AMS CCS telecom Friday, June 19, 2009
In attendance: Ed O'Lenic, Paul Llanso, Ryan Boyles, Peter Robinson,
John Dutton, Kelly Redmond, Ken Hubbard
Paul: Mary Pat Matheson - Atlanta Botanical Garden. Is available to
assist.
Adam Smith - Expert on valuing climate information
Otis Brown - Dir. of Coop Institute on Climate and Satellites, U. Md.
Agenda:
- Themes and speakers for 2 webinars, possible CCM involvement
- Theme and speakers for a Town Hall Meeting, possible CCM, CVC
involvement
- Joint Session with CVC
Ed: The themed Joint Sessions Deadline is Monday.
Ed: It would benefit the community if we could get down into the issues
that face them. These are not necessarily related to climate change,
but might be. CCMs are a group which I think of as being IN the climate
services community. They also have access to a number of users with a
wide variety of needs.
Peter: From the CCM point of view, the CCMs are users of climate
services. There are 2 groups - 1) those associated with targeted
weather forecasting, and 2) those dealing as consultants on all kinds of
weather-related issues. CCMs want to know: What climate services are
available?, what are coming in the future? CCMs are generally users of
climate.
Kelly - CCMs both consume and use climate services.
Peter: Agreed. Many of them feel isolated from the govt. and the
formal climate services community.
Ryan: Need to answer what climate services are.
Ed: Peter's comment indicates an excellent reason to engage the CCMs.
They are part of the community, and need to feel, and be included.
Peter: There are 450 or so CCMs.
Paul: What is needed to get them in? Maybe we should ask CCMs this
question.
Ed: That's a question which can only be answered through the discovery
process we are trying to exercise in the webinar. It should certainly
be asked.
JAD: We need to be concerned about pull. What problems users are
encountering. How does climate information impact users?
Decadal review of NCEP have a list of clients and users. Those are an
impressive list. The climate services community needs that list.
Peter: CCMs are in direct contact with users. They certainly could
play a role in getting understanding of user needs.
Ryan: Have a webinar aimed at water users. This could be a forum.
JAD: Can we figure out how CCMs would garner this user information.
Peter: CCMs are not a monolithic block. To CCMs: What problems have
you had serving clients? How did you solve it?
Kelly: Good to hear from the CCMs themselves. What are the upstream
and downstream issues? Related to that: Do they see systemic problems,
vs individual problems?
Peter: It would be very interesting to hear about systemic problems. I
can't answer that question. We might address this as a question, or as
a general issue. My feeling is that systemic issues will emerge.
Ken: You want to know what bottlenecks they are having.
Kelly: we could also ask what classes of future needs and help they
will need to do their job better. Not just the past, but also the future.
Ed: Webinar Title: Climate Services for Water Clients: User Needs and
Data Availability.
Ed: Does everybody like that title? (Most seem to agree, based on what
I could hear over the phone.)
Kelly: CCMs and climate services are all about using information to
make better decisions. Are they getting the kind of climate information
they need in each of their decision-making contexts?
JAD: That is an excellent point.
Ryan: We could get material for other webinars from CVC short courses.
Kelly: An interruption of the short course with the audience to help
inform the webinar would be useful.
Peter: There should be an invitation from Ed to all of the CCMs. We
should then follow-up with invitations to individuals.
Kelly: Email to CCMs: 1) do you want to participate?, 2) do you want
to present.
JAD: Yes.
Peter: Explain in the email what a webinar is.
Ken: RSVP the email.
JAD: 5 Speakers may be too many. 3 or 4 is better.
Peter: Kelly Savaret, AMS has a list of CCMs and email addresses.
Kelly: It might be good if the mailing that came from both Ed and a CCM.
Ed: I will coordinate with Peter and Kelly. Peter and I can both sign
the letter.
Ed: When should the webinar be held?
JAD: mid-Sep-mid-Oct
Paul: (sorry Paul, I missed your comment here - Ed)
Peter: We should ask people to offer topics. There about 350 active CCMs.
JAD: You could wait until after the webinar to decide about the Town Hall.
Peter: What is the deadline for setting up a town hall?
Ed: I don't know. I will find out.
Kelly: Combine Town Hall with webinar.
ED: I will discuss this with the AMS. This technology certainly has
the capacity to work well in this situation.
Kelly: We need to set a generic topic.
Peter: What are Climate Services and Where are they Going? Using the
Experience of CCMs. CCMs would like to do something just like this.
Kelly: Too generic a topic is often a problem at Town Halls. Some kind
of CCM with a public-private link. CCMs as an example of how to arrange
the public-private CS interface. Using CCMs to learn more about that.
We need to take advantage of CCMs expertise.
Peter: Need a smooth title. I would not anticipate a single CCM being
capable of doing it. Several speakers would be needed.
Ed: This is just where the webinar technology can help.
Kelly: I can help review the invitation to CCMs.
Ed: How about this for a Town Hall title:
"CCMs Experience as Users and Providers of Climate Services"
Ed: This was a great meeting. Thanks to everyone.
Lets meet again at 1:00 PM EDT, July 17, 2009.