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UNIVERSITY CORPORATION FOR ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH

MINUTES

Annual Members' Meeting
8-9 October 2002
Boulder, Colorado

TUESDAY, 8 OCTOBER

1. CONVENE THE ANNUAL MEMBERS MEETING

The Annual Meeting of the UCAR Members was called to order by Chairman Otis Brown at 12:45pm on Tuesday, 8 October, in the Auditorium of the new Center Green campus in Boulder, Colorado. Brown welcomed members of the UCAR Board of Trustees, Members' Representatives (58 of the 66 institutions were represented), Academic Affiliates' representatives, members of the University Relations Committee, NSF colleagues and guests and thanked them all for attending this meeting. After reviewing the agenda, it was regularly moved, seconded, and passed to adopt the agenda for the 8-9 October Members' meeting.

Present for all or portions of the meeting were the following Members' Representatives and officially appointed substitutes:

2. CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD ANNUAL REPORT

Chairman of the UCAR Board of Trustees Otis Brown (U of Miami) outlined the Trustee activities over the past year. He reported that the Trustees had focused extensively on the space issues and acquisition of the new building, approved the appointments of six new senior scientists at NCAR, been briefed thoroughly on HIAPER aircraft and instrumentation and on the NSF reviews of NCAR and UCAR.

3. REGULAR BUSINESS

A. Secretary's Report

Secretary Ronald Smith (Yale U) asked for approval of the minutes from the October 2001 Annual Members Meeting. It was moved, seconded, and passed to approve the minutes.

B. Treasurer's Report

Treasurer Barbara Feiner (Washington U in St. Louis) reviewed the Consolidated Statement of Funding and Expenditures for the eleven months ended 31 August 2002. The Members received copies of this report in advance of the meeting. It was moved, seconded, and passed to receive the report.

C. Election of Auditors

Treasurer Barbara Feiner recommended that Deloitte and Touche be once again retained as corporate auditors. It was moved, seconded, and passed to retain Deloitte and Touche to conduct the external audit for FY03.

4. NOMINATING COMMITTEE REPORT

Trustee Mary Jo Richardson (Texas A&M), Chairwoman of the Members’ Nominating Committee, reported on this year’s process for nominating the slate of trustee candidates and members committees.

She asked for approval of the voting procedure and appointment of the tellers, and reviewed the slate of candidates for Trustees and the Member Committees.

It was moved, seconded, and passed to appoint Catherine Shea and Katherine Strand as tellers for the Trustee election.

Richardson then reviewed and recommended the following voting procedure that has been used for the past several years:

It was regularly moved, seconded, and passed to adopt the voting procedure as proposed.

Chairman Brown reviewed the slate of candidates and responsibilities of the Board members in anticipation of the elections the next day.

Richardson outlined the proposed bylaw change to increase the number of Trustees at Large by three over the next three years. The Members received notice of the proposed change with the Notice of Meeting. Richardson reviewed the motivations behind the proposed amendment, and introduced Trustee David Skaggs to speak on behalf of it passage. He spoke about the potential benefits to the corporation and the whole atmospheric and related sciences community: the increased exposure of the science to private sector Trustees; the ability to educate industry leaders about the science; and to benefit from broader management experience.

Richardson noted that the vote on the by-law amendment would take place the next morning.

5. UCAR PRESIDENT'S REPORT

UCAR President Richard Anthes reported on current UCAR activities and accomplishments. He reported on the extensive planning for present and future space needs and the acquisition of the Center Green facility, and the NSF reviews of NCAR and UCAR over the past year, as well as on a number of scientific activities involving NCAR and UOP. The Members received his written report via a Web prior to the meeting.

6. NCAR DIRECTOR'S REPORT

NCAR Director Tim Killeen reported on the following: the NCAR budget; recent program activities and workshops (Undergraduate Leadership Workshop and the Early Career Faculty Workshop scheduled for 2003); the increasing number of scientific visitors to NCAR; new NCAR strategic initiatives; and new staff in the Director’s office. The Members received his written report via the Web prior to the meeting.

The Members recessed to attend the dedication of the new Center Green Campus.

7. UCAR FORUM: PUBLIC, PRIVATE AND ACADEMIC PARTNERSHIPS

John Lumsden, Chief Executive of the Meteorological Service of New Zealand, spoke to the Members on the successful transition of the New Zealand Met service from a public entity to a successful for-profit company.

A panel convened immediately following Lumsden’s talk. The panel was comprised of the following members: Ray Ban, Executive Vice President, The Weather Channel; Maria Pirone, Director of Strategic Planning, WSI; David Pl. Rogers, Director, Office of Weather and Air Quality, OAR/NOAA; Kelvin Droegemeier, Director, CAPS Program, U of Oklahoma; Jeff Reaves, Associate VP for Business Services, UCAR. The panel was asked to talk about their experiences with the public, academic and private partnerships, and to help identify reasons for existing barriers—both real and perceived—to interactions among these sectors, and identify ways that these three sectors can work more successfully together. Discussion with the Members, Affiliates, and guests followed.

WEDNESDAY, 9 OCTOBER

8. UCAR FORUM: PUBLIC, PRIVATE AND ACADEMIC PARTNERSHIPS (cont'd.)

John Lumsden summarized the discussions from the day before. Some of the discussion points were the following:

1) There have been few opportunities of Private/Public/Academic partnerships in the past 40 years, and few plans to facilitate such interactions.

2) The potential for competition between these groups is increasing.

3) There is common interest among all the groups in improving weather and climate information and services.

4) The economic pie could be bigger if the three groups worked together.

5) The barriers preventing partnerships are the differences in culture vis a vis reward structures, time frames, control issues, perceptions and prejudices.

6) A common vision is needed to compel the three groups to work together, and a "champion" in each sector is needed to create and sustain these partnerships.

9. NOMINATING COMMITTEE REPORT (cont'd.)

A. Trustees Election

Board Chairman Brown recommended adoption of the slate of Trustee candidates as presented the previous day. It was moved and seconded to close the nominations and to adopt the slate. There being no nominations from the floor, the motion passed.

There were no nominations from the floor. It was moved, seconded, and passed to elect the slate of Members' committees as submitted.

C. Vote on Proposed Bylaw Amendment

After a motion to consider the proposed bylaw amendment was seconded, Chairman Brown opened the floor for discussion. As an alternative to increasing the number of Trustee-at-large positions, the question was asked why not appoint an advisory panel to advise the Board on specific issues. It was pointed out that an advisory panel would have less vested interest in the issues than Trustees-at Large, and would be less efficient in conducting Board business. Some concern was expressed on the balance of representation on the Board and on the fact that the Trustee-at-large positions are "protected."

The question was called, and Brown asked the Members to complete their ballots, reminding them that only one vote per institution can be submitted and that a vote of two-thirds of the Members present are required to amend the bylaws. Brown later announced that the motion carried by a vote of 40 in favor, 16 opposed, to approve the amendment.

10. ADVOCACY, LEGISLATION AND APPROPRIATIONS UPDATE

April Burke of Lewis-Burke Associates reported that the FY03 appropriations bill has yet to pass and probably won't until after the elections. In discussing the proposed Homeland Security Department, Burke said that there is much interest in having a high-level scientific person on the staff. In light of the new national security precautions, Burke also spoke to the difficulties scientific visitors and graduate students are experiencing in obtaining visas and the resulting concerns of both business and academia.

Burke then turned to FY04 and underlined the impact that the growing federal deficit will have on the budget request numbers, but she also pointed out that Congress does have a deep and vast interest in science agencies.

Cindy Schmidt, Director of Development and Government Affairs, presented an overview of UCAR’s advocacy efforts on behalf of the community. She described recent efforts to bolster the USWRP and urged the Members to support the USWRP Collaborations Fund by writing or visiting their Congressmen. Schmidt announced recipients of the UCAR Advocacy Champions Award—Len Pietrafesa (U of AL), John Snow (U of OK), Gary Ostrander (Johns Hopkins U), Eric Betterton (U of AZ), Gene Takle (Iowa State U), Kelvin Droegemeier (U of OK), Soroosh Sorooshian (U of AZ), and Fred Stafford (U of Chicago).

In a special acknowledgment, UCAR President Anthes commended Vice President for Finance and Administration Katy Schmoll for her work on the acquisition of Center Green—"Katy kept the raft afloat in perpetual white water", he said. He also applauded the remarkable effort of the staff in preparing the building, in just four weeks, for the UCAR October meetings. He presented Katy with a bouquet of flowers and crowned her Queen of Center Green.

11. NSF REPORT

Cliff Jacobs, Head of UCAR and Lower Atmospheric Facilities Oversight Section, ATM/NSF, briefly reviewed the completed process and recommendations for the NCAR divisional reviews and the review of UCAR and NCAR management. He discussed the schedule and process that is underway to review UCAR’s proposal to NSF for continued management of NCAR (from 2003-2008).

Jacobs explained the reasons that NSF decided not to compete the 2003-2008 proposal and then stated that NSF would open the 2008-2013 cooperative agreement to competition. He emphasized that the latter decision is not a judgment on the quality of NCAR’s science or UCAR’s management, but a policy decision by the National Science Board. After close to 50 years of uninterrupted management of NCAR by UCAR, the NSF feels that it is prudent to open the proposal to competition.

12. UOP DIRECTOR’S REPORT

Jack Fellows, UOP Director, stated that since most UOP programs began as community grass-roots initiatives, community involvement, governance, and service are central attributes to UOP programs. The focuses of these programs are education and training and/or research support and technology development. Fellows highlighted accomplishments and activities in all eight of the UOP programs: NSDL, DLESE, COMET, Unidata, VSP, JOSS, COSMIC, and GST.

13. SCIENTIFIC PROGRAMS EVALUATION COMMITTEE (SPEC) REPORT

Robert Duce (Texas A&M), Chairman of the SPEC, reported on SPEC participation in the NSF reviews of the NCAR science and facilities divisions and the review of UCAR and NCAR management. He reiterated the review panels’ recommendations, discussed the SPEC recommendations to UCAR and to NSF and explained the SPEC suggestions for future reviews. The conclusion of the SPEC was that the reviews were thorough and fair, the NCAR strategic plan is forward looking, NCAR has identified some very important scientific issues that require additional resources, staff morale is high and a major reason for the success of NCAR is the mutually supportive relationship that exists between NCAR, UCAR and the NSF. The bottom line is that NCAR and UCAR are excellent institutions that are very well managed.

14. UNIVERSITY RELATIONS COMMITTEE REPORT

Chris Bretherton, Chairman of the University Relations Committee (URC), reviewed the committee's role in the governance of UCAR and NCAR. He pointed out that this year's Members' Forum subject was proposed and organized by former URC Chair, Kelvin Droegemeier. After reviewing the composition of the URC, Bretherton announced his resignation from the URC and the appointment of the new Chair, Eric Betterton.

Bretherton reported on the URC's Spring 2002 meeting which, contrary to custom, convened in Boulder instead of at an university. This venue was proposed to give the committee an opportunity for an in-depth overview of NCAR divisions and UOP programs, with an emphasis on the relationships between universities and NCAR/UOP. Bretherton reported that the URC found extensive collaboration, and that the diverse modes of collaboration were quite remarkable. He pointed out another avenue the committee developed to promote university relationships—the URC Liaison Program. In this program URC representatives, appointed to NCAR divisions, provide a personal link for addressing concerns of both the division and the URC.

Lastly, Bretherton reported on another major role of the URC, the review of non-NSF NCAR proposals and non-core UOP proposals. He explained that twice a year 20% of the proposals are randomly selected and reviewed by a subcommittee appointed by the URC. This past year the subcommittee found continued excellent compliance with the guidelines to preclude unfair competition but had some concerns with the issue of cosponsorship. In response, a cosponsorship "leveraging ratio" (LR) was introduced—a ratio of NSF money to total requested money—and a LR threshold of 30% was instituted. Bretherton explained that if the LR exceeds 30%, explicit justification of the co-sponsorship level is now required from the PIs.

15. MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE REPORT

UCAR Membership Committee Chairman Art Few reported that for the first time the committee successfully conducted all of their business electronically. After reviewing the renewal process, he recommended re-election of the following universities to UCAR Membership for eight-year terms beginning in January 2003. It was moved, seconded, and passed to re-elect The University of California at Irvine, The University of Michigan, New York University, North Carolina State University, The Pennsylvania State University, Saint Louis University, Texas A&M University, The University of Washington, Washington State University, and The University of Wisconsin-Madison.

16. ACADEMIC AFFILIATES' PROGRAM (AAP) REPORT

Academic Affiliates Chairman Rich Clark (Millersville U), reporting on the previous day meeting, said that AAP's current interests are in bi-directional sabbaticals and workshops on early career faculty and on undergraduate leadership. The main agenda item was a presentation by DLESE Director Mary Marlino and Rajul Panda (U of IL) on the Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE), which led to discussion on Affiliate involvement in DLESE's review process and on the meteorology mailing list currently under development by DLESE.

17. REPORT ON THE HIGH-PERFORMANCE INSTRUMENTED AIRBORNE PLATFORM FOR ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH (HIAPER) PROJECT

Krista Laursen, HIAPER Project Director, briefed the Members on the current status of the HIAPER aircraft and the planning process that is being undertaken to optimally outfit it for research. External reviews are planned which will continue to involve the community on both the engineering components and the instrumentation identification and development. NSF has announced a $12.5M opportunity to which proposals may be submitted to build instruments for HIAPER. HIAPER is expected to be deployed in mid-2005 with a productive life expectancy of more than 30 years.

18. STUDENT RECRUITING WEBSITE

UCAR Trustee Gabor Vali toured the Members and Affiliates around the recently developed Student Recruiting website. Vali asked Members to contribute to the site by sending in a paragraph on why they chose their discipline. A number of suggestions were given to make it a better resource. The site can be found at www.ucar.edu/student_recruiting.

19. EDUCATION AND OUTREACH REPORT

Roberta Johnson, Director of the UCAR Office of Education and Outreach (EO), outlined the three areas highlighted in the EO Strategic Plan: (a) support students and professionals from pre-K through postgraduate level, (b) foster an informed public through science literacy, and (c) promote the involvement of diverse and historically under-represented populations in the geosciences. She then gave examples of activities that have occurred in each of these areas in the past year, such as professional development and leadership workshops, considerable upgrades in the exhibit program, websites such as Windows to the Universe and Web Weather for Kids, as well as numerous collaborations with NCAR and university scientists.

20. UNSTRUCTURED DISCUSSION

Rick Anthes asked the Members Representatives to be sure that the salary surveys sent to their institutions are completed and returned. Institutions who participate in the survey will receive a copy of the results. This year, the Academic Affiliates will also be included in the survey. Three results will be available from the survey: all results combined, results from Members Universities, and results from Academic Affiliates.

Outgoing University Relations Committee Chairman Chris Bretherton (U of WA) asked the Members to please forward information sent from UCAR to other related departments in their institutions (such as marine sciences, oceanography, etc.). [After the 2002 Members meeting, a meeting summary website was created to help Members Representatives report back to their colleagues and explore collaborative opportunities with UCAR. This website is located at: http://www.ucar.edu/governance/meetings/oct02/followup.html.] Bretherton also reminded the Members Representatives of their responsibility to keep their colleagues informed and engaged in UCAR activities. (Responsibilities can be found at: http://www.ucar.edu/governance/members/member_role.html.)

Ernie Agee (Purdue U) made a motion to approve the following resolution:

Be it resolved that the Members Representatives and the Academic Affiliates extend special thanks to the UCAR staff and management for the hospitality and for the meeting arrangements in the new Center Green Complex, which were accomplished most successfully in a narrow window of opportunity. Management and NSF are also recognized for their vision, fortitude, and frugality in acquiring these excellent new facilities for UCAR, NCAR, and the university community.

The motion was seconded and passed unanimously.

21. ADJOURN

The meeting adjourned at 2:50 pm.

End of Minutes