Meeting Notes: AMS BWM January 2001

Meeting Notes: AMS BWM January 2001

26th Meeting of BWM

To think about (Ron McPherson): Organizing a major diversity symposium for San Antonio 2007 when MLK day once again falls during the conference. Our Board should largely organize this.

To think about (Bob Seraffin): Requested Board members to forward nominations to AMS HQ for next President - nominate someone from government sector. Call for nominations for scientific committees - specifically looking for women and minorities

WHAT WE HAVE ACCOMPLISHED:

1) Demographic Survey Analysis
Homework: Please look over paper and communicate with Mish thru the BWM list serve. Provide suggestions ASAP.
a) Finalizing Survey Paper for BAMS: Sim, Howie, Marshall, and I will finish up the paper in the next few weeks so that it can be passed on to BAMS for publication in the next four months.
*Need Keith to give 1993 data set to Howie/Sim for t-test analysis.
b) Interest in producing other papers from the survey data set from 1999:
1. Mish will write analysis of broadcast sector. Need to check date for abstracts for June broadcast conference.
2. University analysis: Kristine Harper and Julie Winkler
c) How do we advertise the Survey Paper once it is published in BAMS:
1. Stephanie Kenitzer, AMS public information officer () has offered to do PR for the paper.
2. Henry Robinson suggested that the Institute of Physics may have some interest.
3. Leslie Hartten suggested AAUW-American Association of University Women and the MS Foundation
4. Kristine Harper offered to get information out to the History of Science sector
d) We need to prepare a formal paper to pass on to AMS with our Boards recommendations for future AMS surveys.
Homework: Please review the structure of the survey and pass on any suggestions for changes.
1. Volunteer group will review in detail and prepare proposal. Volunteers: Katy, Tina, Ahsha, Julie will forward suggestions via the BWM list serve
2. All agreed that every 5 years was a reasonable cycle for executing the AMS survey.
2) TWC Video: Career's in Meteorology
Homework: come up with names of folks from underrepresented groups to be highlighted in second career video and post to BWM list serve; Suggestions can also be sent directly to TWC to: Carolyn Jones:
Also, send your request for a copy of the TWC Career video to Keith Seitter at AMS HQ. Include your address and the number of copies that you would like
a) copy of AMS/TWC video should be sent to all board members- please indicate how many videos you would like sent to you via an email to Keith Seitter as stated above
b) Must write up dissemination plan for video and give to AMS
1) Idea was to create a folder with the same style sleeve as the video cover that would house various print materials including: AMS membership application, AMS Minority Scholarship application, relevant letter of explanation for packet and video, copyright clearance should be noted so that teachers are aware that the video can be copied (Kathy Strebe has already checked into this with TWC and all rights have been passed on to AMS), and perhaps copy of Teen Voices magazine article?? Should we also include the AMS Career guide?
2) NSTA St. Louis in March- Kathy Murphy will be working AMS booth and will coordinate with Keith to get tapes for distribution. There are 100,000 science teachers and 25,000 NSTA members

Other distribution points:

Every NWS office v Research labs for educational outreach
Entire AMS educational outreach
One for every AERA, Datastreme, Maury Project, Wes participant?
Science Museums
University with met programs
Seven states with MESA programs-Tony will get addresses
Order form on AMS web site
Advertise in Weatherwise-have video reviewed by Weatherwise
Schools with teacher training workshops (hard to get list)
AMS Sealholders or for wider dissemination all AMS broadcast met's??

c) ideas for Second edition: suggestions for scientists to highlight
-math and science need to be highlighted more
-comment on good grades, core requirements
-getting message across that Met is interesting regardless of math/science.
-show a middle/High school and/or college students with weather stations
-show connection with computer science; using the internet
-school associated with GLOBE(?); also acts as inspiration for teachers
-fascination of research
-show middle/high school students at the board doing math to help drive point home.
-middle school weather club
-highlight University Professor/college student
-Phil Falconer
- Forensic Meteorology, Henry Robinson will forward info
-Aviation Meteorologist
- Henry will volunteer a plane
-Tom suggests considering ways to do filming in the hard to reach communities (African American, Latino, inner city communities)
-Need to get connections for these ideas
3) Teen Voices: Profile of Women Meteorologists
Homework: please read the article in Teen Voices magazine and make any suggestions for dissemination
a) What do we want to do with this? Dissemination? Should it go along with video? Yes. We will need to get copies to AMS to go out with video packet.
4) AMS Poster for Board on Women and Minorities
a) pictures included in the poster will be placed on the web site
b) would be nice for the poster to be redone with larger letters
c) explanatory text should be included to provide information on the history of the board, the boards mission and to better describe the images
5) AMS_BWM Web Site
Homework: please review the web site and make suggestions for changes, additions, corrections and post to list serve . Direct comments to Sarah Curtis. Also, please provide a bio to be linked with your name-send to Sarah Curtis: .
To view site: click on link to Commissions and Boards from AMS homepage or
Go to: Username: almanac Password: cloud9
a) notes from discussion:
-Hosting issues: how often do we need to update it? Maintaining link to AMS is important, this could happen either way. Have link on AMS site, once we click on it you're forwarded to separate URL.
-Purpose for website? Have students post their info on our site. Is this the direction we want to go? Leslie and others wondering if this is in our charge, and concern regarding personal information being posted. Only contain email address.
-Link from our AMS website to another site that info is updated on.
-Pointer from our site to AMS job listing? But then it's not so specific to women and minorities.
-Concern that the companies are out there, but we need a pool of people to recommend.
-Henry Robinson
- Ask some other companies that have bios posted how they get around problems with personal info being posted. Check with monster.com, etc
-Companies register, have a secure site, using a password to get to bios.
-Julie Winkler
- People looking for qualified applicants should go to AMS, have HQ's compile list and forward that list to appropriate people.
-Agreed that we will not use our web site for posting bios.
-Can we appear within searches done on search engines? Tina believes it's a function of each individual search engine.
-Many web sites that invite you to add your URL. Concern that if you're site is not hit a certain amount if times a day it will become a low priority.
-Mish's final decision: link on AMS page with a separate URL.
-Are other boards going in the same direction, hosting on a different URL?
-Make sure minority scholarship is on the site. -Some cheaper options for hosting.
b) Sarah will work with the company that designed our web site to
-create a separate domain name specific for our site such that we host it on our own to make it easier to update the site
-will add pictures used in BWM poster to the web site to make it more attractive
-to make any changes suggested by the board
-add bio's of current board members to the web site
d) Food for thought: Should AMS develop a place online where minorities and women can post their contact information or bio's so that employers can shop in one location?
5a) Susan Avery: Student efforts by the University Board
1) Student Web Page: target high school students; including career opportunities, scholarships, etc.
2) Undergrad student conference: 2 day and first year student conference. Panel discussions; keynote speaker Macalwein (?) award winner; poster session. Mostly junior/seniors
3) Would we like to be involved in this conference as a board?
4) Two volunteers to be on planning committee in conjunction with University Board?
VOLUNTEERS: Tom Windham, Shirley Murillo, Ahsha Tribble.
6) Minority Scholarship Mentor Program
Homework: if you have been assigned a student to mentor, please make every effort to contact this student. Post records of your correspondence to the BWM list serve.
1) goal of the board members mentoring these students is to make contact
2) BWM members encouraged to call students directly versus impersonal email correspondence
3) Also educate winners about the new status of junior year conference travel
A) Stephanie Armstrong from AMS spoke about the issues surrounding the attendance of minority scholarship winners at the AMS annual conference:
-freshman/sophomore years, not the best time to travel these students
-since these students are so young, AMS does not want to have to take responsibility to supervise them
-suggestion is to bring them out during their junior year. At that time students are more mature and could get more out of the conference.
-it extends the scholarship beyond the first two years by offering travel in their third year.
-these students would be treated the same as all scholarship recipients and thrown a reception which could be hosted by the BWM.
-these junior year travel plans will begin with the 2000 scholarship class, bringing them to the AMS conference in 2003
-AMS is thrilled that we are attempting to establish the minority scholarship mentor program
-Stephanie intends to send out a letter reminding students about the mentoring program and will provide us with updated numbers
-Ahsha stresses the importance of phone calls or in person meeting. Email can be impersonal.
-Mish will send out a reminder stressing the importance of phone contact
B) Discussion of Asian/Pacific Islanders regarding selection of minority scholarship winners:
-Tom Schroeder points out that this category needs to be more specific, singling out specific minorities.
-Kathy suggests not putting guidelines for selection on paper, but that the process should include an awareness of any imbalance.
-comments that a student submitting an application would be unaware of any preferencing
-Howie mentioned that people who encourage applicants should also know who to encourage if there exists an imbalance.
-the consensus was that this is not an issue that we should be tackling at this time given the demographics of Asians/Pacific Islanders in the undergraduate pipeline
-we will continue to just pick the best candidate from the pool of applicants

VOLUNTEERS: According to Susan Avery, the Chair of the BWM sits on the committee that selects the minority scholarship winners. Katy Ginger is our "just in case we need a volunteer" volunteer.
WHAT WE NEED TO ACCOMPLISHED:
A) AMS/Industry Minority Scholarship:
1) For volunteer information see above.
B) Battan Award:
Homework: please post any nominations for the Battan Award to the BWM list serve
-3 year term was discussed last year for the selection committee
-language of award: "newly" means within last 3 to 5 years -please post any nominations to the BWM list serve
-8 or 9 books total
-separation into two different categories (adult/K-12)
-conference call for discussion in May
-books go out in February
VOLUNTEERS: Steve Richards, Leslie Hartten, Shirley Murillo
C) Charles Anderson Award:
Homework: please change the language of the Charles Anderson Award where ever relevant to the updated language finalized during our Jan 2001 meeting. Also, please post bio information about any nominee selected for the Charles Anderson Award to the BWM list serve. Also, forward any nominations you may have for corporate entities to Susan Avery.
NEW LANGUAGE: The Charles Anderson Award is given to an individual in recognition of outstanding contributions to the promotion of diversity in the atmospheric and related sciences and broader communities, through education and community service.
-These changes need to be made everywhere: BAMS, BWM web site
-the AMS does not have a specific corporation award targeted to efforts around women and minorities
-if a corporation deserves recognition in this regard, Susan will pass on the suggestion to the corporate award nominations committee.
-would strictly be a corporate award (Charles Anderson's name would not be attached) but the citation for the award would recognize the corporate focus on diversity.
-Susan suggests leaving award language as is and then seeing how the pool of applicants evolves (corporations/individuals).
-concern, how could you rank/compare a corporation to an individual
-decided to remove corporate from language of Anderson Award
-BWM also in agreement to change language to include "atmospheric and related sciences" instead of "AMS."
Nominations: Names of volunteers are listed below that offered to develop packages/bios of nominees to post on BWM list serve
1) David Houghton & Ira Geer - Howie
2) John Cortinas & Peggy Lemone - Tom Windham
3) John Snow - Ahsha
4) Rene McPherson - Ahsha
5) Paul Croft - Shundra
6) June Bacon Bursey - Andrea Sealy
- please post information by the end of February
-also post any corporate suggestions that will be forwarded to Susan Avery
D) Book Project Suggested by Sim:
VOLUNTEERS: Kathy Strebe, Sim, Sarah Curtis
-please communicate with Sim to develop a game plan
E) AMS Educational Advisory Committee (EAC):
Notes from meeting:
Chair: Dr. John Snow/Co-Chair: Professor David Smith
-7 people appointed to EAC committee for 3-year terms -all chairs/commissioners placed on as resource agents--ways to get info
-EAC is a committee of the Executive committee
-the AMS has accomplished the following in the edu arena: 1) extensive K-12 programming 2) continuing education 3) science/engineering fairs 4) scholarships/fellowships
-to date, the AMS has had no education plan, goals have been vague
-a new focus needs to fall on continuing education/professional development
-EAC will provide coherence, focus, and direction
-establish atmospheric policy program, which is a long-term investment in the people in the field
-20 students over 20 years=house, senate
-EAC will tie various educational pieces together, identify gaps, review components, and make recommendations for improvement
-thrust of the 21st Century campaign is education
-thinking of beginning a science journalism fellowship, similar to history of meteorology fellowship
TASKS:
1) mission statement/frame of reference for EAC
2) will execute an inventory of current programming across AMS (What is the program? How is it funded? Volunteer? Run by staff? Cost? Efficacy?)
3) Dr. Snow to write article about EAC for BAMS
Ira Geer spoke:
-DataStream project has taught over 5,000 teachers
-AMS educational outreach serves on behalf of the Society, but is a separate niche with a budget of 1.2 million
-Ira pointed out that a lack of coordination is often considered a positive in the academic sector
-90% of the funding for AMS edu is from outside donors
-September council meeting, EAC owes them a report
F) Student Conference:
See item above at 5a
G) Keeping Tabs on Society Fellows:
Homework: please post your nominations for women and minorities to be elected to the Society as fellows to the BWM list serve and to the Fellows nominating committee
-volunteers to come up with a list of names to extend the lists of women and minority fellows already compiled by Betsy and Sim's
-VOLUNTEER: Julie Winkler
H) Post Names for Additional BWM/Ad Hoc members:
Homework: please post names and email information for suggested additions to the BWM/ad hoc committees
-current composition of BWM: 12 board members and 1 student member
-plus Active Ad Hoc Alumni, Volunteer, and Student Committees
I) Nominations for Chair BWM for 2002
Homework: please send nominations to Susan Avery

 HOMEWORK REMINDER:

Read over AMS Demographic Survey paper and post any suggestions
Look over AMS Survey format and prepare formal paper outlining suggestions
Create full dissemination list for video
Secure contacts for next video
Read Teen Voices to determine how it should be used
Review website and make suggestions for corrections/changes
Post suggestions for Battan Award
Post information about nominees for Charles Anderson Award
Post nominations for the Board/Chair