Director's Dialog:
What is the Corporate Board?

Director Kelly,

I hear much about the NWS Corporate Board. Who are the members on this Board, and how did they become members? What is the function of the Board, and what powers do they hold?

Thanks,

Ryan Sandler, Meteorologist Medford, Oregon

  Thanks for your questions on the NWS Corporate Board.

The Board's functions are similar to those of a board of directors in a corporation. The NWS Board is comprised of the NWS Director and Deputy Director, Regional Headquarters and Office Directors, the Chief Financial Officer, Chief Information Officer, and the Director of Strategic Planning and Policy.

The Corporate Board identifies issues needing corporate level attention; evaluates options for resolution; determines the optimum resolution; and, assures the Board's decisions are documented and implemented.

In August 2002, the Board reorganized. An NOAA's NWS Focus article from August 12, 2003, highlights the Board's role and provides more information that may help answer your questions.

More detail on the makeup and functions of the Corporate Board is found in the Corporate Board Handbook.

I encourage all NWS employees to read the information at these links and become more familiar with your Corporate Board.

Jack Kelly

"Ask Why?" Pilot Program Update

The six-month "Ask Why?" pilot program aimed at encouraging employees to ask questions about 'what we do and why we do it,' is gaining momentum. Thus far, 16 questions were submitted by NWS employees; of those, 13 were answered within a three week time frame, and only three questions were answered outside of three weeks.

"The program was implemented to fill a need identified by employees during the SFA process. I am hopeful more employees will submit questions as word gets out about the program and its high response rate," states Chief Financial Officer Ted David.

Ask Why questions to date have included concerns about various work procedures, including questions about observing, forecasting, and equipment testing procedures.

The "Ask Why?" pilot program provides a vehicle for all NWS employees to ask why performing one of their work activities is necessary. Each question must be answered within three weeks, forcing management to respond or implement effective and efficient change. The program will be evaluated at the end of six months to determine if it will be continued or if changes are needed to improve the process.

NWS employees are encouraged to submit questions. For more detailed information about this program and instructions for processing a question, visit the Employee/Best Practices web site.

NWS Directives System: Lists of New Postings, Other Resources Available

The NWS Directives System (NDS) web site contains several resources for preparing and using NWS directives. Here are a few of them:

Check this section to see a list of all the directives posted within the last 60 days. Just go to "New Directives" and click on the hyperlink underneath and a list of new directives will appear along with their posted dates. Since each posted directive provides a future effective date (usually two weeks), checking this gives a heads up on new directives soon to be implemented. The What's New in Directives and Toolkit section also lists new procedures for preparing directives. All new procedures will be included in the next version of NWS Instructions 1-101. Staying aware of these procedures will make it easier to write and coordinate a directive. Crosswalks can be found in the NDS/WSOM X-REF section. These crosswalks help users identify NDS directives which superseded Weather Service Operations Manual (WSOM) Chapters and Operations Manual Letters (OMLs). Contact the Office of Primary Responsibility for questions about a particular WSOM Chapter or OML or NDS directive. This section also links to the archives.

NWS Managers Lead Information Technology Organization

NWS Chief Information Officer Barry West has been elected President of the Federation of Government Information Processing Councils (FGIPC). The FGIPC is an intergovernmental/industry group looking at Information Technology (IT) needs across the country.

Also new to the FGIPC Board of Directors is NWS Western Region Director Vickie Nadolski. She will serve as the Vice President of the Western Region of FGIPC. Both West and Nadolski were elected for two-year terms during the recent FGIPC annual meeting.

Established in December 1979, and headquartered in Fairfax, VA, the FGIPC is a not-for-profit corporation. The fundamental purpose of the FGIPC is to facilitate and encourage communication and partnerships between nationwide organizations of the government IT community, industry, and the academic community.

West says FGIPC can help agency technologies evolve systematically and efficiently, despite the rapidly-changing pace of IT development.

"In the past decade, many government agencies have found themselves with old legacy systems. Chief Information Officers of organizations, whether they are in government or the private sector, strive to ensure all systems are adequate to support their agency's mission. That's a tough job, but the FGIPC stands ready to help," West said.

The council also provides IT education and training to maintain high levels of technical competence for the information systems workforce in federal, state, and local governments.

"The federation is the professional society of Information Technology in government and structured as the governing agency with several councils established to meet the needs of the members," Nadolski said. "There are local FGIPC councils in many major metropolitan areas across the U.S. The councils prepare programs to meet the needs, interests, and capabilities of the government IT communities of those geographic areas. Other councils are dedicated to specific technologies of the IT industry and operate on a national basis."

One of FGIPC's advisory bodies is its Industry Advisory Council, which provides facilitated networking between the public and private IT sectors. "When the public and private sectors can create dynamic partnerships, solutions to common problems can be tackled and progress made that benefits everyone," added West.

West said the FGIPC represents the U.S. in the prestigious International Council for Information Technology in Government Administration (ICA), whose membership represents 23 countries. The FGIPC is also a member of the Public Employee Roundtable (PER) which, with 30 other professional public sector organizations, works to educate the American public on the important contributions made by public employees.

FGIPC's education programs extend to members and others interested in public sectors IT issues. There are instructional opportunities in various formats, including short courses, topical conferences, general conferences, self-study courses, and other formats. The Third Annual Western Forum will be August 24 - 26, 2003, in Park City, UT.

More information about the organization's activities and programs is available at http://www.fgipc.org.

Community Marks 50th Anniversary of Deadly Tornado

A year's worth of planning and significant community involvement recently resulted in a high-profile commemoration in Michigan of a 1953 tornado which remains the last single U.S. tornado to kill over 100 people. On June 8, 2003, the Detroit, MI, Weather Forecast Office (WFO) and community partners marked the 50th anniversary of the "Flint-Beecher" tornado at the site of one the worst natural disasters in the Nation's history. A total of 116 lives were claimed on June 8, 1953, and over 800 people suffered injuries as the tornado passed through the northern Flint, MI, community of Beecher.

Nearly 500 people attended the commemoration at the Beecher High School Auditorium, the very same facility that was nearly destroyed in the 1953 twister. The master of ceremony was local TV and radio personality John McMurray, and the event featured keynote addresses from Storm Prediction Center (SPC) Director, Joe Schaefer, FEMA Region 5 Director Ed Buikema, recollections from tornado survivors, and an emotional reading of all 116 names of those that died.

The ceremony was broadcast live on Flint ABC affiliate WJRT-TV, and was covered by all major media in southeast Michigan, CNN, and The Weather Channel. The Flint Journal ran special commemoration editions throughout the preceding week.

The ceremony was preceded by a wreath-laying and memorial at the Memorial Monument on the corner of Saginaw Street and Coldwater Road, and was followed by a "Survivor Reunion" and reception in the Beecher High School Field House. The reception included an exhibit of scrapbooks, an extensive collection of historical photographs, displays, historic newspapers, informational booths, and a tornado remembrance sculpture by Flint artist Dianne Kudza.

All of these commemoration activities were the culmination of a year's worth of planning and preparation by the Beecher 50th Anniversary Commemoration Committee. Established by WFO Detroit WCM, Rich Pollman, the committee included community leaders from NOAA National Weather Service, American Red Cross, The Flint Journal, Heart of Flint Senior Citizen Services, Sloan Museum, Genesee and Lapeer County Emergency Management, The Salvation Army, Beecher Schools, and the Flint Public Library.

WFO Detroit Meteorologist-In-Charge Dick Wagenmaker noted, "...everyone on the committee did a wonderful job preparing the commemoration... and it was incredible to see such community involvement. It is obvious the impact of the tornado is still being felt in Flint, even 50 years later... and it makes us realize the important role the NWS plays in our communities." Ironically, following the ceremony, a tornado hit the area causing substantial damage in the southern Flint community of Grand Blanc. Unlike the Beecher tornado of 50 years prior, this tornado struck with 45 minutes advance warning - and no one was killed or injured.

The spirit of the day was captured by Dawn Marie Nimtz of Bay City in a letter to the Flint Journal, "...how ironic that I was at the ceremonies and had gone to visit my Aunt Jean, who lives on Kurtz Avenue (same house that was rebuilt afterwards), when the sirens went off Sunday. I couldn't believe there were tornado warnings on this same day, let alone an actual tornado touching down. I have immense gratitude for today's National Weather Service."

For more information on the Flint-Beecher Tornado please visit: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/dtx/1953beecher

NWS Forecaster Travels to Honduras to Construct Water System

Senior Forecaster Kerry Jones traveled to Nueva Florida, Honduras recently to work with a group of graduate students to build a new gravity-flow water system. Kerry Jones, who works at the Albuquerque Weather Forecast Office, is also a part-time graduate student at the University of New Mexico (UNM). The June 2-13, 2003, trip partially fulfilled the requirements of a capstone course in the Water Resources Program at UNM.

"This was a great learning and cultural experience for us, but it also provided an opportunity to share weather safety tips to a community that has seen tremendous weather-related losses,"Jones said. Hurricane Mitch devastated Honduras in 1998 and there are still many vivid reminders of that deadly storm today. With the help of an interpreter, Kerry Jones and his colleagues provided some basic instruction regarding the village's water resources and weather safety rules related to lightning, flash floods, and hurricanes.

Nueva Florida is a small, remote village located approximately 20 miles southwest of Puerto Cortes, the largest port city on Honduras' north coast. Located at 2,000 feet above sea level, the village is accessible only by foot or horse. Kerry Jones' group included Professors Michael Campana and Michele Minnis, along with graduate students Cindy Noland and Danielle Shuryn. They lived with one of the local families and worked with a local elementary teacher and water activist, Alex del Cid Vasquez, to help construct a new gravity-flow water system for the village. A stream at 3,000 feet above sea level feeds the water system. Kerry Jones' group built a small concrete dam whose reservoir will serve the approximately 45 families in the village.

A second group of UNM students followed Jones' visit and constructed a holding tank and a portion of the distribution system. The entire water supply system is expected to be completed by early fall 2003.

Water projects similar to the one in Nueva Florida are partially funded by the not-for-profit Ann Campana Judge Foundation (ACJ). The ACJ Foundation was founded by Professor Campana in 2002 to honor his late sister Ann Campana Judge, former Travel Department Head of The National Geographic Society, who was killed on September 11, 2001. She was aboard American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon.