Unidata Users Committee

Action Items

2-3 October 2003

Action 1: As a result of discussion regarding the “pay per byte” issue, the Unidata Users Committee requests the Unidata Policy Committee to send a letter to the Dean, Internet Technology (IT) Department and the Chair of the Departments of university sites providing IDD relay service to other Unidata sites, on behalf of the Unidata community. Consideration might be given toward providing a “certificate of appreciation.”

Action 2: The following “Resolution” to the Policy Committee, describes the importance and continuation of the case study project to the Unidata community, which is viewed as valuable to both research and education purposes.

Resolution 1:
The case study library has been an important resource for the Unidata community and the Users Committee encourages Unidata to explore options for its continuation.

Action 3: The UPC will post a subset of successful proposals from the Equipment grant process on the My.Unidata Web Portal .

Action 4: Mark Laufersweiler, Michael Morgan and Anton Krueger will develop a follow up survey to send to the workshop participants by October 31, 2003. All workshop information will be saved for future workshop planning, “message in a bottle.”

Action 5: A summer workshop meeting summary will be created, based on participants survey information gleaned from both the exit survey conducted during the workshop, the follow up survey (Action 4 above), and the workshop meeting summaries. A workshop summary report will be submitted to the AMS for publication by the end of November.

Action 6: The Users Committee will provide a letter of support commending the Unidata technical staff involved in development of the LDM6, based on its excellent performance for Internet data distribution for the Unidata community. This letter will be combined with other supporting materials to be submitted for nomination for the UCAR Technical Achievement awards.

Action 7: In future Equipment Award solicitations, a clear statement regarding the “needs-based” issue will be made, along with the focus of the RFP.

Action 8: A solicitation for nominations for the Russell L. DeSouza Award for work performed within the Unidata community will be sent to the Unidata community as soon as possible. Nominations should be made by 1 November. The Users Committee will select the recipient via email correspondence.

Action 9: The UPC will investigate the possibility of using the CONDUIT data stream for the NDFD data. Jim Steenburgh will solicit approval from the CONDUIT Planning Committee.

Action 10: The Users Committee members will poll the Unidata community, with the goal of reconnecting to the Unidata community, and to measure the satisfaction of Unidata services and tools utilized within the community institutions. This task will become a Users Committee service performed each year via a short phone survey. The goal is to represent the Unidata “community,” and not the UPC.

Action 11: A Regional Unidata Workshop will be held at Millersville University during Spring, 2004. Rich Clark will host and the Users Committee and UPC staff will help coordinate the workshop.

Action 12: The new Users Committee member orientation was successful, and in future orientations, an acronym list will be included. The acronym list will be added as a link in the My.Unidata Web Portal.

Action 13: Research information on the NCEP Scientific Review Committee, and nominate a Users Committee representative to participate.

Action 14: Determine community interest by providing information via email and My.Unidata Web Portal regarding ongoing floater service and transition to a Level II floater, if possible.

Resolution 2:

The Unidata Users Committee thanks NCAR/SCD for providing delayed model access to IDD data products, which we believe will enhance education and research at member institutions. We encourage SCD to expand the product availability, including access to higher resolution analyses and forecast products provided by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction and raw (i.e., undecoded) METAR reports.