Making a Proposal to the AMS Board on Best Practices

The Commission on Professional Affairs is charged with creating and establishing a Board to consider ratification or endorsement of standards and practices related to issues, products, services, needs, or concerns of interest to the American Meteorological Society and the sciences and constituencies it represents. The Board on Best Practices (BBP) will consider best practices across sectors of the weather, water, and climate enterprise; to identify and promote statements of scientifically-based standards and practices deemed sufficiently worthy of the credibility and reputation of the Society.

The mission of the BBP includes, but is not limited to, the following:

• Recommendation of third party standards and practices as appropriate for consideration as “AMS-affirmed third-party standards/practices”
• Recommendation of AMS best practices, if any
• Improvement of the overall AMS strategy and policy with regard to standards and practices

The purpose of a Best Practice is to alert the AMS membership, governmental and private sector organizations, and in some cases, the general public to AMS endorsed best practices across sectors of the weather, water, and climate enterprise, and to promote statements of scientifically-based standards and practices from third parties deemed worthy of the credibility and reputation of the society. 

Each Best Practice will begin with a proposal to the Board on Best Practices that will include:

• Statement of need 
• Why AMS? (as opposed to some other organization - what makes it unique to our professional society) 
• Scientific Basis (if appropriate - for example a new scientific finding means our normal way of doing something has to change)
• Audience (AMS members, policy makers, general public, etc)
• Draft Charge to the drafting committee (what will you tell the committee to accomplish) 
• Other AMS Boards and Committees we might involve (Like the broadcast board or a STAC committee)

Email to Lance Steele