M Daniels Statement

Back to Nomination_Committee/2018_Nominations_and_Ballot

It would be an honor to serve as of Chair of the ESIP Governance Committee this coming year. I have been formally involved in ESIP since 2011 and led the membership application process for the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Through ESIP, I have met so many folks in informatics and data sciences and the experience has both strengthened my career and brought about many friendships among leaders and professionals who understand the value and importance of earth science data. All of this great work and collaboration cannot happen without the underpinnings that governance provides, however, and so the Governance Committee’s function is crucial to the continuing success of ESIP.

I have served as an ESIP Board Member (2014-2015 and 2017), as a member of the Constitution and ByLaws Committee (2015) and as Chair of the Governance Committee this past year. This past year, with lots of help from others, I led the Governance Committee to complete a new set of policies and procedures for ESIP. The work involved locating previous documents and policies, revising them and ensuring that they do not conflict with our ByLaws, organizing discussions among groups of stakeholders for feedback and finally acquiring approval for the new policies and procedures from the ESIP Board in October 2017. Since the documents were still in the process of being formed, I did not have the opportunity to see how they will function in the day to day operations of ESIP. Therefore, it would be great to serve as Governance Chair in the coming year to help oversee this first year of implementation. Working with ESIP staff, we will also address issues such as the management of these new documents to ensure that they can be referenced and revised quickly and efficiently when needed. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve in this capacity.