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| FL Craft Fair Today | Fri, 12 Nov |
| NCAR on TV: Understanding Weather | Fri, 12 Nov |
| NCAR on TV: Understanding Weather | Thu, 11 Nov |
| UCARflex 2000 Open Enrollment Employee Meetings | Wed, 10 Nov |
| Employment Process Presentation--Tomorrow! | Wed, 10 Nov |
| Discounts on Subscriptions to Popular Magazines for Staff | Tue, 9 Nov |
| New noon-time aerobics classes offered at ML | Tue, 9 Nov |
| Send Document Requests to the Library at ncarill@ucar.edu | Mon, 8 Nov |
| UCARflex2000 Open Enrollment | Mon, 8 Nov |
| 22 October President's Council Summary | Fri, 5 Nov |
| Wellness Events for November | Tue, 26 Oct |
| Staff Development Events for November | Tue, 26 Oct |
| Workshop on Chemical Data Assimilation | Fri, 22 Oct |
| FL Drop-in Yoga Class Begins October 18 | Fri, 8 Oct |
The Employee Activities Committee (EAC) sponsored Craft Fair will be held today at Foothills Lab Cafeteria Atrium from 11:30-1:30. A variety of crafts will be offered for sale by UCAR/NCAR employees as well as friends & family members of employees. An EAC-sponsored Craft Fair will be held in the lobby of Mesa Lab on Friday, 19 November, 11:30-1:30.
For more information, contact Joan Chiszar at 8908, jchiszar@ucar.edu.
(Posted Fri 12 Nov to Sat 13 Nov)
Kevin Trenberth is scheduled to appear on "Understanding Weather," The Learning Channel, on Sunday, 14 November, at 8:00 p.m. Mountain Time (repeat at 11:00 p.m.). Topics examined include solar cycles, the Gulf Stream, El Nino, and the North Atlantic Oscillation. TLC airs on AT&T Cable Channel 47 in Boulder and Channel 39 in Longmont.
For more information, contact Anatta at 8604, anatta@ucar.edu.
(Posted Fri 12 Nov to Sun 14 Nov)
Kevin Trenberth is scheduled to appear on "Understanding Weather," The Learning Channel, on Sunday, November 14, at 8:00 p.m. Mountain Time (repeat at 11:00 p.m.). The show will explore solar cycles, the Gulf Stream, El Nino, and the North Atlantic Oscillation. TLC airs on AT&T Cable Channel 47 in Boulder and Channel 39 in Longmont.
For more information, contact Anatta at 8604, anatta@ucar.edu.
(Posted Thu 11 Nov to Fri 12 Nov)
Open enrollment meetings for UCARflex 2000 will be held Wednesday, November 10 at 1:30 - 3:00 p.m. in the Auditorium at Foothills Lab 2. An additional meeting is scheduled at the Mesa Lab on Thursday, November 11 at 10:00-11:30 a.m in the Main Seminar Room. We will review any changes in the three medical insurance options, explain the new 3-Tier Prescription Benefit program, and try to answer any questions. A representative from PacifiCare will be present at both meetings.
For more information, contact Cyd Perrone at 8710, cperrone@ucar.edu.
(Posted Wed 10 Nov to Fri 12 Nov)
UCAR's enhanced employment process became effective on November 1st. We think you will like the changes, but you will need to know the "how to's" in order to effectively hire new employees. A summary of the enhancements: - We accept resumes at any time and for any job - We advertise "soft" close dates - We no longer advertise UCAR salary ranges - We use web-based advertising to publicize UCAR openings - We maintain a database of applicants interested in employment in all fields/disciplines - We place generic newspaper advertising on a regular basis to keep the database populated - We use the database to develop the candidate pool for each UCAR vacancy On Thursday, November 11th, Human Resources staff will present an Employment Workshop for COMET staff members. If you haven't had a chance to attend one of the recent workshops, we would like to invite you to this one. Formal workshop enrollment is not necessary, and all UCAR employees are invited. Thursday, November 11, 1999 10:00 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. COMET Classroom (behind the front desk in FL-2) If you are unable to attend, please contact Jenny Maggert x8715 to arrange training. Thank you!
For more information, contact Nancy Norris at 8717, nnorris@ucar.edu.
(Posted Wed 10 Nov to Tue 16 Nov)
Through December 31st, 1999, all NCAR/UCAR staff may make purchases for personal use from Vulcan Service, a company offering magazine subscriptions at a substantial discount. A complete list of the titles available and an order form can be picked up at either the ML or FL library locations. The list includes "Working Woman", "PC Magazine", "Elle" "Money", "Wired", "Seventeen", "Metropolitan Home", "Sports Illustrated", "Time", "Economist", and "Bon Appetite".
For more information, contact Gayl Gray at 1183, gayl@ucar.edu. Or see
the web page at
NCAR Library Homepage.
(Posted Tue 9 Nov to Mon 15 Nov)
The noon-time aerobics classes at the ML Fitness Center have undergone
some changes. First of all, we are pleased to announce that Maura
Hagan has agreed to teach a basic step aerobics class on Thursdays
from 12-1 PM. She has been teaching a variety of classes at FL since
1992, and gears her classes to a broad range of fitness levels by
suggesting modified movements. She's also very big on safety. For more
information, see Maura's web site:
http://www.hao.ucar.edu/aerobics/aerobics.html
Sylvia Murphy and Mary Haley will teach step aerobics and toning
classes from 12-1 PM on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Emphasis is placed on getting a good cardiovascular and muscle
strengthening workout while doing something enjoyable. These classes
will focus on simple step routines designed for beginner to
intermediate steppers.
Best of all, the noon-time aerobics classes are FREE!
For detailed information on the schedule, please visit the ML
Fitness Center Schedule at:
http://www.fin.ucar.edu/wellness/internal/ml.schedule.html
For detailed information on the format of the classes, please
visit the ML Aerobics Classes URL at:
http://www.fin.ucar.edu/wellness/internal/ml.aerobics.html
For more information, contact Mary Haley at x1254, haley@ucar.edu.
(Posted Tue 9 Nov to Mon 15 Nov)
NCAR/UCAR staff requiring an interlibrary loan or research materials that are not available at their NCAR library locations can request these items by sending e-mail to the address ncarill@ucar.edu. This mailbox is accessed every working day by library staff, although for immediate needs we recommend that you phone us instead (ML ext. 1180; FL ext. 8505). If you have an online description of the item you need, just cut and paste it into the e-mail message you're sending to us. NCAR staff assigned to distant locales also have found this a useful ordering method.
For more information, contact Leslie Forehand at 8505,
forehand@ucar.edu.
(Posted Mon 8 Nov to Sun 14 Nov)
Open Enrollment for UCARflex2000 begins today, Monday, November 8, and ends on Tuesday, November 30th. If you wish to make any changes to your health care options, enroll in either the Health Care Flexible Spending Account or the Dependent Care Spending Account for 2000, you MUST do so by 5pm, Tuesday, November 30th. The UCARflex2000 enrollment web site is located at http://www.my-benefits.com. To access the web site, please refer to the UCARflex 2000 Enrollment bulletin you received via internal mail last week. It contains complete login and password instructions. If you have any questions about accessing the site, please contact Colleen Canfield at colleen@ucar.edu or Cyd Perrone at cperrone@ucar.edu.
For more information, contact Cyd Perrone at 8710, cperrone@ucar.edu.
(Posted Mon 8 Nov to Sun 14 Nov)
Attending for entire meeting: Rick Anthes, Walt Dabberdt, Jack Fellows, Bob Serafin, Katy Schmoll Attending for Item 1: Melissa Miller, Judy Jones Attending for item 2: Steve Sadler Attending for item 3: Jeff Reaves, Dan Wilson Attending for items 4 through 7: Edna Comedy, Bob Roesch Attending for item 8 and 9: Lucy Warner 1. FY 2001 Indirect Budget Planning: Melissa, Judy and Katy presented a summary of the issues identified in the postmortem of the FY 2000 rate development process. The most significant issues included difficulties with the template, the schedule and communications. Based on this feedback, we are taking the following actions: a. Revising the templates. For FY 2001 rate development, the templates will include FY 1999 actuals and FY 2000 budget. In addition, it was agreed that we would use the FY 2000 budget as the baseline for FY 2001. A 4.25% salary increase factor will be used, and we will provide an estimated rate for benefits. Unlike last year we will not use a predetermined inflation factor for non-labor items. All one-time FY2000 items or items which end or will be significantly reduced in FY2000 will be identified. b. The schedule. We will begin rate development earlier in the year to avoid some of the last minute issues we had last time. Major new initiatives for the FY 2001 budget will be considered at the December President's Council. The rate proposal will be submitted to NSF by March 31, 2000 (everyone fully recognizes that submission of the proposal this early in the fiscal year makes it extremely difficult to estimate Modified Total Direct Costs). c. Communications. We will work jointly to resolve communications issues. Judy has developed a what- if? simulation spreadsheet that we will be able to use to calculate the effect of various actions on the rates in real time. This will address some of the communications issues. We also discussed the need to create a common format for collecting and presenting budget data. The FY 2001 guidance letter will be issued the week of October 25, 1999. 2. Y2K Physical Security: Steve Sadler presented an outline of his proposed plans for increased security during the December 31, 1999/January 1, 2000 timeframe. Final agreement on security provisions will be discussed at the November PC meeting. 3. WITI Update: The Council also briefly reviewed WITI's current business activities and future plans. The Council asked that another status report be given at its November meeting. Bruce Donaldson, president of WITI, will be invited to provide a detailed financial analysis of WITI's outlook for the future. 4. Establishing an Ombudsman Position at UCAR: Edna presented the results of a survey (using university home pages on the Internet) done by HR to determine whether our member universities have ombudsman offices and where these offices report. This survey was conducted as a result of Rick's question as to whether we should establish such a position at UCAR, given the success of such a program at NOAA. According to the website information (which may not be complete), HR found out that about 37% of the member universities have ombudsman positions that deal with faculty and staff (a higher percentage have ombudsmen that only work with students). The function of the position is to provide informal, impartial and confidential dispute resolution services for the staff. The ombudsman operates independently without formal decision-making authority. Most importantly, he or she also operates confidentially. The discussion centered on whether this position was needed at UCAR (still an open question), where it should report (very likely to the President) and how such a position might be staffed (possibilities include a part-time paid position, elected by the staff, similar to the Delphi). The President's Council agreed that there should be further discussion of this topic, which will take place at the November UMC meeting. 5. Proposals for Revising the Eligibility for Retiree Health Benefits and revamping the Early Retirement Program: Bob Roesch presented a proposal that would adjust the minimum age at which employees terminating would be eligible to continue participation in the UCAR employee medical plan. Currently, in order to qualify the employee's age (minimum 55) plus years of service (minimum of five years service) must equal 70 years or more. The proposal would reduce the minimum age to 50 with total years of service and age of 65, and retain the minimum length of service at five years. The dollar impact is minimal, since these former employees pay the full-unsubsidized cost of insurance. The President's Council agreed to reduce the age and total requirements for this benefit. This issue arose from a request by Bob Chervin; Rick will contact him and ask him to work with Bob Roesch if he wants to take advantage of the new policy. The second proposal would have revamped the Early Retirement program by reducing the eligibility requirements (reduce minimum age to 50), increasing the payout amount, and instituting a window of opportunity for the enhanced payout. The Council rejected these options. It did agree to the proposal to add the associate vice presidents and the ATD Facility managers to the list of individuals eligible for early retirement incentives. 6. Proposal for Revamping the Negotiated Agreements Policy: Edna presented a proposal that would have placed additional restrictions on the use of negotiated agreements, in an effort to reduce the number of agreements. The Council determined that the best way to limit the number of negotiated agreements is to provide additional rigor in the review and approval process and rejected the proposal. 7. Reclassification: Bob Roesch presented a proposal that called for establishing a matrix that would govern the salary increases resulting from reclassifications. This would eliminate the need for President's Council review when the increase is greater than 15%. The Council decided that the current review process is reasonable and would continue. 8. Survey/BAMS/Awareness Leads: It is clear that these are all inter-related and work in one area will contribute to the other. Awareness Document. The current plan developed with the AMS was to produce two documents: (a) a glossy, short document for Congressional and Presidential candidates in the June 2000 timeframe (UCAR taking the lead) and, (b) a longer transition document for the new administration in the November 2000 timeframe (AMS taking the lead). The President's Council decided that a third document was needed in the near-term for candidate's campaigns, possibly the Jan-Feb 2000 timeframe. The June 2000 document is likely to evolve from the Jan-Feb 2000 document or be dropped altogether. Bob Corell said recently that the big issues being discussed in Washington are (a) jobs/economy, (b) health and safety, (c) environment, (d) national security, and (e) education. The Jan-Feb 2000 document will address these five themes. It does not need to be glossy, but show in 1-3 pages of bullets how these theme areas are both impacted by weather/climate and also how better weather/climate information, education, and related practices can mitigate these impacts. It would be provided to candidates and their speechwriters with the hope that it might be incorporated into a candidate's speeches. Based on their web site materials, most candidates are talking about jobs/economy, education, and defense, not R&D and the environment. Thus, we need some themes that bring R&D and the environment (related to weather/climate) into the debate. The Jan-Feb/June 2000 documents must be done at a high level so they could be articulated as a campaign promises in a speech (e.g., double the environmental R&D budget to address hazards facing the nation's economy). The Nov 2000 document needs to be more oriented to what organizational changes the incoming administration might propose to implement to address the issues raised in the Jan-Feb/Jun 2000 documents (e.g., double NSF's environmental budget and revamp the National Science and Technology Council to focus more on these environmental issues). To start this process, we decided to write a few very short papers that have the following three components: A. Weather/Climate Sensitive Sectors of the Economy. Estimate the total size of the various sectors of the economy impacted by weather/climate related to the five themes mentioned above (e.g., transportation, energy, communications, environment, recreation, health, safety, and security). For example, describe how big transportation-related activities are in our economy (it was suggested that this is around $600 billion). Need enough of these to show how vulnerable our economy is to weather/climate. B. Impacts of Weather/Climate on these Sectors. Show how weather/climate affects these areas (e.g., how does weather/climate impact the transportation sector). C. How Can the Country Avoid these Impacts. Demonstrate how investments in weather/climate-related R&D and education investments can improve the situation presented in #2, either by reducing present negative impacts or by contributing in a positive way to efficiencies and savings in these areas---i.e., use weather and climate as resources. The President's Council suggested that a meeting be held next week to discuss this subject further. Attendees would include Bob Serafin, Jack Fellows, Lucy Warner, Bob Harriss, Brant Foote, Roger Pielke, Jr., and Linda Mearns. The proposed authors (Harriss, Foote, Pielke, and Mearns) would develop brief one-page papers on the economic sector they were most familiar. Based on these papers, we will put together 1-3 pages for candidates and their speechwriters. Jack Fellows was designated the lead to get this meeting scheduled and discuss these proposed changes with the AMS. Survey/BAMS Article. Rick Anthes has developed a draft survey. It was provided to the UMC on October 21 for comment. The President's Council decided that the BAMS article should be written in two parts: A. Past Accomplishments. This section would outline the original vision/mission for UCAR/NCAR, show how that evolved over time, and highlight key accomplishments (as side bars - we would not attempt to be all inclusive). B. Future. Outline how UCAR/NCAR and the community can best position itself for the future reflecting the likely impact of things like the Internet, computers, collaboration, the role of the private sector, etc. It should highlight doing things as a community that could not be done separately. It was decided that both the accomplishment and the future should reflect the BASC themes used in the Forum breakout groups (economic vitality, life/property protection or health/safety, environmental quality, and creation of new knowledge). These are quite similar to the Corell themes discussed above. Lucy Warner, Jack Fellows, and Bob Serafin will develop a more refined outline and identify authors and have that ready for the next President's Council or before. It was decided that Otis Brown (Trustee Chair), Kelvin Droegemeir (URC Chair), and the Forum Co-chairs should be involved in this process, although UCAR staff will help prepare the article. The survey may or may not be part of the BAMS article. Lucy Warner will take the lead on the BAMS article effort. It would be nice to get the outline done in time to ensure that the survey supports the intent of the BAMS article. 9. Unstructured Discussion Mugs As part of the 40th Anniversary, each UCAR staff member will be given an Anniversary coffee mug. A letter from the President's Council outlining the 40th Anniversary events will be provided along each mug. USWRP The President's Council agreed that we should refine our advocacy strategy for the USWRP and to continue that discussion. President's Council Procedures The President's Council had a discussion regarding procedures for future Council agendas and advance materials. In the future, the appropriate member of the President's Council must approve agenda items and all agenda items should normally include written information distributed with the final agenda. President's Council discussions are confidential; staff should only be present for agenda items in which they are participating.
For more information, contact Rick Anthes at 1652, anthes@ucar.edu. Or
see the web page at
President's Council.
(Posted Fri 5 Nov to Thu 11 Nov)
Love & Logic Parenting Series Preview Monday, 8 November 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. FL2-Auditorium Facilitator: Stephanie Bryan, Clinical Social Worker The Love and Logic Parenting series was designed by Jim Fay and Foster Cline, of the Cline-Fay Love and Logic Institute in Golden, Colorado. Their goal was to teach a way of raising children that puts parents back in control, teaches children to be responsible and prepares them for the real world. The program is designed to help parents gain control, share decision-making,learn to dispense equal shares of consequences with empathy, and maintain a child's positive self concept. The program helps adults to find the right answers and actions for some of those difficult moments during child-rearing. This preview session provides an overview of the Love & Logic Parenting series. If there is enough interest, the Love & Logic Parenting series could be brought on-site for staff and their immediate family members. More information will be provided at the seminar. Sponsored by the UCAR Wellness Advisory Committee.
For more information, contact Cheryl Cristanelli at 8708,
cherylc@ucar.edu. Or see the web page at
UCAR Wellness Homepage.
(Posted Tue 26 Oct to Thu 11 Nov)
Feedback Survival Skills Thursday, 11 November 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. ML-Damon Facilitator: Mary Lynn Nikkel, Corporate Dynamics Registration requested. For more detailed information on this and other exciting staff development events, please visit the on-line Staff Development Catalog.
For more information, contact Cheryl Cristanelli at 8708,
cherylc@ucar.edu. Or see the web page at
Staff Development Catalog.
(Posted Tue 26 Oct to Wed 10 Nov)
ACD is sponsoring a workshop on Chemical Data Assimilation and Satellite Data Analysis on November 8-9, 1999. Workshop Theme In atmospheric sciences, data assimilation techniques have long been used in numerical weather prediction, data retrievals from remote sensing experiments, and inverse modeling. Recently methods of data assimilation developed in these research areas have been applied to analysis of observations of chemically important species in the atmosphere by various research groups around the world. Some interesting pioneering work has been done in this direction and results of these research efforts demonstrated feasibility of the approach and promised important benefits. The use of these methods is still relatively new in the field of atmospheric chemistry modeling. The methods will become increasingly more important in the near future as denser observational networks become available. In particular, data assimilation will be very useful for processing, analyzing, and mapping data obtained by instruments on several satellites to be launched in the near future. Some of these instruments are: MOPITT on Terra (formerly EOS AM-1), HIRDLS, MLS, OMI, and TES on EOS-CHEM, and MIPAS, GOMOS, and SCIAMACHY on ENVISAT. The main goal of the planned workshop is to present applications of data assimilation in atmospheric chemistry modeling and to help establish cooperation between scientists in the field. One specific objective is to provide an opportunity for different research groups to exchange plans and ideas on applications of data assimilation for processing future Terra, EOS-CHEM and ENVISAT measurements.
For more information, contact Boris Khattatov at 1882, boris@ucar.edu.
Or see the web page at
Workshop On Chemical Data Assimilation Web Site.
(Posted Fri 22 Oct to Wed 10 Nov)
Mali Bunce will be offering a drop-in yoga class at FL Mondays from 1:30 - 2:30 beginning October 18, 1999. All levels are welcome. The class will feature Bikram yoga; other styles such as Ananda, Lilias Folan, and Acu-Yoga will also be incorporated. THe cost is $8.50 per class, to be paid to the instructor in class. Advance registration is not required. Mats and some props provided. You may contact Mali at 303-420-3608 if you have any questions.
For more information, contact Bobbie Klein at 8132, bklein@ucar.edu. Or
see the web page at
MALI BUNCE--FOOTHILLS LAB YOGA CLASS.
(Posted Fri 8 Oct to Tue 19 Oct)