Draft Excom Minutes

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Excom Telecon – May 13, 2010

Present:

• Carol Meyer
• James Frew
• Brian Rogan
• Chris Lenhardt
• Karl Benedict
• Marilyn Kaminski
• Rob Raskin
• Steve Berrick
• Chuck Hutchinson
• Michael Goodman
• Patricia Huff

Meeting called to order at 2:05 PM

Adoption of Minutes

Karl Benedict moved to adopt the minutes Chuck Hutchinson seconded the motion and it was adopted by unanimous consent.

ESIP Federation Summer Meeting Update

The summer meeting has come together nicely. Two of three plenary speakers have been secured. The technical workshops have filled up with only three open slots currently. There are a total of 17 workshops offered at this point. The wiki currently reflects what we have thus far. On the breakout session front, some groups have outlined a full roadmap while others have not got a full agenda at this point. However, there have been some good conversations. We are hoping to have an executive committee meeting on Monday night. Carol will send a follow up email to see if the meeting can occur at 7 PM. The registration has been slow but has progressed. People are beginning to think about it and we expect the usual flurry as the early registration deadline approaches. Carol expressed her appreciation of the work Chris Lenhardt and Bruce Wilson in preparing for the meeting. They have secured partial sponsorship for the poster session reception. This has been supplemented by Northrup-Grumman Chris thanked Carol and mentioned that they are, at this point just tying up loose ends and that the plans are moving smoothly at this point. Karl Benedict will be hosting the 2011 summer meeting in Alberquerque, NM

Committee Budget Requests for FY 2011

We are trying to be ahead of the curve before the finance committee adopts the budget. The template for requests for FY 2011 has been put in place. We would like to have a request in hand by June 30th in order to expedite the process. The early deadline would allow for work to be done during the summer meeting.

Final Srategic Plan Review & Metrics Task Force

A review of the strategic plan is needed, particularly in regards to collecting metrics. Carol gave a review and mentioned that it was important to look at progress that has been made and how we are doing as an organization.

Currently we would like to be able to see how we are meeting the benchmarks. We would like to see how the federation is doing in terms of our sponsors. Carol felt it would be a good idea to have a subcommittee made of excom members but also open to others who were interested looking at the process.

Chris Lenhardt mentioned that the idea of the metrics was to push some of it out to the working groups, etc. and have them collect the metrics that could be collated into a report.

Karl talked about how the groups could get an idea of how many folks attended the track and what was discussed. These metrics would be useful as a gauge to participation.

Rob added that it might be to tie the four strategic goals to the committee reports that are submitted following the meeting. The budget template could be adjusted so that the relationship between the proposed budget and the strategic plan alignment would be clearer.

It is important to get this information in place by July. It could function as a midyear report. Rob asked if it would be worth having a Friday update from each committee.

Carol brought up the idea of an “ESIP 101” for newer attendees which would serve as an orientation.

Is there any sense of the committee if we should break this down into a smaller group or should the executive committee handle this topic?

Impact metrics or informal “nuggets” have been accumulated by word of mouth and then staff follows up by requesting more information. Chris asked if there were a quick and easy way to collect information. Brian agreed to work on a simple template form to collect this information from partners. Frew suggested that the committee needs to take it upon itself to see if we are getting the proper information once any responses have been collected. Once we hear about the anecdotal information, we need to question further about the specifics of the metrics.

Other Business

Carol had a couple of updates: 1. We have been asked by EPA to submit a proposal for full review for summer meeting support 2. We have submitted a report to NOAA for continued funding. Carol expects to hear back from both in the next month or so. Michael Goodman has been busy with travel but has a simple draft from Constitution and Bylaws regarding governance changes. Carol will follow through with sending it out.

Michael Goodman made a motion to adjourn , Chuck Hutchinson seconded the motion and the meeting was adjourned at 2:37 PM

ESIP Federation Executive Committee Minutes – March 11, 2010

Participants: Karl Benedict, James Frew, Marilyn Kaminski, Chris Lenhardt, Margaret Mooney, Rob Raskin, Annette Schloss, Steve Kempler (guest), Carol Meyer, Brian Rogan

Adoption of Minutes

The meeting was called to order by President Frew at 2:06 PM. Marilyn Kaminski moved to adopt the minutes from February, seconded by Chris Lenhardt. The minutes were approved by acclamation.

ESIP Federation Contributions to GEO's Decision Support Project, Steve Kempler

Steve Kempler gave an overview of the Decision Support projects that Lawrence Friedl is involved with in GEO. GEO is looking for advisors for projects from within the ESIP Federation community. It is possible that there could be funding for these efforts, if the GEO team is successful in finding a match between the proposers and funding agencies. The deadline for submitting full proposals is May 1.

Carol felt that since many people hadn’t read through these proposals, that it might be worth creating an inventory of needed skills. If this work was done up front, more people might become interested. Because of time constraints, it isn’t clear many people would read through all of these proposals. One suggestion was to ask the proposers for specific skills needed when full proposals are submitted in May.

The Executive Committee is supportive of this effort but a path forward is not clearly defined. One approach might be to work on this through some our existing groups. (e.g. Water, Air Quality, Decisions)

Another approach might be to utilize the nascent ESIP Federation skills database. The database structure and interface is in place - additional fields (beyond IT skills) will be added to reflect the broad range of skills within the ESIP Federation and those being sought for the GEO proposals. Several clusters can work on identifying the expertise topics.

It was noted that several ESIP Federation partners were involved with the GEO proposals and others had stepped forward earlier to volunteer their help. It was also noted that it is important to support this project. We should try and populate as many of these proposals as possible.

Carol will follow up with Lawrence and Steve and ask one to join the Products and Services telecon scheduled for next week. There was general agreement to continue the process and engage the ESIP Federation into this worthwhile program.

Constitution and Bylaws Committee Update

The Constitution and Bylaws and Partnership Committees have caucused and agreed that the Constitution and Bylaws Committee will put together a proposal to make changes to the ESIP Federation's governance documents that are impacting its ability to self-govern. One Bylaw provision has been flagged initially to be studied by the Committees and others likely will emerge from their review. The "Simpson provision" would be removed first and then determine what other changes would be needed to remove partners from the rolls.

There have been a number of partners identified who are no long active due to grants no longer being funded or lost interest on their part. The ESIP Federation has changed from it earlier roles and that one goal is to truly define what is a partner. This proposal needs to be ready for discussion at the summer meeting so that partners are aware of the changes. The changes need to be framed so they are not threatening to current membership. A discussion document will be pulled together for the summer meeting.

The Executive Committee noted that this discussion could raise a number of other related issues. It will be important to consult with the early ESIP Federation leaders to ensure that support for the changes can be in place.

Summer Meeting Update

There have been a number of tracks put together including: Water, Teacher Education, Decisions, Data Preservation and, Energy. Air Quality is likely to have a presence too.

There have been plenary speaker invitations issued, including one to Tom Karl. There have been no responses as of yet.

Creative Commons Policy Update

Brian gave a quick review of the work on the Copyright Policy. He made some edits to it and it is ready to go for final review. The Executive Committee is declared done with its review period. The next step is to put out the policy for review to the membership for 30 days.

Update on Education Budget

NOAA is doing a one day Climate Stewards Workshop on Tuesday, July 20. The budget will devote more monies towards teacher support but is dollar neutral from the original proposal. President Frew moved to adopt the revised Education Committee budge, Karl Benedict seconded. The revised budget was approved by acclamation.

Other Business

With no other business, Margaret Mooney moved to adjourn, Karl Benedict seconded. The meeting adjourned at 2:57 PM.