ISU AMS Meeting Minutes

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ISU AMS Meeting Minutes
http://www.meteor.iastate.edu/ams/
September 03, 2002

Here are the minutes from the first AMS/ Cy's Eyes meeting.

First of all we want to thank everyone who came to the meeting. Attendance was wonderful. We just hope we can keep the attendance up.

Atmospheric Sciences Picnic: The professors in meteorology and geology put on a picnic at the beginning of every fall semester. The picnic this year is (was) Wednesday September 4th. Anyone interested in getting a ride was to email Brandon (Due to my busy schedule, this is already past by the time I'm writing the notes.)

Forecast Contest: The National Collegiate Weather Forecasting contest is starting up again. Jeremy will be in charge of this, and is holding a meeting Thursday, September 5th at 7:00 in 3128 Agronomy. The contest consists of making at least 64 forecasts through the fall and spring semesters for selected cities. You will forecast Monday through Thursday for high and low temperatures, and precipitation category. If you have any questions, email Jeremy ( )

Intramurals: Brian Tentinger will work on getting a list of upcoming intramurals. The ones coming up right away are Curling and Volleyball. Brian will be sending out an email to let everyone know when to sign up with him to participate. AMS doesn't have a great history in intramurals, and would like to see some more teams participate and win!

Historian: Jon Hobbs will be continuing to work on the scrapbook. If any past members have pictures that they could donate to the scrapbook, let Jon know. He will also be working on the bulletin board outside 3128.

Fundraising: We would like to form a fundraising committee this year, and do some more fundraising stuff... We need money to have food at the meetings and to take trips! If you are interested in being on this committee, there will be a signup for it at the next meeting. Some fund raising ideas are a car wash, and Jolesch Photography. Other ideas welcome!

Trips: We would also like to have a committee to plan more trips this year. Some trips we could take would be a TV station in Des Moines, the National Weather Service in Des Moines, Offutt AFB in Omaha, and museums with weather exhibits in the area. The committee will also help to plan the spring break trip. We would like to go to Florida this year, but if that doesn't work out, we would probably go to the Norman Oklahoma area where there are many weather related places to visit. Sign up for this committee will be at the next meeting also.

Webpage: Kevin Sullivan is the webmaster for this year. He will be updating the website in the next week. The website address is http://www.meteor.iastate.edu/ams/index.html

Speakers: We will be working on getting some speakers in for meetings this year. Some possibilities are Dr. Gallus, Jason Parkin from KCCI-TV in Des Moines, and someone from the National Weather Service.

School Talks: We have for the last few years been doing school talks to 4th grade students in the Ames schools during severe weather week in April. We plan to continue doing this this year. We will also be sending an announcement to all the lower elementary schools to volunteer to do school talks throughout the year. Possibly one or two per month...depending on requests.

Storm Spotter Training: We would like to do a storm spotter training course once again in the spring. We did this for the first time last year, and had a wonderful turnout. The training is open to anyone. Andy Kula from the NWS came last year to do the training along with Dr. Gallus.

T-Shirts: We have a few "Iowa State Meteorology" shirts left over from last year, and can order more if there is an interest. There will be a signup sheet at the next meeting. If you want to try to get one of the leftover shirts, email Jenny Riese ( ) to see what she has left. We would also like to make AMS shirts this year, but we need someone to come up with a design. Typically the design has consisted of a small patch design for the front, and a larger design for the back. If you have any ideas, bring them to the next meeting.

AMS Banner: Brandon would like to make a banner for the AMS this year. It would be used at VEISHEA, the science fair, and any other events we attend so people know who we are. More about this later.

Pop: There is pop in the closet of the classroom for sale for fifty cents. At this time there is no refrigerator, so the pop is warm. We would like to find a fridge to put in there, and if anyone has one they are willing to donate, let Brandon know. Also, we have a pop can recycling bag in the map room (3008 Agronomy), so put your empty cans in there to make money for AMS rather than throwing them away.

Printer: We are also considering getting a printer for the map room. We'd have to use it sparingly though because we have to buy the ink with AMS money, and ink is expensive.

National AMS: We need to increase our National AMS membership. The awards committees look at how many people we have in the national chapter when choosing chapters for awards. National Membership is $15 per year, and gets you the BAMS (Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society) magazine every month, and also discounts for conferences, and possibly scholarships. The national website is http://www.ametsoc.org/AMS/ on here there is a link for an application. One brand new perk for becoming a member (brand new as it was first in the BAMS that came out today) is that we will soon be able to get a discounted price on Weatherwise magazine. There are also many other magazines and publications you can get discount rates on.

National Weather Association: There is a Central Iowa chapter of the NWA. Their primary agenda is the Severe Storms and Doppler radar Conference in March. If anyone is interested in joining, talk to Penny ( ). The next meeting is on September 25th at 6, location TBA.

Dues: It was voted on to keep dues at $5. If you have not already paid them, be prepared to do so at the next meeting. Because we will probably be having pizza at the next meeting, dues should be paid by this time to help pay for the pizza.

next meeting: The next meeting will be on Thursday, September 19th at 6:30 in 3128 Agronomy.

And just because Brandon's email address didn't get in the minutes anywhere else, i'll put it here if you have any questions about AMS you can contact him.

Cy's Eyes

I'll keep this part short because the AMS minutes were incredibly long. We will start doing shows Tuesday, September 10th. If you did not sign up but still want to come, that's fine. You'll probably be watching what goes on. The show will start at 6:00, and run until 6:15. We will meet at 5:30 in the lobby of the communications building, which is in the Northwest corner of campus, next to the Molecular Biology building. Mitch will continue to do graphics, unless someone else is willing to do them. The rundown will not really change from last year. We will change positions every show, with a signup available a week ahead of time. If you have any questions, contact Penny ( )