UNIVERSITY CORPORATION FOR ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH

MINUTES
UCAR Board of Trustees Meeting

11 October 2004
Fleischmann Building, NCAR Mesa

12 October 2004
ATD Atrium, Foothills Laboratory

The duly convened meeting of the UCAR Board of Trustees was held at the Fleischmann Building and at the ATD Atrium in Boulder, Colorado. Present for all or portions of the meeting

were:

Kelvin Droegemeier, University of Oklahoma (Chairman)
Richard Anthes, President, UCAR
Eric Barron, The Pennsylvania State University
Rosina Bierbaum, University of Michigan
Leo Donner, Princeton University
Barbara Feiner, Washington University in St. Louis
Eugenia Kalnay, University of Maryland
Neal Lane, Rice University
Ronald McPherson, American Meteorological Society
Frank Nutter, Reinsurance Association of America
Leonard Pietrafesa, North Carolina State University
Mary Jo Richardson, Texas A&M University
Steven Rutledge, Colorado State University
David Skaggs, Council for Excellence in Government
Lynne Talley, Scripps Institution of Oceanography\
Orlando Taylor, Howard University

Counsel and Corporate Officers:
Lise Carney, UCAR Counsel, Holland and Hart
Jack Fellows, Asst. Secretary and VP for Corporate Affairs & Director of UOP
Susan Friberg, Asst. Secretary, UCAR
Tim Killeen, Director, NCAR
Jeff Reaves, Assoc. VP, Business Services, Finance & Administration, UCAR
Kathryn Schmoll, Vice President, Finance and Administration, UCAR
Dan Wilson, Assistant Treasurer, Director of Treasury Operations, UCAR
Larry Winter, Deputy Director, NCAR

National Science Foundation:
Bernard Grant, Financial Operations Specialist, UCAR & Lower Atmospheric Facilities Oversight Section, ATM/GEO
Cliff Jacobs, Head, UCAR & Lower Atmospheric Facilities Oversight Section, ATM/GEO
Jamala Jones, Contract Specialist, Contracts and Complex Agreements, NSF
Jarvis Moyers, Division Director, ATM/GEO
Kristin Spencer, Contract Specialist, Contracts and Complex Agreements, NSF
Patricia Williams, Deputy Branch Chief, Contracts & Complex Agreements, NSF

UCAR, NCAR, UOP:
Meg Austin, Director, Visiting Scientists Program, UOP
Peter Backlund, Director of Research Relations, NCAR
Rena Brasher-Alleva, Director, Budget & Planning Office, NCAR
Tom Bogdan, Associate Director, Societal-Environmental Research and Education Lab, NCAR
Eron Brennan, Multi-Media Systems Administrator, UCAR
Rit Carbone, Acting Director, Atmospheric Technology Division, NCAR
Veda Emmett, Executive Assistant to the Director, NCAR
Brant Foote, Associate Director, Research Applications Lab, NCAR
Robert Henson, Writer/Editor, UCAR Communications
Roberta Johnson, Director, Education & Outreach, UCAR
Al Kellie, Associate Director, Computational and Information Systems Lab, NCAR
Dale Kellogg, Administrator and Program Development, Societal-Environmental Research and Education Lab, NCAR
Rich Loft, Associate Director, Scientific Computing Division, NCAR
Mary Marlino, Director, Digital Library for Earth System Education, UOP
Meg McClellan, Director, Legal Services, UCAR
Melissa Miller, Director, Budget & Finance, Finance & Administration, UCAR
Susan Montgomery-Hodge, Executive Assistant to the President, UCAR
Raj Pandya, Director, SOARS Program, UCAR
Mohan Ramamurthy, Director, Unidata, UOP
Robert Roesch, Director, Human Resources & Employee Relations, UCAR
Karyn Sawyer, Director, Joint Office for Science Support, UOP
Cindy Schmidt, Director, Office of Development and Government Affairs, UCAR
Catherine Shea, Executive Administrator to the Director, NCAR
Tim Spangler, Director, Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology, Education and Training, UOP
Kathryn Strand, Manager of Budget & Administration, UOP
Dennis Ward, Education & Outreach, UCAR
Lucy Warner, Manager, UCAR Communications
Susan Warner, Executive Assistant, UCAR

Others:
April Burke, Lewis-Burke Associates
Joel Widder, Lewis-Burke Associates

1. WELCOME AND AGENDA REVIEW

The Board convened in Regular Session. Chairman of the Board Kelvin Droegemeier welcomed NSF hosts, Trustees and guests. He reviewed the agenda and subsequently asked for adoption. It was moved, seconded, and passed to adopt the agenda as presented.

2. CHAIRMAN’S REPORT

Chairman Droegemeier reported on the webcast hosted by Tim Killeen and Rick Anthes, and held in August with Members and Affiliates to discuss the NCAR reorganization. He also reported on the status of a study conducted by the National Academy of Sciences’ Board on Atmospheric Science (BASC) to advise ATM/NSF chart its course of future support for the atmospheric and related sciences.

3. SECRETARY’S REPORT

Secretary Steven Rutledge presented the minutes of the May 2004 Board of Trustees’ meeting and asked for approval. It was moved, seconded, and passed to approve the minutes.

4. TREASURER’S REPORT

Treasurer Barbara Feiner reported on the Consolidated Statement of Funding and Expenditures for the eleven months ended 31 August 2004. She said that there hasn’t been much change in funding available between this time in 2003 and 2004, and that any decrease is HIAPER related since most of the funding has been received. She reported that the General Fund balance is healthy and that the restricted and unrestricted investments are showing very good returns relative to 2003, especially given the state of the economy over the past year.

5. NSF REPORT

Cliff Jacobs, Head, UCAR & Lower Atmospheric Facilities Oversight Section, ATM/NSF, announced that Arden Bement has been nominated director of NSF. He also reported on personnel and organizational changes in the Atmospheric Sciences Division at NSF, and listed the NSB nominations one of which was Kelvin Droegemeier. He also reviewed the charge and schedule of the BASC study undertaken to advise ATM on its future support of the science.

Jacobs presented a picture of the past 30 years of ATM’s budget and pointed out that science funding has remained fairly steady, that facilities have shrunk some, and the number of priority areas have grown in the funding distribution. He reviewed NSF’s policy and history on recompetition, and reviewed the rationale for the decision to recompete the management of NCAR in FY 2008.

6. UCAR PRESIDENT’S REPORT

UCAR President, Richard Anthes, reported on the status of current activities of the corporation. He noted the challenges of flat budgets that most likely will be the norm over the next few years. He said that management is acutely aware of the problems and is looking at short and long term options. He also reported on the new Childcare Center, the new hanger building the house the HIAPER aircraft, and on the status of the space issues and construction of the new buildings. He addressed the issue of why UCAR is proceeding with plans to build new buildings when faced with potentially difficult budgets in the next few years by saying that, while caution is understandable, UCAR is focused on the long-term needs of the science and of the organization.

7. UOP DIRECTOR’S REPORT

Vice President for Corporate Affairs and UOP Director, Jack Fellows, presented an overview of UCAR Office of Programs, describing recent activities of each of the programs. He reported on the COSMIC field trip to Japan and Taiwan where U.S. students visited GPS facilities, on the Unidata workshop at Millersville that provided instruction on the use of IDVs (Integrated Data Viewer), and noted that COMET received two national awards for its outstanding educational materials. He also outlined the new international MeteoForum project which will bring Unidata and COMET capabilities to training centers in South America and the Caribbean. He pointed out that Craig Blurton was appointed director of the GLOBE program, added that he had stepped down as the DLESE Executive Director , and commended the Visiting Scientist Programs for its broad and effective programs in training and educating graduate students. 

8. NCAR STATUS REPORT

NCAR Director Tim Killeen reported on a number of activities, most notably on the status of the NCAR reorganization. He reported that he has established the NCAR Executive Committee comprised of the NCAR Science Advisor, Joe Tribbia, three Acting Associate Directors, and the two permanent Associate Directors. He summarized the status of the searches currently underway for the Director of the Earth Observing Laboratory, the Earth and Sun Systems Lab and the Societal-Environmental Research and Education Lab. He said he hopes to have permanent directors in place for all of the labs by the summer of 2005. He updated the Trustees on the HIAPER project, giving kudos to project manager Krista Laursen saying that the project currently is due to be completed on schedule and under budget! He also reported on the Community Climate System Model and the 9^th Annual CCSM workshop held this past summer, and the Thorpex program to improve the predictability of high-impact weather events. He noted some institutional issues: how to maintain momentum in light of lower levels of federal funding; the upcoming recompetition and the BASC study; support for early career scientists; metrics; updating the strategic plan; and hiring new leadership for the laboratories.

9. NCAR AND COMMUNITY COMPUTING ISSUES FOR THE NEXT 10 YEARS

Richard Loft, Associate Director of the Scientific Computing Division (SCD) at NCAR, updated the Trustees on the current NCAR computing situation. He reported that the current scientific demand for computing is "for as many cycles as we can get our hands on" and that UCAR is facing certain power and design limitations on the Mesa Lab. A committee has been appointed to look at short, medium and long-term options.

Tim Killeen said that NCAR can most likely "squeak by" through FY2006, but that we need to have set the course before then in order to preserve our leadership for the next 5-10 years. SCD Director Al Kellie, in response to a question from Trustee Lane, said that there is no cohesive or common mechanism at NSF for expanding computing capability at its centers. Trustee Leo Donner suggested a research/operational location split as perhaps one option. The possibility of creating a geosciences data center at NCAR was mentioned as well, and Chairman Droegemeier commented on the possibility of a multi-agency, multi-disciplinary effort, saving UCAR and NSF from having to shoulder the whole responsibility. Loft said that SCD is focusing much attention on solving this problem, including holding a town hall session at AGU in December to discuss community needs. Droegemeier asked for periodic updates to the Board.

The Board convened in Executive Session from 4:30–5:30 pm. (The minutes are kept in the corporate offices.)

Tuesday, 12 October

The Board convened in Executive Session from 8:30 to 10 am. (The minutes are kept in the corporate offices.)

10. ADVOCACY DISCUSSION AND LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

April Burke and Joel Widder, Lewis-Burke Associates, met with the Trustees to discuss the budgets for the various science agencies. Burke noted that the FY06 Budget will be constrained by spending in other parts of the federal government, namely the Iraq war. She said that the most important thing is to focus on specific needs the community might have such as high performance computing.

11. MEMBERS’ MEETING PREVIEW

Rick Anthes and Jack Fellows outlined the Annual Members Meeting agenda and the UCAR Forum that will take place during the Members Meeting later in the afternoon.

ADJOURN

The Board adjourned at 11am.

End of Minutes