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June 2009 SECOORA Newsletter
Download this newsletter as a PDF file. A Message from the Executive Director * SECOORA * National2009 Membership Meeting ::: New SECOORA Members ::: SECOORA DMAC and DMCC Meetings ::: Meetings and Conferences ::: New Coastal Monitoring Stations ::: Additional WERA Sites ::: National Surface Currents Plan ::: News To Contribute?
A Message from the Executive DirectorThe 2009 SECOORA Annual Members meeting took place on May 13 and was very successful thanks to the contributions of all who attended. Meeting materials and presentations are available here. Highlights of the meeting included panel discussions on offshore energy, innovations in utilizing ocean observing data, and modeling. Zdenka Willis, Director NOAA IOOS Program Office, and Josie Quintrell, NFRA Executive Director, provided insightful commentary on national-level and other regional efforts. The membership also elected 7 Board members and unanimously approved revised By-laws and a 2009 Annual Budget. In summary, the meeting included efficient voting and decision-making, productive discussions, interesting presentations and a great opportunity to re-acquaint with colleagues from around the region. I greatly appreciate all those that spent the time and resources necessary to make the meeting a successful event, but special thanks go to Susannah Sheldon and Sam Walker. I would also like to recognize Jennifer Dorton for her contributions to SECOORA over the last four years. Her energy, resourcefulness and efficiency were critical to SECOORA's operations and her participation on the staff will be greatly missed. We are all hopeful, of course, that she will continue to interact with us as she works on other related projects in the region. Best wishes, Jennifer! The next SECOORA meeting is a Board conference call scheduled for July 1, 2009, at 10:00AM. The primary business of this call is to elect officers. Another business item during this meeting will be appointment of Policy Committee Chairs and members, and announcement of Program Committee Chairs and members. We will be sending out email inquiries soon to all members asking them to confirm their interest in participating on the committees. Please take the time to respond to these emails by agreeing to actively participate in SECOORA via the committees. We are also in the process of soliciting proposals for contractors to provide 1) communication and outreach services, 2) website maintenance services, and 3) upgrades to the SECOORA website. If you know individuals that can provide these services, please forward their contact information to me. I continue to work with Sam and Susannah to improve communication within the SECOORA community. Please contact any of us with your suggestions and comments on how we can continue to effectively network and leverage the expertise and interests in our region. Enjoy June and look to hear from us July 1 with the announcement of our new officers.
SECOORA2009 Board and Membership Meetings - On May 12th and 13th, SECOORA hosted joint Board and membership Meetings in Jacksonville, FL. The organization is making progress on moving towards independence as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, including a move to subawardee status for FY10 under SC Sea Grant Consortium which currently administers the RA Planning and RCOOS grants. In addition, FY11 will mark the first year in which SECOORA will apply for NOAA IOOS grants as an independent organization. Another major step forward for the organization came in the form of a detailed review of the By-Laws that were approved by the Board in 2007. The Governance Committee led this effort, providing an initial review to the full Board of Directors, who then completed a second review and put forth their recommendations to the memberhship. The recommended amendments were approved, leading to more a streamlined set of By-Laws. Board elections were held for seven vacancies. Results are below. Welcome to new Board members Madilyn Fletcher and Steve Woll, and congratulations to those re-elected.
New SECOORA Members - SECOORA welcomes the following new members:
 COMPS Monitoring Station New Coastal Monitoring Stations - University of South Florida, College of Marine Science Coastal Ocean Monitoring and Prediction System (COMPS) program has added two new coastal stations to their existing monitoring network. One of the station is located in Hillsborough River, at University of Tampa's floating dock (27° 56.934' N and 82° 27.840' W), and the other at the University of South Florida College of Marine Science Clam Bayou Environmental and Marine Education Center facility (27° 44.165' N and 82° 41.504' W). The Hillsborough coastal station is outfitted with a rain gauge and a Satlantic ISUS sensor to monitor the concentration of nitrate. The Clam Bayou station is outfitted with meteorological and water quality sensors, and the parameters collected include: Wind Speed and Direction, Air Temperature, Relative Humidity, Barometric Pressure, Water Temperature, Salinity, Dissoloved Oxygen, pH, Chlorophyll and Turbidity. The data from these sites are made available on COMPS web site (http://comps.marine.usf.edu), and work is underway to make them available to the SECOORA web site.
NationalAdditional WERA Sites on National Network - The University of Miami/Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences is operating two new WERA High Frequency Radars in Virginia Key (VIR) and Dania Beach (STF). Information for the two sites is available at:
National Surface Currents Plan - The SECOORA staff is currently compiling regional comments on the revised National Surface Currents Plan. These comments are due back to NOAA-IOOS Program Office by 8 June 2009. Please see the home page of the SECOORA web site for more details.
News to Contribute? - The SECOORA newsletter is published at the beginning of each month and focuses on regional, subregional, and national ocean observation topics, events, and success stories. Please email your comments or suggested new items to SECOORA's Program Coordinator, Susannah Sheldon. Document Actions |
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