NOAA/NCIM partnership training spreads to everyone in the weather enterprise

By Pam Heinselman (OU/CIMMS) and Daphne LaDue (OU/CAPS)

Everyone in the weather enterprise can now explore the relationship between the public and private sectors and learn how these two sectors can work together by taking the Private-Public Partnership training module. This course is for anyone interested in improving the opportunities, quality, and reach of weather services.

It contains a series of interactive modules based on a June 2006 workshop held at Howard University. About 50 people representing both the public and private sectors attended the workshop, which was sponsored by NOAA and the National Council of Industrial Meteorologists (NCIM). Private sector meteorologists can explore the distance learning version of the course through NCIM at http://www.ncim.org/pppcourse2006/ and all NWS employees can now include the course in their personal professional development plans by accessing it through their Learning Management System.

Ed Johnson, Director, Office of Strategic Planning and Policy, and John Toohey-Morales, CBM, CCM created the original workshop, after the revision of the NOAA Partnership Policy. While there are many things the two sectors share, there are also dramatic differences that make working together challenging. This workshop was designed to educate both sectors about these differences to help them forge effective partnerships that grow the weather enterprise as a whole. Taking these modules will help all NWS employees continue the multi-sector dialogue that began at the conference.

How the sectors have successfully partnered and how some of their roles overlap and complement each other have surprised many of those who have taken the module, including the roles and capabilities of each sector. Examples of partnerships between sectors and a translation of the NOAA Partnership Policy are also very useful to improve the enterprise.

An interesting lunch talk by a former NOAA Legislative Affairs Officer is included in video clip format. He reminds everyone about how Congress works, the role Congress plays and does not play in the enterprise, and which House and Senate committees are most relevant. Additionally, the speaker gives tips about how to work with Congress and encourages everyone to create the enterprise they envision.

The remaining sections become increasingly interactive, first through a dialogue about how planning, funding, terminology, and work culture differ between the sectors. Then, there is an opportunity to apply knowledge from the previous sections in two case studies that have no clear solution. The authors of the module encourage everyone to work on the case studies with colleagues, not only to help clarify and apply knowledge from the earlier sections to real-life situations, but also to have fun. Better understanding and appreciation of how the public and private sectors work by partnerships can help all of us by growing the weather enterprise as a whole.

Things Worth Watching

By Ed Johnson, NWS, Director of Strategic Planning and Policy

It was a pleasure to be invited to attend the NCIM Mid-year Meeting in New Orleans and an honor to be given a little time on the agenda to mention a few things that I think NCIM members might want to watch:

(1) The NOAA Science Advisory Board has a subcommittee which has been asked to give NOAA advice on how we might improve our advisory mechanisms for the weather enterprise. This committee includes two NCIM members (George Frederick and John Toohey-Morales) and could lead to something like a new advisory committee for NOAA to seek advice on our environmental information services.

(2) AMS has formed a committee, under the Commission on the Weather and Climate Enterprise, to look at the very interesting issue of how the enterprise conveys uncertainty in our products and services. (Elliott Abrams of the NCIM is one of the co-chairs of this committee.

(3) Within NWS, I think most NCIM members ought to monitor our public database of proposed changes in our services — see http://www.weather.gov/infoservicechanges/ — and you can even sign up for notification of new entries via an RSS feed (it’s so easy even I could do it). In addition to just keeping up with proposed changes in our services in general, I think NCIM members will see on this database a few entries (some there already, others coming) that show how NWS is working to incorporate new internet-based technologies like instant messaging and web video into our services to improve communications with the media and the hazards community.

(4) I am also working to increase the transparency of NWS development activities so NCIM members (and others, of course) can get more visibility into earlier steps in NWS product development — this is going to take some time, but I know it is an area of interest to at least some NCIM members.

(5) I also think NCIM members should think about keeping up with the changes being developed in the way aviation weather information is being produced, provided, and used for the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen). You can keep up with NextGen on the Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO) web site at http://www.jpdo.gov/. I think NextGen is of interest not just for those who have business interests in aviation, but also because it is likely to create new standards and communication methods for aviation weather that will eventually be used for many other kinds of environmental information.

New Orleans 2 years after Katrina: A Visitor’s Perspective

by John Toohey-Morales, CBM, CCM

Katrina struck the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts on the morning of August 29th, 2005. Even though more than two years have passed since its devastating impact, the city of New Orleans has yet to recover. During the AMS Annual Meeting this January many, including myself, had an opportunity to tour the New Orleans neighborhoods that were most affected by the storm. Having lived through Hurricane Andrew in southern Miami-Dade County, I tend to not be easily impressionable when I see images of hurricane destruction.

But it’s difficult to not be impacted by what one sees in New Orleans. A key fact to digest is that 80 percent of the city was flooded by Katrina. Only the historic French Quarter remained dry. Among those flooded, there were neighborhoods where the water was 15 feet deep. In other words, on the two-story homes that survived, you can clearly see the mark left by the dirty water line on the second floor. When visiting the Lower 9th Ward, where so many families with few resources lived, it is chilling to see the holes in the roofs of the homes where residents had to ax their way out of their attic and wait to be rescued. Not everyone had an ax. Not all were young or had the strength to get out.

Another sight that impressed me was that of the canals that crisscross the city. I am accustomed to seeing these in South Florida, where the Everglades were drained to allow for development and urbanization. But the canals in New Orleans are elevated, each contained within earthen levees and concrete walls. Behind each wall and levee are entire neighborhoods lying entirely well below the level of the water. Seeing this makes it easy to visualize how New Orleans flooded so quickly when the levees failed. It should deeply concern us that someday the levees will fail again, and the city will again be ravaged by flood waters.

Yet I don’t blame the residents of New Orleans for wanting to return. After all, it is home. In the 9th Ward I observed the good work being done by “Habitat for Humanity”. Family by family, this organization is building homes rapidly and efficiently for the victims of the hurricane. I also saw the area where actor Brad Pitt and his foundation will build dozens of new homes. These are places where there was hardly a nail left from the original structures. Right now you can only see weeds, and some cinder blocks that outline the layout of each of the homes that used to stand there.

Despite the help from these and many other organizations, less than half of the residents of New Orleans have returned. There is a housing shortage (obviously), and rent has doubled from $600 to $1,200 for a 2 bedroom apartment. New Orleans is far – very far – from a full recovery.

A Mentor’s Reflection on Private Sector Mentoring

by Phillip D. Falconer, CCM

One year ago, NCIM Member, Jim Block, solicited my interest in participating in a new mentorship program that had been created by the AMS Board of Private Sector Meteorologists. At its core, the program was designed to foster one-on-one personal interactions between private sector mentors and selected undergraduate and graduate students interested in working in the private sector.

Successful mentoring was envisioned to be a shared responsibility for learning, based on clearly defined learning objectives. The duration of the mentor-mentee relationship was suggested to run from January 2007, commencing with the AMS Annual Meeting, to at least the end of the student’s academic year.

My mentee, Zack Byko, was a graduate student at Penn State University. During our initial meeting, we got to know one another and discussed our expectations and initial goals for the program, including an agreement that we would correspond mostly by e-mail on an occasional basis, and by phone as necessary.

Over the next few months, we discussed potential employment opportunities. But the surprising highlight of our long-distance relationship was that Zack invited fellow mentor and NCIM member, Dick Westergard and I down to the Penn State campus to give a talk about the mentorship program to the Penn State Chapter of the American Meteorological Society. We talked about our careers and our thoughts about what it takes to make a successful transition from student to employee. Along the way, we brought up the value of a good resume, the need for flexibility in choosing which employment announcements to respond to, the need to recognize and nurture professional networking opportunities, and the role that serendipity often plays in one’s professional career. It was a fitting way to have capped off a very successful mentoring experience.

P.S. I ran into Zack at this year’s AMS Annual Meeting in New Orleans, and found that he is happily employed at Mars Snackfoods USA as an applied climatologist.

And A Student’s Perspective:
by Zack Byko, Commodity Research Manager, Mars Snackfood USIn the fall of 2006, I was immersed in my master’s research at Penn State University, while at the same time beginning to identify career paths that would be both challenging and rewarding. One afternoon, I came across an email promoting a trial run of a new mentorship program sponsored by the AMS Board of Private Sector Meteorologists. As someone who as always identified with the challenges, dedication, hard-work, and freedom associated with private sector meteorology, I felt it natural to apply to this program. Little did I know it would be one of the best decisions I made during my final year as a student.

I first met my mentors, Phil Falconer and Dick Westergard, at the 2007 AMS Annual Meeting in San Antonio, TX. Both talked about the roads they traveled during their careers and let me know that it is okay to take risks and try a job I may never have imagined myself in the first day I stepped into a meteorology classroom as an undergraduate. Most importantly, they made it clear how they wanted to run our discussions; openly and honestly.

After our initial meeting, we corresponded via email. Along the way, Phil and I realized we both had close ties to the Talcott Mountain Science Center in Avon, CT. We brought stories about Talcott from two different time periods and sharing them helped in developing our mentor/mentee relationship.

Our discussions often were career-oriented. Phil came across to me as being quite satisfied with a long career as a consulting meteorologist and Dick expressed happiness in his recent private sector endeavors. Not surprisingly, most of the job applications I submitted were to private companies.

During the summer, I accepted a position providing weather and climate forecasts with Mars Snackfood US. When I sent Phil and Dick an email informing them of my decision, both were excited and surprised, as I had discovered a private sector opportunity that was new even to them! Being with Mars for almost 8 months now, I can say I am very satisfied with my decision. It is my hope that Phil and Dick take satisfaction knowing that their guidance has helped launch my career to a great start. Hopefully, this mentorship program continues to provide career guidance to many more students like me.