SECOORA 2014 Annual Meeting Summary

 

During one of the PI poster and sponsor breakout sessions, Peter Sheng shows his work he has been doing for SECOORA
 
SECOORA 2014 Annual Meeting was a great success; it is recognized as our most successful meeting to date. SECOORA staff would like to thank everyone who participated, sponsored and attended our meeting. We could not have done this without you!
 
The meeting was live tweeted under the hashtag #SECOORA14AnnualMeeting. Thank you to U.S. IOOS Program Office and participants who contributed to this feed. We showed everyone that SECOORA works! 
 
New Board Members
 
We would like to announce the 2014 Board Member election results:
Congratulations to Tim, Bill and Kathleen and welcome back Lynn, Peter and Jim.  Starting this year SECOORA staff will host a two-hour orientation webinar for Board members that will provide Board members with information on SECOORA staff operations and duties, as well as legal information on liability, conflicts of interest and Board roles and responsibilities. 
 
 
Day 1: PI Meeting
 

The meeting opened with Debra Hernandez, SECOORA Executive Director, highlighting how SECOORA works. She emphasized our success is a team effort of our principal investigators, SECOORA partners and members, and others.
 
 
 
 
Vembu Subramanian highlighted the accomplishments of ongoing Regional Coastal Ocean Observing System activities, while Principal Investigators highlighted the progress on Data Management and Communications (DMAC), and the Year 3 integration projects: High Frequency (HF) Radar Wave Extraction, model skill assessment, and Product Development. 
 
 
YSI at the PI poster and sponsor breakout session- thank you for sponsoring!
 
 
Discussions were held with the PIs, SECOORA Members and stakeholders on advancing the SECOORA Build-Out-Plan and developing products that meet stakeholders’ needs. We ended the day with an oyster roast and dinner social at University of Georgia’s Skidaway Institute of Oceanography.
 
 
Arriving at University of Georgia Skidaway Institute of Oceanography- Thank you for being our event sponspor!
 
 
 
 
 
 
Day 2: Stakeholder and Members Meeting
 
 
Stakeholder
 
The meeting began with Zdenka Willis, U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) Program Director, speaking on the State of IOOS. In addition to an update on national activities, Zdenka noted that SECOORA makes critical contributions that benefit different regional associations and IOOS.
 
 
"You actually use IOOS every day, whether you know it or not." - Zdenka Willis, U.S. IOOS Program Director
 
 
Bonnie Ponwith, Director of NOAA SE Fisheries Science Center, spoke on the importance of linking physical and biological data.
 
 
"Ocean Observations help us understand living marine resources" - Bonnie Ponwith, Director of NOAA SE Fisheries Science Center
 
SECOORA invited federal and state stakeholders, academic experts, SECOORA PIs, and industry representatives to address three themes: fisheries, coastal hazards, and ecological forecasting. The three panels were very well received and consisted of a solid group of dynamic speakers.
 
 
          
                                  Erich Jaeger, Capatin of Maverick Fishing Tours                                      Allison Allen of NOAA Ecolgoical Forecasting Roadmap
 
 
Mitch Roffer of ROFFS™ 
 
 
Members Meeting
 
The later half of day 2 included the Member’s Business Meeting. Josie Quintrell, IOOS Association Executive Director, mentioned IOOS has leverage on the hill. Our organization is perceived as policy neutral: our goal is to make data observations and share that information with the people.
 
 
Josie Quintrell, IOOS Association Executive Director
 
 
Board members were also elected. George Maul, Peter Sheng, and Bob Weisberg were recognized and praised for their contributions and time spent serving on the SECOORA Board.
 
 
George Maul thanking Peter Sheng for his time spent serving on the board.
Day 3: Board Meeting
 
The last day was the Board meeting. Ru Morrison, Northeastern Regional Association of Coastal and Ocean Observing Systems (NERACOOS) Executive Director, presented to the Board his region’s perspectives. The Board voted on using a portion of Members dues for congressional outreach and the Board also approved the Ad Hoc Committee IOOS Proposal Development document.
 
 
 
 
 
SECOORA is excited to start planning for next year’s Annual Meeting. Once again, we thank you for your contributions and participation in the meeting. Keep a look out for a date for the 2015 SECOORA Annual Meeting and let us know if you would like to be on the Planning Steering Committee. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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All images are credited to SECOORA
 

May 28, 2014