ISU AMS Meeting Minutes

ISU AMS Meeting Minutes
http://www.meteor.iastate.edu/ams/
January 22, 2009

President Schwedler called the meeting to order at 7:03 PM. He welcomed all who were present to the meeting.

Geological and Atmospheric Sciences

We first held the Undergraduate research symposium award presentation. Dr. Chen and Dave Flory were present to give out awards. The winners of the 2008 Undergraduate research symposium were: Ben Schwedler, with the top award, Jeff Duda, the first runner-up, and Justin Schultz, the second runner-up. Congratulations, guys.

President Schwedler

President Schwedler began discussing the Central Iowa National Weather Association Severe Storms and Doppler Radar Conference, with speakers on Hurricane Ike, the Parkersburg, IA EF5, and the Midwest flooding. CINWA is also featuring Tim Samaras. The conference will be held from 2 April to 4 April in West Des Moines at the Sheraton Hotel. A sign-up sheet was sent out for people who are interested. We.ll also be having a sign-up for people attending the ISU Alumni Luncheon. Meet some of our faculty and alumni. The conference fee is 70 dollars, which includes a meal, but not the stay at the Sheraton. The cost of staying at the Sheraton is 102 dollars a night split four ways.
We.ll tour WHO Channel 13 news weather station. We are planning to go in middle February. The proposed dates were February 10, 11, or 12. A vote was held to see who would be interested, and when they will be available. We.ll determine if 12 February would work best.
CPR training has also been planned, with a tentative date for 21 February. The training should last roughly 3-4 hours. There will be a fee required for the renting of the materials.
We will also have Spring clothing sales soon. Please send your creative, funny, intriguing, and/or educational ideas to pres.isuams.iastate.edu.

Vice president Deppe

Our annual ISU AMS Spring Break trip is coming up quickly. A sign-up sheet went around for people who are interested in going. Discussion was held to determine a place to go. We are tentatively going to Pensacola, FL.
Repairs for the Tornado Machine (TorMac) were brought up, and a sign-up sheet was passed around for people who were interested in joining the crew.
.Iowa State University Meteorology. window clings available for 5 dollars; awesome to put in your car.

Cy.s Eyes on the Skies

Update from Ben McNeill: we had our first show, and things went well. Please attend if you are interested.

Treasurer Karsten

Our current balance is 4481.44 cents, as of noon on the day of the meeting.
NWA conference note: DO NOT pay online. This year, we are going to collectively pay for the conference. Everyone will pay AMS for the conference, and AMS will pay a lump sum to the conference to make it easier for reimbursements to happen. Again, DO NOT pay for the conference online.
We discussed the new AMS weather station options. Look for an email from Treasurer Karsten for options available for the AMS weather station.
For StormReady, we will send the Department of Residence our assessments. We.ll let you all know when we are ready to return to the residence halls with new storm shelter signs. Soon, we will have a thread up on the forums for times to do this. The forums can be found at www.meteor.iastate.edu/ams/forums/

Sophomore Chair Minniear

Bowling and euchre intramural tournaments are coming up. We passed around a sign-up sheet for bowling and euchre. There are also Hearts card game and wrestling intramurals. Email Ms. Minniear for more information on these at sophomore.isuams@iastate.edu.

Social Chair Hoffman

A ski trip is being planned for 7 February. We need 12 people for a discount price. We.ll have a ten dollar discount if we can get 12 people to go. Bring your friends if you.d like; the more the merrier. We.ll meet in the Agronomy Parking lot. Mr. Hoffman will send more information for those that are interested.
There will be free skating at the ice arena soon. You are welcome to bring your own skates. Look for an email for the date and time.

Academic Chair Prentice

Volunteer to be a class review session leader. Email academic.isuams@iastate.edu if you are interested.
The poster contest is going well. We have contacted several elementary schools in Iowa, asking them to do a severe weather awareness poster. We will provide prizes for the best posters. If you have any good ideas for prizes, let Mr. Prentice know.
The Iowa State Daily weather forecasting is going well. If you would like to join, talk to Mr. Prentice.
We will start our newest period for WxChallenge next Monday, 26 January. The new forecast city will be Phoenix, AZ. We now have a new tool to assist our forecasts: the Meteogram Generator, provided by Chris Karstens and Daryl Herzmann.

Past President Hobbs

For the Iowa forecast contest, we recently finished up Estherville, and Cedar Rapids. We are now doing Burlington, and Fairfield. If you wish to join the forecast contest, send Mr. Hobbs an email at jonhobbs@iastate.edu.

Webmaster Mair

If you have any suggestions for the webpage, email Mr. Mair at webmaster.isuams@iastate.edu.
If you wish to use the forums, sign up. Remember, if you wish to register on the forums, use your actual name, i.e. .Justin Schultz,. not a generic one, such as .wxman290.. You can register at http://www.meteor.iastate.edu/ams/forums.

Historian Witter

There are new pictures posted on the wall outside Agronomy 3128.
We would like to reconstruct the AMS brochure. Sign up if you would like to assist Ms. Witter on this project by contacting her at historian.isuams@iastate.edu.

Outreach Chair Rabideau

Sawyer Elementary Science Night is to be held on Tuesday 27 January from 6-8 PM (set up is at 5:30 PM). A sign-up sheet was passed around. We will meet at 5:15 PM in the Agronomy Hall parking lot.
You can still sell calendars for 10 dollars. The order forms are on the AMS website at http://www.meteor.iastate.edu/ams/calendarinfo.php.
If you have any additional photos to add to our collection, please add them to the photo album application at www.meteor.iastate.edu/ams/Photos, or email Ms. Rabideau at outreach.isuams@iastate.edu.
We will be doing some new calendars this year. The calendars will be produced through a calendar company. The costs will become available soon. Vice President Deppe will keep you informed.

For all of those that didn.t make it to the meeting, please send us your list of classes this semester, and a day and time preference for holding our ISU AMS meetings.

We would also like to send a special thank you to Jon Hobbs for creating our ISU AMS poster that was presented at the National AMS Conference in Phoenix, AZ.

Our next meeting date and time will be announced after reviewing the member preference sheets that were handed out at this meeting.