Have you read something that you think everyone should read?
What book would you recommend to others or would like to have in your
own library?
The NCAR Science Store will be offering books, at the upcoming
* Holiday Crafts Fair on November 7th *
(with a special employee discount...better than Borders!!)
I welcome your ideas via email.
For more information, contact Heidi Lewis at ext. 1181, hlewis@ucar.edu.
Present for all agenda items: Rick Anthes, Jack Fellows, Maura Hagan,
Susan Friberg, Rena Brasher-Alleva, Peter Backlund, Bob Roesch, Jeff
Reaves
Please view previous and current summary notes at:
https://www.ucar.edu/inside/internal/pc/.
We convened at 9:00 am in the Fleischmann Board Room.
1. October Meeting Plans.
Rick led a discussion on the October 2008 Trustees, Members, PACUR and
AMS-AGU Heads and Chairs meetings, which will occur 13-17 October.
2. Proposal Promises.
Rick led a discussion on the new activities we agreed to in the
proposal to NSF for the next Cooperative Agreement. We discussed the
status of these activities and who will lead them. We will send a
status report to the Board of Trustees.
3. Workforce Management Plan.
In the proposal we promised to develop a workforce management plan for
NCAR, covering such topics as scientific appointments, diversity,
career development, succession planning, the appropriate mix of job
categories, etc. We considered broadening this plan to include the
rest of UCAR but decided against it because of the scope of the
project, even when restricted to NCAR.
4. Cooperative Agreement Status.
Jeff reported that UCAR and NSF are still negotiating the terms of the
new cooperative agreement. There are still a few outstanding issues
that are yet to be resolved.
5. Unstructured Discussion.
Regarding the Mesa Lab's maintenance and upkeep, Jeff reminded the
Council that NSF had provided a $1.5M increment to NCAR's base budget
to be used for infrastructure projects in NSF-owned buildings. NSF
recognizes that some of the funding could occasionally be used for
other priorities but reminded UCAR that we are responsible for the
upkeep and maintenance of these buildings.
As to a post mortem meeting on T-PARC, Jeff reported that he had met
with Roger Wakimoto the week prior, and they wanted to proceed with
the post mortem meeting as a case study in how to improve planning and
execution of large scale field programs now that the field phase of
T-PARC had come to a close. We agreed that such a meeting and
discussion would be timely.
The FY09 Staff Development Catalog of classes is now available! This
year's catalog offers a variety of training opportunities in the areas
of: Computer/Technology, Supervisor/Management, Communication,
Professional Development, and Safety, as well as numerous
informational seminars on a variety of self-help, health/wellness and
financial topics.
The Catalog is available via Connect at:
https://www.fin.ucar.edu/hrisConnect/employee. Login
using your UCAS (time card) login and password, click Training and
Education on top of the page and click the Staff Development
Catalog. View full course listing, or search by topic area or class.
Click details for dates, times, locations and click enroll to register.
So take a tour of the Staff Development Catalog! Bookmark your
Connect page for quick reference and visit often as new sessions are
added and updated throughout the year. If you have any questions, need
additional information or resources, contact Cheryl Cristanelli,
x8708, cherylc@ucar.edu.
UCAR Staff Development Program...Your On-Site Learning Resource!
In less than two weeks, Friday, October 17th before the close of
business, nominations for the annual UCAR awards are due.
More information can be found at the “2008 Request for Nominations” link
found here:
http://www.fin.ucar.edu/polpro/section6/RequestForNominations.pdf.
In order to submit nominations that will be favorably considered, please
use the Checklists mentioned at the top of the Employee Recognition
Awards website in the Policy Manual found here:
http://www.fin.ucar.edu/polpro/section6/distachieve.pdf for the
Distinguished Achievement Awards and
http://www.fin.ucar.edu/polpro/section6/outability.pdf for the
Outstanding Accomplishments Awards.
These Checklists have been compiled by previous Awards Jury members
in order to make the process more consistent and streamlined.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
3:00-4:15 p.m.
CG1-3131
Facilitators: April Burke and Sarah Spreitzer, Lewis-Burke Associates
Interested in how the nation's science agenda fares in a time of
transition and difficulty? Join April Burke, president and founder of
Lewis-Burke Associates LLC (LBA) in Washington, DC, and her colleague
Sarah Spreitzer, who will discuss the country's annual federal science
budget process, public perceptions of science and characterizations in
the media, and how results of the election and the financial crisis
could affect immediate and long term federal funding of science. This
session is open to anyone interested in how science gets federally
funded in Washington, D.C. and potential impacts of current funding
issues.
Ms. Burke has provided government relations advice to UCAR and the
atmospheric sciences community regarding public policy and legislation
for over 12 years. Her experience includes positions on Capitol Hill
and in the not-for-profit sector. Her past work includes 26 years of
experience in legislative and regulatory analysis in areas related to
science and engineering research, technology transfer, health and
health research policy, and higher education.
Sarah Spreitzer comes to LBA from a background in federal relations
and professional association work in areas including education policy,
and ocean and environmental issues. She has been a leader for these
and other issues within the higher education advocacy community.
Register through the Staff Development Catalog via Connect at:
https://www.fin.ucar.edu/hrisConnect/employee. Login using your UCAS
(timecard) login and password, click Training and Education Tab on top
of the page, click Staff Development Catalog, type in class name,
click details and enroll.
We’re looking for volunteers for NCAR’s largest public event, Super
Science Saturday, on October 25, at the Mesa Lab! This year’s event
features "Amazing Energy" and Halloween fun! Every year, thousands of
people enjoy Super Science Saturday, and we can't pull it off without
a little extra help! Volunteers are needed for the following time
slots: 10-12, 12-2, or 2-4. If you’re interested, please let me know!
The Sustainable Energy and Atmospheric Sciences Seminar Series, hosted
by NREL and NOAA ESRL, is a new monthly seminar series designed to
enhance communication and collaboration among scientists at NREL, NOAA
ESRL, and others in the community working on issues related to
renewable energy. Key meteorological questions must be answered to
accelerate the deployment of renewable energy in the U.S. This series
will bring together those who can combine their knowledge and
expertise to solve the problems that have until now slowed the
integration of renewable energy sources into the U.S. electric grid.
Scientists at the University of Colorado, School of Mines, Colorado
State University, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and
private industry are encouraged to participate. The location will
alternate between ESRL in Boulder and NREL in Golden, as will the
affiliation of the speakers.
On Thursday, October 30, Dr. Chuck Kutscher of NREL will kick off the
new series with a talk titled “Renewable Energy: Big Potential and Big
Challenges.” The talk is held at NOAA's David Skaggs Research Center,
Room GC402, from 3-4:30.
If you plan to attend and do not work at NOAA, please contact Holly
Palm (Holly.Palm@noaa.gov) at least one day in advance, so that she
can give your name to the security office to facilitate your entrance
to the campus.
For more information about the seminar series, see the website below
or contact Melinda Marquis at melinda.marquis@noaa.gov; 303-497-4487.
Charlie Zender, UC-Irvine, will present "Climate Sensitivity to
Sub-gridscale Horizontal Winds," in the ML Main Seminar Room.
GCMs determine surface fluxes from gridcell-mean wind speeds intended
to represent the spatio-temporal average of the underlying wind speed
probability density functions (PDF). However, surface energy fluxes
depend non-linearly on wind speed, and vary significantly on the
unresolved sub-gridscale domain. We hypothesize that GCMs
systematically underestimate surface momentum flux non-linearities,
and that this biases surface wind predictions most in regions of
strong winds with high variability.
The TIAA-CREF Individual Counseling Session for October has been
scheduled. The TIAA-CREF representative will be at:
Center Green 1 in room 2126 on Tuesday, October 14, 2008 from 8:00
a.m.- 3:45 p.m.
SIGN UP TODAY:
To schedule a counseling session, please call their Scheduling and
Service Group phone reservation center at (800)732-8353.
These sessions are in high demand, so if you have to miss your
appointment, be sure to contact TIAA-CREF as soon as possible so they
can fill your time slot.
For more information, contact Konnie Carrillo at ext. 8706, carrillo@ucar.edu.
What if your food choices have a more profound impact on global
warming than the car you drive? Join Eugene Cordero as he discusses
his recent book, Cool Cuisine: Taking the Bite out of Global Warming.
Coauthored with San Francisco Chef, Laura Stec,Cool Cuisine explores
the connections between the food we eat and our changing climate while
also offering tasty solutions to reduce our carbon footprint.
Dr. Eugene Cordero is Associate Professor in the Department of
Meteorology at San Jose State University in California. His ongoing
areas of research include the study of stratospheric processes and
their role in affecting climate. He is also interested in how
personal engagement and action-oriented learning can be used to teach
climate change.
Date: Thursday, October 9, 2008
Time: 7:00-8:00 pm (talk) Book signing to follow.
Place: NCAR ML (Main Seminar Room)
Sponsors: UCAR Office of Education & Outreach; Ecoarts;
For more information, contact Linda Carbone at ext. 1185, lcarbone@ucar.edu.
This NOAA-sponsored program, pairs recently graduated post-doctorates
with host scientists at U.S. institutions to work in an area of mutual
interest. The objective of this program is to help create the next
generation of researchers needed for climate studies.
The NOAA Climate and Global Change Program seeks to provide an
effective national climate service based on the development and
application of global and regional climate forecast information. The
Program focuses on observing, understanding, modeling, and predicting
the climate system on seasonal to centennial time scales.
This program has been developed to encourage and build the pool of
scientists qualified to transfer advances in climate science and
prediction into climate-related decision frameworks and tools. A goal
of the program is to develop more active and explicit collaboration
between the climate community and agencies involved in climate-related
decisions.
The program seeks recent or anticipated PhDs who have expertise in
climate science to research and develop tools that will apply climate
prediction information to climate-impacted decisions. Postdoctoral
projects are conducted under the specification and direction of
institutional partners that are chosen annually by a UCAR steering
committee.
Convection in a global atmospheric analysis: Comparison with
high-resolution satellite data and cloud resolving model simulations
Combining global high-resolution atmospheric analyses with
high-resolution satellite data and cloud resolving model simulations
could lead to a better understanding of atmospheric convection and
convection parameterizations in atmospheric models. In this talk,
results from NASA’s new GEOS-5 data assimilation system (DAS) will be
used to look at relationships between large-scale meteorological
variables and cloud and precipitation measurements from the CloudSat
and TRMM instruments.
The next NCL workshop will be held October 14-17, 2008 at the CTTC in Boulder. There
are only a few spaces available. Registration closes on October 7, 2008.
Ecoarts is a collaboration of major science, environmental, and arts
organizations which together produce an amazing array of activities
exploring climate change. This year's Ecoarts celebration runs from
September 12 through October 9, 2008 in Boulder, Denver, and Fort
Collins.
For a full schedule of Ecoarts events: www.ecoartsonline.org or
303.449.2128.
Martial Arts classes are great places to deal with stress, gain all-around fitness, and learn to
relax under stress, as well as work on the mind-body connection. And we have classes here
at UCAR! Classes are both at Foothills Lab-1 and at the Mesa Lab. The class times and
locations make it easy for you to make it to classes.
