The first meeting of the 2012-13 year took place at the National Weather Service Jackson office. During the meeting, nominations and elections were held for the chapter year.

Meeting Minutes

Call to Order
The first NWA/AMS meeting of 2012-2013 year started at 7:05 p.m. and was opened by Chapter Corresponding Secretary Eric Carpenter. The Chapter meeting was held at the NWS office in Flowood, MS.

Rolls
Treasurer Joanne Culin left out a sign in sheet for attendees to sign. Ten people were present, including four of the returning officers.

Minutes Approval
Treasurer, Ms. Joanne Culin, advertised collection of dues and gave the incoming balance report. Once officer nominations were done, dues were collected by the new Treasurer, Mr. Jason Brand. As usual, dues are $20 for adults, $10 for students. In Ms. Nancy Lopez’s absence, Ms. Culin took minutes.

New Business
Mr. Eric Carpenter opened the meeting with everyone going around the room and introducing themselves. After this was complete, officer nominations began. A few of the officer positions from last year were being vacated and depending on how the election went, additional ones were vacated as well. The first position vacated is the NWA President. Nominations were made and Joanne Culin was elected as the NWA President. Ethan Huston retained his position as NWA Vice President. Nancy Lopez takes over the role of NWA Corresponding Secretary. On the AMS side: Loren White retains the President position, Barbie Bassett remains Vice President and Alan Gerard remains Corresponding Secretary. Jason Brand takes over as Treasurer, Eric Carpenter moves into the Recording Secretary role and Daniel Lamb remains the social media/webmaster.

Meeting ideas were then discussed for the year. Prior arrangements had been made to go to WJTV this year and that seems to be set for a time in November. Additional ideas include: MEMA, Grand Gulf, Corps of Engineers in Vicksburg (both seem to be an issue due to travel but otherwise there was interest in both). A potential topic for January would be to talk about dual-pol radar since that will have just been installed at the Jackson radar. An idea for a cookout in the warmer months with a speaker was suggested. Some offices do a webinar due to rising travel costs for speakers and this would be an option to consider.

The next order of business was to discuss the current webpage. When the web duties were transitioned from Joanne Culin to Daniel Lamb, many of the previous pages were lost or ill-formatted. Daniel has recreated the best he can with the webpage but suggested another format would be better if duties were transitioned again due to the cumbersome way the webpage is created. He suggested using a blog format through WordPress, which would be no charge. In addition, for 20 dollars a year, we could set up an actual website which Daniel Lamb offered to pay for as long as he is the webmaster. This would be an independent site that would not be linked to either AMS or NWA and would be linked on each of their chapter websites. Chapter agreed this was a good idea. Discussion was held about the name of the website and something similar to the social media handles was decided upon (Central MS NWA/AMS).

The discussion turned to Hurricane Isaac and how the storm evolved and some of the services that were given with the storm. The Hurricane Isaac NWS website was shown. Discussion was held about the track and how it wobbled, with model guidance being inconsistent between the ECMWF and the GFS. It was noted that the NHC 5 day cone of uncertainty has not been very good this year with Isaac, Debbie and perhaps Beryl. Isaac was not a big tornado threat but rather caused a bit of wind damage. One problem with the wind was that it was a long duration of 40+ mph winds while a brief thunderstorm may have strong winds near 60+ mph but a shorter duration. This helped lead to more downed trees, as well as saturated soils.

A question was raised to mainly the media about the usefulness of the Hurricane Local Statement. Ethan said he liked it in that it was an easier way to get a summary of the thinking about the storm, with concise thoughts. Brad pointed out that it is a pain for forecasters to create and some examples of the length of the product was shown. Jason noted that it was helpful to have so many JAN forecasters in the chat as opposed to some other offices. It was asked how the media took the issues with getting the forecast package out on time due to the HLS/NHC products not being ingested quickly. Ethan commented that they understood this could be an issue due to the timing of the NHC advisory issuance times. He suggested it would be good to put out the main forecast package and communicate on chat the new information or that it would be updated shortly with the new information.

Adjournment
The meeting concluded at approximately 8:35 p.m. Mr. Eric Carpenter stated that Joanne Culin would type up the notes in his place and all officer positions would take over with the next meeting. The next meeting date is being planned for October.

Minutes submitted by Joanne Culin, President-elect.

Chapter members have a discussion during the September 2012 meeting.

For more pictures from this meeting, click here.

The final meeting of the 2011/2012 year was held at the Russell C. Davis Planetarium in Jackson, where there was a private showing of the movie New Horizons.

Meeting Minutes

Call to Order
The June NWA/AMS Chapter meeting of 2012 was called to order at 7:10 p.m. by Corresponding Secretary Mr. Eric Carpenter. The Chapter meeting was held at the Russell C. Davis Planetarium, 201 E. Pascagoula St. in Jackson, MS 39201.

Rolls & Old Business
Recording Secretary Ms. Nancy Lopez took attendance, and the sign-in sheet confirmed 25 attendees but a head count totaled 35 guests. There may have been a few new guests not signed in. Also invited to the meeting were the JSU-sponsored (Jackson State University) weather campers, as well as friends and family members. Weather campers hailed from California, Georgia, Texas, and Indiana to name a few states across the U.S. that visit the University for a five-day workshop that was scheduled this week.

Minutes Approval and New Business
Treasurer Ms. Joanne Culin gave an update on the financial report for 2011-12. The balance was $188 and $125 of the funds will be used towards the cost of reserving the theater. The group reservation cost $250 to rent the theater for two hours. Guests contributed $4 to cover remaining costs, and it was estimated 35 guests were available to pay by head count. She reminded the group on $20 dues for regular membership and $10 for student Chapter membership and that cash or check is acceptable. She collected dues at the meeting and even some dues for next year’s fund.

Condolences and prayers were extended to Dr. L. White’s family on the passing of his daughter. After a recap on the last Chapter meeting, the group watched a private showing of the New Horizons movie. This movie was an introduction of a spacecraft to help study Pluto and stamp out the mythology behind the planet. Viewers were able to view the night sky and constellations as if launched into it. Studying Pluto is key to understanding life on the planet because of the water component. This viewing was the first movie for one child, who was only three-years old! Everyone clapped to that occasion and to the movie.

Afterwards, a Happy Birthday wish was extended to the Chapter’s media/webmaster Mr. Daniel Lamb. This is the last Chapter meeting of the 2011-12 year, with the next opening meeting being planned for September 2012. Ideas and topics are welcome to Mr. Carpenter, with one possible member talk lined up.

Adjournment
The meeting concluded at approximately 7:48 p.m.

Minutes submitted by Nancy Lopez, Recording Secretary.

Corresponding Secretary Eric Carpenter introduces the IMAX movie “New Horizons” at the Russell C. Davis Planetarium.

For pictures from this meeting, click here.

The meeting was held at the National Weather Service Office in Jackson. Our guest speaker was Dr. Laura Myers, a social scientist from the Social Science Research Center at Mississippi State University.

Meeting Minutes

Call to Order
The March NWA/AMS meeting of 2012 was called to order at 6 p.m. by Corresponding Secretary, Mr. Eric Carpenter. The Chapter meeting was held at the National Weather Service office, 234 Weather Service Drive, in Flowood, MS.

Rolls & Old Business
Recording Secretary Ms. Nancy Lopez took attendance, and the sign-in sheet confirmed 20 attendees. The Chapter e-mail list was updated, and the meeting was announced on Facebook and Google Plus by Social Media contact Mr. Daniel Lamb. A twitter account is available at: @CentralMSnwaams. Mr. Lamb may be taking on the webmaster role as well for posting materials, and NWA Vice President Mr. E. Huston approved it.

Minutes Approval and New Business
Treasurer Ms. Joanne Culin gave an update on the financial report for 2011-12. The fund had decreased to $88 to pay for travel for the January speaker. She reminded the group on $20 dues for regular membership and $10 for student Chapter membership. She collected $90 at the meeting.

Other news was AMS President Dr. Loren White mentioned NCAR will be coming in a couple weeks to Jackson State University, and that dates for a weather camp will likely be for the end of June. Mr. Carpenter announced NWA President Mr. Vincent Webb started working at Fox 40 as fill-in.

After the group was briefed on the January talk, the floor was turned over to special guest speaker Dr. Laura Myers. Dr. Myers is a social scientist with Mississippi State University but works heavily with NWS offices. She is a Principal Investigator in disaster response planning and gave a Power Point presentation on “Severe Weather Survey Analysis 2011-2012”. Dr. Myers studies what people do during disasters and works with a variety of groups in the weather enterprise, and has studied in Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee. Her applied research is to study perceptions and actions during severe weather events. Given the April tornado outbreak of 2010, she created a survey last fall to inquire to the public about severe weather while the event was fresh. The study was funded by SERRI and the Department of Homeland Security, and an online survey was offered during two sessions from mid-Nov 2011 and mid-Jan 2012, even though surveys are still coming in. She received a good sampling. Over 1810 surveys were completed with 43% from Mississippi, 20% from Alabama, and 13% from Tennessee. More males (58%) answered vs. females (42%), but all ages responded over 18 years old. Most identified themselves as Caucasian with some college with moderate to high incomes. Ninety percent who answered experienced storm damage, and 75% lived in wood homes with the rest being other materials or hotels or apartment structures. She found structural protection affected the decisions in response as well as how the message or warning on severe weather was received. TV was the #1 way of how Mississippi found out about weather while Alabama relied on NOAA radios; Tennessee used both. Cell phones and sirens weren’t as relied on, but she did state that NOAA weather radio is the most effective source for taking action. Conclusions on her study was that content of message and timing of message with proximity and path of storm or lead time is key, as well as education to the public. She found working through myths, i.e. “tornados do(n’t) track there”, is still needed. She offered her contact info and would love our feedback on how we utilize this info: laura.myers@ssrc.msstate.edu or (828) 243-2952.

Adjournment
The meeting concluded at approximately 7:45 p.m. An April meeting is possible depending on Dr. White’s NCAR visitors.

Minutes submitted by Nancy Lopez, Recording Secretary.

Guest speaker Dr. Laura Myers presents her research on social science and severe weather.

For pictures from this meeting, click here.

The meeting was held at the National Weather Service Office in Jackson. This was the first meeting of the 2011/2012 chapter year. Ideas of meetings over the upcoming year were discussed, the roster of officers was confirmed, and updates to the chapter website were discussed.

Meeting Minutes

Call to Order
The first NWA/AMS meeting of 2011-2012 year started at 7:05 p.m. and was opened by Chapter President Vincent Webb.  The Chapter meeting was held at the NWS office in Flowood, MS.

Rolls
President Vincent Webb passed around a sign-in sheet. Ten people were present, including six of the returning officers.

Minutes Approval
Treasurer, Ms. Joanne Culin, advertised collection of dues. Given lower turn-out, dues will be collected next week but those who wish can pay at the end of the meeting.  As usual, dues are $20 for adults, $10 for students.  In Ms. Nancy Lopez’s absence, Ms. Culin took minutes.

New Business
Mr. Vincent Webb asked for new business. Dr. Loren White informed the group that a scientist from NCAR may be coming to JSU at some point this year and could be a speaker at a future meeting. Mr. Webb then opened the floor up for discussion for meeting ideas this year. Some ideas were to do a meeting on doing a review of the weather in 2011. Mr. Alan Gerard suggested public outreach regarding 2011, such as a symposium. Discussion on this included having it at Brandon City Hall, in January or February (around the time of the AMS meeting which will be in New Orleans.) Some other ideas regarding the symposium would be to gain sponsorship, or a joint venture with the NWS EM workshop.

Additional ideas for meetings included: fundraisers, 5k, a visit to FOX40, Ethan welcomed the group back to WAPT, a tour of MEMA.  Mr. Loren White suggested a trip to the MS River Commission. Another suggestion was to visit the French Camp Observatory or the JSU Observatory.

Mr. Webb discussed getting together with Ms. Culin about updates to the current website. In addition, Mr. Webb discussed planning meetings out into the future for the end of the 2011 calendar year, and documenting these on a calendar which could be located on the website. Mr. Webb brought up the notion of creating a Facebook page for the club. Mr. Gerard nominated chapter member Mr. Daniel Lamb as social media focal point.

Ideas tossed out for potential speakers were to grab someone who would be going to AMS, someone from an adjacent NWS office, Anne Hanks from ULM, Keith Blackwell.

Just for posterity, a rundown of this year’s officers were listed: Dr. Loren White as AMS President, Vincent Webb as NWA President, Eric Carpenter as Corresponding Secretary, Alan Gerard as Corresponding Secretary, Ethan Huston as Vice President, Joanne Culin as Treasurer, and Nancy Lopez as Recording Secretary.

Adjournment
The meeting concluded at approximately 7:35 p.m. Mr. Eric Carpenter stated that he would contact FOX40 about possibly doing a meeting there this year.  The next meeting date is being planned for October.

Minutes submitted by Joanne Culin, Treasurer.