UNIVERSITY CORPORATION FOR ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH

MINUTES

Board of Trustees Meeting
21-22 May 2003
National Science Foundation
Arlington, VA

The duly convened meeting of the UCAR Board of Trustees was held at the National Science Foundation in Arlington, Virginia. Present for all or portions of the meeting were:

Leo Donner, Princeton University (Chairman)
Richard Anthes, President, UCAR
Eric Barron, The Pennsylvania State University
Kelvin Droegemeier, University of Oklahoma
Barbara Feiner, Washington University in St. Louis
Eugenia Kalnay, University of Maryland
Neal Lane, Rice University
Paola Malanotte-Rizzoli, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Ronald McPherson, American Meteorological Society
Leonard Pietrafesa, North Carolina State University
Mary Jo Richardson, Texas A&M University
David Skaggs, Council for Excellence in Government
Soroosh Sorooshian, University of Arizona
Orlando Taylor, Howard University
Gabor Vali, University of Wyoming

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
Kathryn Schmoll, Vice President, Finance and Administration, UCAR
Larry Winter, Deputy Director, NCAR

National Science Foundation:
Laura Buckley, Grant and Agreement Specialist, Division of Grants and Agreements
Bernard Grant, Financial Operations Specialist, UCAR & Lower Atmospheric Facilities Oversight Section, ATM/GEO
James Huning, Facilities Manager, UCAR & Lower Atmospheric Facilities Oversight Section, ATM/GEO
Cliff Jacobs, Head, UCAR & Lower Atmospheric Facilities Oversight Section, ATM/GEO
Brian Mannion, Senior Advisor, Division of Grants and Agreements
Peter Milne, Facilities Coordinator, UCAR & Lower Atmospheric Facilities Oversight Section, ATM/GEO
Jarvis Moyers, Division Director, ATM/GEO
Rochelle Ray, Grant and Agreement Specialist, Division of Grants and Agreements
Pamela Stephens, Section Head, Lower Atmosphere Research Section, ATM/GEO

UCAR, NCAR, UOP:
Rena Brasher-Alleva, Director, Budget and Planning Office, NCAR
Veda Emmett, Executive Assistant to the Director, NCAR
Gene Martin, Associate Director, Joint Office for Science Support, UOP
Meg McClellan, Director, Legal Services, UCAR
Mohan Ramamurthy, Director, Unidata, UOP
Jeff Reaves, Assoc. VP, Business Services, Finance & Administration, UCAR
Robert Roesch, Director, Human Resources & Employee Relations, UCAR
Steve Sadler, Director, Safety and Site Services, Finance & Administration, 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
Betty Valent, Executive Assistant, Finance & Administration, UCAR
Dan Wilson, Director of Treasury Operations, UCAR

Others:

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

The Board convened in Executive Session from 8:15–8:45 am. (The minutes are kept in the corporate offices.)

1. WELCOME AND AGENDA REVIEW

The Board convened in Regular Session. Chairman of the Board Leo Donner 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 Donner reported that in the Executive Session held earlier in the day, the Board approved the Senior Scientist appointments for Maura Hagan (HAO/NCAR) and Jim Hurrell (CGD/NCAR); Senior Scientist Emeritus position for James Dye; Affiliate Scientist position for Volker Wulfmeyer from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart, Germany.

Donner also read the following resolution passed in Executive Session to elect Larry Winter, NCAR Associate Director, as a corporate officer.

Resolution for Larry Winter

RESOLVED, that Larry Winter is elected to the office of Associate Director of NCAR, effective as of 21 April 2003, and to serve at the pleasure of the Board of Trustees.

3. SECRETARY’S REPORT

Secretary Mary Jo Richardson presented the minutes of the February 2003 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 FY2003 funding and expenditures to date. The financial reports were sent to the Trustees in advance of the meeting. She led the Trustees through the details of the $250M budget, comparing FY02 to FY03, and noting 11% growth in NCAR Base/CSL as well as many other changes in UCAR and NCAR programs.

She also noted that because of the changes in the financial markets, the ratios of fixed and equity investments have changed; the percentage of investment in fixed markets has increased above its normal balance. UCAR will correct this by rebalancing its investments over the next 6 months to increase its equity percentages. This is in keeping with the policy guidelines developed for these asset classes by the Audit and Finance Committee a few years ago.

It was moved, seconded, and passed to accept the Treasurer’s Report.

5. AUDIT AND FINANCE COMMITTEE REPORT

Barbara Feiner reported on the Audit and Finance Committee meeting held the previous day. The committee heard reports on the following topics: business continuity planning, UCAR’s HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability And Accountability Act Of 1996) compliance and its effects on the organization, and the UCAR Foundation.

It was moved, seconded, and passed to receive the report of the Personnel Committee.

6. PERSONNEL COMMITTEE REPORT

Chairman of the Personnel Committee Soroosh Sorooshian outlined the topics covered during the meeting of the Committee held the previous day: health and safety procedures, especially hazardous materials handling; PhD flow-through for the organization; and the salary budget which was kept within the 4% cap.

7. UCAR PRESIDENT’S REPORT

UCAR President Rick Anthes reported on the status of various UCAR activities. His report focused on issues surrounding space needs and relocation of staff, education and outreach activities, and his recent visits to the Hill to talk with Congressional staffers about the importance of supporting efforts to improve weather and climate forecasts.

8. NCAR DIRECTOR’S REPORT

NCAR Director Tim Killeen reported on a number of activities both current and planned within NCAR, including the Coupled Human/Natural Systems Advisory Council created to advise on the future structure of ESIG (Environmental and Societal Impacts Group); the internal committee created to examine the current NCAR structure; plans for post tenure review for Scientist IIIs and Senior Scientists; a 10 year scientific facilities plan; and education and outreach activities.

9. UOP DIRECTOR’S REPORT

UOP Director Jack Fellows presented an overview of UCAR Office of Programs activities. He reported that JOSS (the Joint Office for Science Support) is completing its strategic plan; the COSMIC satellite program is entering a critical phase of spacecraft construction for the planned September 2005 launch; and he announced that UCAR was selected to manage GLOBE, a ten-year program geared toward student use of environmental data in research and education.

Mohan Ramamurthy, the new Unidata Director, briefed the Trustees on the Unidata Program, including on the equipment grants program and their efforts to bring data and collaborative tools to community colleges.

10. NSF REPORT

Cliff Jacobs, Head, UCAR & Lower Atmospheric Facilities Oversight Section, ATM/NSF reported on the status of the FY04 NSF budget saying that there is still very strong support in Congress for NSF. He noted that the NSB Science and Engineering Infrastructure report will be issued on 1 July and contains recommendations regarding mid-sized infrastructure, cyberinfrastructure, support for large centers, linking education throughout.

The Board convened in Executive Session from 12 noon–1:00 pm. (The minutes are kept in the corporate offices.)

11. CUSHING AND BARON VISIT

Frank Cushing, Vice President of Cornerstone Government Affairs, and Dena Baron, Permanent Staff, House Appropriations’ Committee talked with the Trustees about the FY04 science budget. They concurred that the FY04 "bank account may not be sufficiently large" for all of the requests, and that the range of potential outcomes for the overall federal science budget is broader than ever before.

12. NSF EHR ASSISTANT DIRECTOR REMARKS

Judith Ramaley, Assistant Director of Education and Human Resources (EHR/NSF), spoke of the emerging themes in EHR including how to respond to the changing nature of the way science is being conducted, integrating research and education, the changing landscape of career pathways (as opposed to pipelines), and the impacts of technology on the education system.

13. NSF CISE ASSISTANT DIRECTOR REMARKS

Peter Freeman, Assistant Director, Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE/NSF), reported on the 14 May workshop held to look at future needs and directions for cyberinfrastructure within the NSF community. The workshop determined the major research areas are: fundamental research in computer science and engineering; developing a stable infrastructure that can be built for long term use; research in networking; and cybertools such as operating systems, networking, and data storage to be shared across disciplines.

14. DOE ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR REMARKS

Ari Patrinos, DOE Associate Director of Biological and Environmental Sciences, spoke with the Trustees about current activities within DOE. He announced a new initiative to increase the accuracy of ecological systems models—"Cascade of Scales". He spoke of the important synergy between his program at DOE and the NCAR Strategic Plan.

15. DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE (NWS) VISIT

General Jack Kelly discussed the competitive outsourcing of the NWS telecommunications activities, and the increasingly strong linkages between continuing funding and improvement of performance especially as it relates to severe weather warnings. He noted that the Weather Service will put more energy into "intensity" forecasts. The challenges continue to include keeping pace with technology, obtaining sufficient research funding, and how to transition research results to operations, how to handle the vast amounts of data, and improving the models.

The Board convened in Executive Session from 4:00–5:00 pm. (The minutes are kept in the corporate offices.)

Thursday, 22 May

16. NESDIS ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR REMARKS

Greg Withee, Assistant Administrator for NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite and Data Information Services (NESDIS), visited the Trustees to discuss current activities and challenges in his program. He said that one of the greatest challenges is how to get new science into the satellite systems when their development and deployment normally spans a couple of decades. He said he is hopeful that the upcoming Earth Observing Summit will initiate solutions to some of these needs and challenges.

17. NASA ASSOCIATE ADMINISTRATOR REMARKS

Ghassem Asrar, NASA Associate Administrator for Earth Sciences, updated the Trustees on activities within his program. He noted that the research and analysis function represents about one third of the Earth Sciences program at NASA. He said the six areas of focus for the next decade are atmospheric composition, climate variability, carbon cycle, water cycle, earth surface and interior, and short-term weather prediction.

18. NOAA ADMINISTRATOR REMARKS

Vice Admiral Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr., Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator, engaged in a lively 30 minute discussion with the Trustees. He touched on a number of topics, including the vulnerability of this country’s coast lines to severe weather ("more than 50% of the US population of 141 million resides within 50 miles of the coast on 11% of the nations land."), and the vulnerability of NOAA’s research labs in this environment of dwindling research dollars, and with the need for these labs to move in new directions to meet contemporary challenges and research thrusts.

19. NASA DEPUTY ASSOCIATE ADMINISTRATOR FOR EDUCATION

Deputy Associate Administrator for Education Angela Diaz briefed the Trustees on the Education activities at NASA. She emphasized that her program’s mission is to show that NASA is more than astronautics, to put a broader human face on the agency. She said that NASA Education efforts are focused on traditionally underrepresented groups and underserved populations, e.g., community colleges.

20. SENATE VA/HUD APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE STAFF VISIT

Alan Cutler, permanent staff for the Senate VA/HUD Appropriations Committee, gave the Trustees his perspective on the FY04 budget. He noted the strong support for NSF, but expressed the concern of the Committee regarding how NSF will handle an $11B budget. The language in the bill is positive, however, noting that as NSF moves to this higher level of funding accountability will be paramount. In general, he was optimistic about the substance and timing of FY04 allocations, and felt that the budget would be passed in a more timely way this year.

21. MEMBERS’ MEETING FORUM PLANS

The Board discussed the plans for the Annual Members Meeting Forum and offered suggestions for the break-out sessions.

22. ADJOURN

The Board adjourned at 12 noon.

End of Minutes