Avagene Moore: Welcome to the EIIP Virtual Forum! Amy Sebring, my partner/associate, and I are pleased to see you in our audience today. Avagene Moore: Today's topic is "NWs Draft Strategic Plan 2005-2010 - Working Together to Save Lives." The timing of this session is good because you are asked to comment on the draft plan by November 30, 2004. Avagene Moore: If you have not read the background materials, including our speaker's bio, please do so after today's session. Avagene Moore: For the benefit of any first-timers, we will begin today's session with a formal presentation followed by an opportunity for your questions. Avagene Moore: We will provide further instructions on the protocol for asking questions or commenting just before we begin the Q&A section. However, it is wise to jot down your questions or comments as we go along. Avagene Moore: Please do not send private messages to our speaker or the moderator, as we will be busy with the presentation. If you need assistance, you may send a private message to Amy Sebring. Avagene Moore: The transcript of today's session will be available late this afternoon or early this evening -- just check back on our home page. Avagene Moore: Now, it is my pleasure to introduce today's guest speaker. ... Avagene Moore: John Sokich is currently a Senior Meteorologist with the National Weather Service (NWS) Strategic Planning and Policy Office. He leads the NWS Strategic Planning effort and works on agency wide policy issues. Avagene Moore: Before joining the Strategic Planning and Policy Office, Mr. Sokich was the NWS Operations and Transition Manager as the NWS restructured its field offices and implemented new technologies as part of its $4.5 billion modernization. Avagene Moore: John, we welcome you to the EIIP Virtual Forum to discuss this important topic with our audience. ... Avagene Moore: I now turn the floor to you, John. John Sokich: Thank you, Avagene, for such a nice introduction. Hello, everyone. It s indeed a pleasure to be here chatting with you today. John Sokich: NOAA s National Weather Service has a unique relationship with our friends in the emergency management community. We have a common mission: to help save lives and property and keep people out of harm s way. John Sokich: We in the Weather Service supply the forecasts and warnings, you in the emergency management community help prepare and educate people, evacuate them when possible, and direct recovery efforts. It is truly a team effort. John Sokich: Our society is changing and we all need to be agile to respond to those changing needs. The National Weather Service Strategic Plan lays out the path we will take to accomplish our mission, advance our vision, and integrate our core values. John Sokich: There are forces for change facing our agency which help shape the NWS of the future. Some of those forces include: John Sokich: - Increasing use of Internet technologies to deliver our information ... John Sokich: - Growing population; increasing vulnerabilities to disruption by natural and technological hazards; and increasing concerns for homeland security ... John Sokich: - Requirements for a broader range of environmental information services from the National Weather Service. John Sokich: We need to make sure our most important users, the emergency managers, get the information from us they need, when they need it, and in formats they can best use. John Sokich: Our Strategic Plan helps prioritize our initiatives and formulate future budgets to help us achieve our goals. We need your comments on our draft plan to ensure we re headed in the direction most useful to you -- whether it s to improve our warning lead times, improve our forecast and warning accuracy, or develop new formats for delivering our information to you. John Sokich: We, and all Federal Government agencies, are measured by our performance. I m quite sure you re all aware of our improved performance for providing warnings for tornadoes, flash floods and severe thunderstorms. John Sokich: We will continue to measure our performance in these and many other areas. While performance measures are not included in this draft plan, we expect many predictive type skill measures to be included in the final plan. John Sokich: We are also exploring adding a measure of customer satisfaction to gage our performance. We started surveying our customers the past couple of years and the emergency management community has given us fairly high ratings. John Sokich: The theme of this plan is "Working Together to Save Lives." It reflects our commitment to work closely with all of our partners to provide the services America needs. We rely on you to help us do our job better. John Sokich: As I mentioned a bit earlier, we provide the forecasts and warnings, you help prepare and educate the public and move them out of harm s way when possible. We work together to make it all happen. John Sokich: I believe all of you by now know the NWS signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the Department of Homeland Security, which allows DHS to use the NOAA Weather Radio network to broadcast emergency messages. I know there have been many discussions on that topic, some even in this chat-room. John Sokich: Allowing the emergency management community access to a publicly funded broadcast network just makes sense. We re working to make it happen at all levels and provide local emergency managers a vehicle to broadcast emergency messages through our entire dissemination network, including NOAA Weather Radio, directly to the public and other users, such as the media. John Sokich: But that s a topic of discussion all by itself. But, these are the type of topics we need you to comment about. Is it the right direction? How can we do more to meet your needs? John Sokich: Your comments will help us better plan our future. Please take the time to review our plan and give us your comments. The plan may be viewed at http://www.weather.gov/sp/ and your comments sent to me at: John.Sokich@NOAA.gov . John Sokich: Thanks, and I m now ready to take some of your questions. Avagene, back to you. Avagene Moore: Thank you very much, John, for your remarks. ... Avagene Moore: I am sure our audience has questions for you. ... Avagene Moore: Our protocol for audience questions is to enter a question mark ? to indicate you wish to ask a question or make a comment. ... Avagene Moore: Then go ahead and compose your question or comment to have it ready, but do NOT hit your Enter key or click on the Send button until you are recognized by name. Please WAIT your turn. ... Avagene Moore: But be ready when you are called upon. We want to get to as many questions as we can today. .... Avagene Moore: We will take questions in the order the question marks are sent to the screen. One question at a time please. If you have a follow up question, please get back in line with another ? - courtesy is the order of the day. ... Avagene Moore: We are ready to begin now. Please input a question mark (?) at any time. Amy Sebring: ? cbrown: ? Avagene Moore: Just input your ? at any time. The first question always takes some time to compose. Amy, whenever you are ready, please. Jeff Robinson: ? Amy Sebring: John, what are some of the key interagency partnerships you are looking at fostering over the coming years? John Sokich: Continued work with the Department of Homeland Security as a primary partnership... Jennifer Vuitel: ? John Sokich: And expanding to increased partherships with other Federal agencies, EPA is another example... John Sokich: EPA for its work in public health (air quality)... John Sokich: USGS is another and there are more. Avagene Moore: C Brown, please. cbrown: Is the NWS going to consider issuing only warnings after say 11pm - 6 am, and not the present watches? John Sokich: Right now the I believe NWS has no plans to change when warnings are issued... Catherine Pomerantz: ? Terry Storer: ? John Sokich: Severe and life threatening weather has no time limits: tornadoes occur at any time... John Sokich: That said, I believe local offices use discretion when requesting EAS activation and won't do it for longer fused warnings like winter storms. Avagene Moore: Jeff Robinson, your turn, sir. Jeff Robinson: Is the NWS planning on using EMWIN in their plans for notifications of events and how would that work? cbrown: I agree with the warnings my question is the watches that wake people in the night to say the possiblity of severe weather and not a true warning. John Sokich: EMWIN is one of the methods NWS uses to disseminate weather information.... John Sokich: If by 'events' you mean weather events or other hazards, then yes. It will work as it does today. Avagene Moore: John, would you like to add anything to C Brown's clarification of his question? Avagene Moore: About watches? John Sokich: Sure -- NWS will issue watches whenever conditions warrant -- again weather is not subject to certain time periods... Stephen Melvin: Stephen Melvin here; I'm more into the safety/security side of things. Sorry I'm late - just got the email. Can someone please break the EMWIN acronym? John Sokich: If you mean EAS activation, I suggest discussing the issue with your local NWS Office. I will give you the contact, if you need. Avagene Moore: Thanks, John. Jennifer, your turn, please. Jennifer Vuitel: How well do you think your agency's addresses needs of non- English speakers / readers? Avagene Moore: ? John Sokich: That's a good question, Jennifer... John Sokich: As for how well we do it..about as well as we can, which, I'm sure does not satisfy all of the non-English speaking public... John Sokich: However, our responsibility is to get the information, particularly warnings, out as quickly as possible... Valerie Ritterbusch: ? LoriWieber: ? John Sokich: We are working to address the non-English speaking, and have made some, inroads there, for example, with Spanish only NOAA Weather Radio broadcasts. Avagene Moore: Catherine, your question, please. (To the audience, please input a question mark (?) at any time.) Catherine Pomerantz: What is the process by which local communities access the EAS services? Eldridge Bradley: ? cbrown: ? John Sokich: The answer to that depends. Do you mean access to hear the messages, or to origniate the messages as an emergency manager? ... Catherine Pomerantz: To originate the message as an EM John Sokich: Okay -- you will need to work with your local NWS office which has responsibility for your area. We work with EMs to make sure emergency messages get into the system. ... John Sokich: That's a big push now, and you know NWR is now considered all- hazards so other than weather informaiton is broadcast... RICHARD CRABTREE: ? John Sokich: That's a subject for another session with the NWR experts. Avagene Moore: Terry Storer, you are next, please. Terry Storer: Is there a feeling as to who will have message insertion privileges for the NOAA system? This appears to be a local concern, as we don't want every "official" to have the capability. John Sokich: We're concerned, too, but I believe those issues are to be worked out with the local office... John Sokich: We'll need more detail from the NWR and dissemination experts on that, and that's a bit beyond my level of knowledge right now. Avagene Moore: Would like to refer everyone to a NWS session we did a recent session we did with Greg Noonan http://www.emforum.org/vforum/lc040616.htm please look at it later. My question is ... Avagene Moore: John, how and how often do you interact with emergency managers to get feedback and input on their community needs? John Sokich: I'll take that to be the NWS rather than just me. ... Avagene Moore: Yes. John Sokich: Local NWS offices interact with EMs in two capacities... John Sokich: First is with preparedness/education activities which is usually tied to seasonal outreach efforts... John Sokich: The other is during hazardous weather situations, when interactions are immediate and depend on the frequency of the events... John Sokich: We hope the EMs will comment on our actions immediately.... John Sokich: When our offices complete there "event summaries,' they routinely include comments from the emergency management community... John Sokich: More formally, we request comments during our customer surveys or at times like now, when we are drafting our Strategic Plan... John Sokich: BUT, we'll take feedback any time you want to give it to us. Avagene Moore: Valerie, your question, please. (Audience, if you have a question, please input a question mark (?) at any time.) Valerie Ritterbusch: Cbrown's comments fall into the "overwarning" category, which I believe contributes to the relatively low percentage of the population who have weather radios, and then actually USE them. It only takes a few times of being woken up by the radio for a watch which doesn't affect you before it gets unplugged and put on the shelf. There are evolving technologies to significantly reduce this over-notification. The new NWS warning polygons have the ability to Valerie Ritterbusch: significantly cut down the size of an area under a warning. Avagene Moore: John, any comment? Valerie Ritterbusch: Now we need delivery mechanisms to get more site specific warnings delivered to individuals. John Sokich: I agree and we're moving in the direction of more area specific warnings. Not as quickly as some of us would like to see, but we're trying to get there... John Sokich: As for the delivery methods to get the info--we're moving in that direction as well.... Valerie Ritterbusch: Telephone nitification is now feasible for short-fused, dangerous events. Avagene Moore: Lori, your turn, please. LoriWieber: I am from the private sector - an electric utility company - which has both emergency management and meterology operations groups in house. Is there any element of your partnering effort that would include us? John Sokich: There has been a great deal of chatter about a National Public Warning System (network, or whatever you want to call it).... Amy Sebring: ? John Sokich: (I'll get to Lori in a second)... New technologies are the wave of the future (including telephone warnings) but each has it's positives and negatives... John Sokich: But we are moving in that direction-- For example, I carry a pager and cell phone, but not my NWR receiver... John Sokich: We're heading that way, but it's not easy. Isabel McCurdy: ? John Sokich: Now for Lori's question -- John Sokich: From a myopic perspective, we could work with you to help us "get the message out," i.e., preparedness type of information and the like... John Sokich: From a broader perspective, if you have a research component to your met or EM operations... John Sokich: a collaborative project is an option. Comments on the direction of our products and services to help make sure we're headed in the right direction are also very useful... John Sokich: Given more time, I'm sure we could explore other partnership opportunities. Avagene Moore: Eldridge, you are up next, please. Eldridge Bradley: What are the plans, if any, for changing marine forecasting in Florida and also working with other agencies or orginizations for information gathering? John Sokich: Oh yea, observational data collection would be a great one (sorry for the late addition). John Sokich: Marine forecasting is something that needs to be addressed by the local office and the Marine Program folks at NWS Headquarters. I'm not versed enough to address that one... John Sokich: As for info gathering, that's a real exciting topic in NWS and across NOAA... John Sokich: to use all assets that are available from Federal, state, local and private entities... John Sokich: NOAA/NWS is working toward a "national mesonet" of sorts, obtaining access to all observational data that's available... John Sokich: That, too, is a topic worthy of a lengthy discussion. But we need to harness all the info that's already out there. Avagene Moore: C Brown, your question, please. cbrown: How is the Spanish only Noaa Weather radio accessed? With the computized broadcast, is the NWS going to broadcast in mulitple Languages at the sametime? Valerie's comment is a concern now that DHS and NWS are working together there is the problem of an increase of events/activations and people will unplugged the radio, which is not what we want. John Sokich: C, you rais excellent points... John Sokich: For NWR broadcasts, I do not believe NWS plans to have multi- lingual broadcasts from the same transmitter... John Sokich: There are technical limitations I don't quite understand. As we touched on earlier, the future of dissemination... the future of John Sokich: extends far beyond NWR. As for more than weather info being broadcast on NWR... John Sokich: We certainly hope any emergency events requested by DHS or local emergency managers to be broadcast on NWR... John Sokich: are certainly worthy. As we move towaqrd more area specific hazard warnings, we believe the "false alarms" will decrease the "unplug" mode of folks. I agree it's an issue, but using the NWR network to broadcast... John Sokich: emergency information is just too good of an opportunity to pass. We need to move forward with our eyes oipen and your feedback is essential. Avagene Moore: Amy, your question, please. (We have one more participant with a question after this one - all we will have time for today.) Amy Sebring: I understand there are some new digital products that make spatial (GIS) data available. Will there be continued development of spatial data as a priority and some outreach on how to use? I see this as being integral to the Advanced Hydrologic Prediction System (AHPS) in the future for example. John Sokich: Amy- you are sure on top of things... John Sokich: As stated on the draft plan, GIS is an important area into which the NWS must expand...NWs John Sokich: It will be much easier to support these types of efforts if we have the Emergency Management community needing info in these new formats (e.g. digital/GIS)... John Sokich: and having those types of supportive comments sent to us about where to place our efforts in our Strategic Plan. Avagene Moore: Isabel, please. Our last question. Isabel McCurdy: John, budget constraints and restructuring are the order of the day it seems. I am assuming alot of these messages are automatic given that storms are seasonal and expected. The unexpected can happen so I am wondering is there someone 'manning' 24/7- 365 days per year so the new information gets out quickly? John Sokich: YES! That is our primary mission and we will be there. Ther are no plans to ever deviate from 24/7 coverage - 365 days per year.... John Sokich: Just reread you question, and let me clarify that the none of the messages are automatic and a human always is reponsible for issuing the messages. While there is automation to help us issue the warnings quicker, a person is ALWAYS involved in the process. Avagene Moore: Thank you, John. We greatly appreciate your effort and time on our behalf today. We trust you will get the input and feedback you need on the NWS Strategic Plan. ... Avagene Moore: As a reminder to the audience, the NWS Stratetgic plan may be viewed at http://www.weather.gov/sp/ and your comments sent to John at John.Sokich@NOAA.gov ... Avagene Moore: Please stand by a moment while we make some quick announcements .... Avagene Moore: If you are not currently on our mailing list, and would like to get program announcements and notices of transcript availability, please see the Subscribe link on our home page. Avagene Moore: We welcome one new Partner this week ... Avagene Moore: Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company http://www.lockheedmartin.com ... Avagene Moore: with Russell S. McQuiston serving as the Point of Contact to the EIIP. Welcome Lockheed! Avagene Moore: If you are interested in becoming an EIIP Partner, please see the "Partnership for You" link on the EIIP Virtual Forum homepage http://www.emforum.org . Avagene Moore: Again, the transcript of today's session will be posted later today and you will be able to access it from our home page. An announcement will be sent to our Mail Lists when the transcript is available. Avagene Moore: Thanks to everyone for participating today. We appreciate you, the audience! Avagene Moore: We are adjourned but before you go, please help me show our appreciation to John Sokich for a fine job.