warnings-False Alarm Rate; Aviation Forecasts (Ceiling and Visibility)-Accuracy; U.S. Seasonal Temperature-Skill; and Marine Wave Height Forecasts-Accuracy. Johnson stressed that we need to have good goals and measures when they are thought up because you can not go back and fix them. He said we can do "good for America" if we have good goals that are meaningful, within our span of control, we can do something about and are achievable. He explained that this enables us to conduct a cost benefit analysis to figure out where we should best put our resources.

Budget

Johnson said about the FY 05 budget, "This is going to be an extremely difficult year so we are trying to do things that are smart for the longer term anticipating some lean years ahead...We know that we are competing to sustain existing products and services and to do smart intelligent things in the future."

Corporate Board

Johnson noted the Corporate Board is "doing much better." "We've tackled some pretty difficult issues right up front," he said. For example, the Board has looked at workload issues and whether employees add any value over the models at days 4-7. According to Johnson, if employees add the most value in days 1, 2, 3, maybe we don't need to waste employee time crunching grids beyond day 3. This may be a smarter way of applying the talent and abilities that we have, he said. The Board also created priorities for FY 07-11. Click here for a related story.

CWSUs

Johnson acknowledged that the Federal Aviation Administration has been in the midst of a reorganization for a long time. He said that in the meantime, we know that we need to learn more about the customer, and however the customer is going to be structured we know we will need to have certain functions to help out so we are marching down that path. "We can't be paralyzed from doing the right thing just because somebody else is studying options for their own organization."

AWIPS Test Messages

Johnson said there are opportunities for us to do better. He talked about erroneous test messages that have gone out and said, "We don't want to teach America to ignore us...(we) need to be able to test our software and make sure that when we do need to warn America, we actually can." There are software issues that we must address. He also said that there are opportunities to put the word test "right up front" so if there is a glitch in the system-people will know it is a test. "We count on the smart employee to assume we do the right thing and if perchance we make an error-that all know it is only a test. We need to teach America to pay attention and heed our warnings."

NOAA Update

Johnson discussed several NOAA issues including the Ocean Commission Report, talk of moving NOAA into the Department of Interior, the research review team and communication between his counterparts in the other NOAA Line Offices.

Ocean Commission Report: Johnson reminded employees that when it comes to ocean "we are players" and we need to continue educating NOAA and our partners that we already do a lot of things wet and we are part of the team. In fact, the NWS has the lead on the water quality initiative which is going to be a big part of the Ocean Commission Report.

Department of Interior?: In regards to the members of Congress that are questioning why NOAA is not in the Department of Interior he said that this was mostly fish-related and he expected there to be some hearings in September. For now, Commerce is our home.

Research Review Team: A new NOAA Research Review Team is looking at research NOAA-wide and not just that done in the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR).

AA Communication: Being "the new guy" Johnson is trying to be the catalyst for improved communications between all of the Assistant Administrators. In addition to lunches, the four Line Office AAs will meet formally in a group called the "Quadriga" to discuss issues of mutual concern leading to better planning, programming budget, and execution.

Space Environment Center

Johnson said the NWS anticipates during the next fiscal year, the Space Environment Center may come under the budgeting and daily operational control of the National Weather Service. "We are not going to abandon the research functions of the Space Environment Center," Johnson said. "We are going to focus on doing 24-7 operations and maintain robust research."

Questions and Answers

Johnson accepted questions in advance of the event via e-mail, and live, via telephone during the meeting. Click here for a summary of questions answered during the town hall session.

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Memo Outlines NWS Program Priorities for Fiscal Years 2007-2011

NWS corporate program priorities for Fiscal Years 2007-2011, developed by the NWS Corporate Board, were recently outlined in a memorandum from Brig. Gen. D.L. Johnson, USAF (Ret.), NWS Director, to Program Managers and NOAA Mission Goal Team Leads.

Themes and priorities described in the memo include "must pay" items such as fully funding Federal pay, information technology/web security and other NWS necessities. Other priorities include: Priority #1 – Disseminate and Deliver NOAA’s Information and Services; Priority #2 – Predict Future Hazards; Priority #3 – Observations/Data; Priority #4 – Accelerate Advances in Medium Range Forecasting; and, Priority #5 – Facilities.

View the FY 07-11 NWS Priorities memo here.

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Data Buoy Center Plans to Re-Compete Tech Services Contract

The National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) recently announced plans to re-compete its $500 million Technical Services Contract, which is ending and will be up for bid.

The proposed contract is projected as a $500 million, ten-year performance based contract. It will provide life cycle support for NOAA's Marine Observation Network and its Data Assembly Center. Contract functions will include operation, maintenance and repair of buoy and land-based environmental data collection networks; operation of the NDBC facilities; testing of existing and new buoy systems; data processing and transmissions; logistics support; quality assurance and safety; configuration and scientific support for new technology, development and test programs.

Read the full news NOAA release here.

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Also On the Web...Commerce Department Pioneeer Fund Grants Available

In 1999, the Tampa, FL, Weather Forecast Office used a grant from a Department of Commerce (DOC) Program to create a training tool to help radar operators identify patterns of tornado, hail, wind, and waterspout cases over the Florida peninsua. The Florida Severe Weather Guide was the result of a Pioneer Fund grant. DOC is accepting applications now for Pioneer grants. Read more about the application process here.

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Employee Milestones

• Click here to see NEW APPOINTMENTS/TRANSFERS to NWS through August 31, 2004.
• Click here to see RETIREMENTS/DEPARTURES from NWS through August 31, 2004.

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