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MISA Business Meeting & Spotter Training
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Urbandale, Iowa

On February 23, 2008 MISA held a short business meeting in conjunction with spotter training at Johnstone Supply in Urbandale, Iowa.  Over 25 individuals were in attendance.  Elections were held with no changes made to the officer slate for the upcoming year.  Spotter training was conducted by Brad Small from the NWS office in Johnston.

MISA Officers Meeting
Saturday, November 10, 2007
NWS Office, Johnston

Present:  Jim Snapp NAØR, Jeff Johnson KCØOGL, Brad Small, Tom Reiss NØVPR, Dan Case KBØJUL

Discussion was held on the current status of the MISA, the benefits of having such an organization to interface between the central Iowa amateur radio community and the National Weather Service, and the future of the organization.  It was the consensus of the group that there is still a benefit to having such an organization and the group would like to see it continue, even though the organization has been relatively inactive over the past couple of years.

It was noted that that education of spotters and how to make sound reports continues to be a key goal of the organization, thus we would like to put some renewed emphasis on this during the coming severe weather season.

Discussion was held on the MISA SKYWARN Operations Manual and the need to update its content.  The group decided that this will be done prior to the upcoming storm season.  Officers are to review the guide and provide input.  A meeting will be held on January 5th at 1:30 at the NWS office to review the manual and make appropriate edits.

There was discussion on the desire to hold a business meeting and spotter training session with an emphasis on amateur radio.  It was decided to set this meeting for February 23rd, 2008.  Announcements will need to be made on amateur radio nets, the web site, and through other appropriate means.

It was noted we currently have 63 members on the membership roster and a treasury balance of $429.45.  The membership roster is in need of being updated and will be addressed during the MISA Business Meeting.

Discussion was held on the MISA web site and the need to update some content.

MISA Operations Manual

MISA has developed an operations manual to help guide operations of amateur radio SKYWARN activities and serve as a field reference for reporting severe weather.  The manual can be downloaded on the Training Page.  Note the MISA manual is currently undergoing editing with a new release expected during the early part of 2008.

MISA Business Meeting
October 26, 2003
Des Moines, Iowa

On Sunday, October 26, 2003 the Mid Iowa SKYWARN Association (MISA) held their yearly business meeting.  The annual business meeting is held each fall to give members an opportunity to express ideas or concerns on the organization to the club officers.  The meeting also gives the officers a chance to review the past year s efforts regarding SKYWARN operations.  Election of officers for MISA are also held for the coming twelve months.

 Jim Snapp, NAØR, president of MISA this past year brought the meeting to order shortly after 9 AM .  Introductions were made of the twenty nine members and seven guests.  The reading of the minutes of this past year’s October 27, 2002 MISA business meeting, the Feb. 25, 2003 and Sept. 27, 2003 officers meetings were dispensed with a unanimous vote of those present.  The treasurer s report was a balance of $350.60 and no bills presented during the past twelve months and that MISA had a membership of 73.

Under old business, Jim showed a first draft of a MISA handbook that is an adaptation of a SKYWARN manual from a western New York , eastern Pennsylvania Amateur Radio SKYWARN group.  When completed it will contain information on the various aspects of severe weather spotting, reporting and safety.  It will have information regarding the various repeaters and their links that are available for reporting threatening weather situations as well as other tidbits that could be useful.  The SKYWARN manual will be made available on the MISA website for anyone to download and print for their use.  A printed copy would be made available to those not on the internet.

 Jim also would like to develop a SKYWARN brochure that could be put on the MISA website that could be printed off and used by anyone to promote the reporting of severe weather events to their city or county and then on to the National Weather Service Office (NWSO) representing their area.  It could also be passed out at NWS storm spotting classes held each late winter and early spring or at local safety events held for the public.

Jim discussed a program that alerts people that have profound or total hearing loss.  The Albany , GA Amateur Radio Club's SKYWARN system operators use a telecommunication device for the deaf (TDD) to notify hearing-impaired or deaf people of severe weather statements or warnings through their TDD devices.  Jim had approached Bob Goldhammer, Polk County Emergency Manager Coordinator to see if a program could be started here.  But since Goldhammer is no longer in that position, the efforts to see if the TDD system could be used here is on hold.

Jim then brought up the proposal to develop a refrigerator magnet to possibly contain the following information an area to write the local phone numbers to call in threatening weather events, the NWSO Des Moines 1-800-Skywarn number, description of severe weather criteria hail, penny size or larger, wind 50 mph or greater, wind damage, funnel cloud/tornado, rain 2 or more per hour.  A possible design would be an imprint of the state of Iowa on a rectangle and place the information in the state outline.  One of the edges of the rectangle would be graduated with inches to use as a measuring tool for hail.

Jim then turned the meeting over to Shane Searcy, NØZXJ, Information Technology officer at the NWSO, Des Moines .  His presentation showed pictures of the radio equipment at KØDMX in the NWSO as well as the antenna system.  He also announced that the NWS has purchased but not yet received around 60 feet of Rhon 65 tower.  At least one amateur antenna would be placed on it with the possibility of a second antenna at a later date.  He also stated that Iowa had only around thirty tornado reports for 2003 and they were only FO s and F1 s.

Shane then had Brenda Brock KCØNEX, meteorologist in charge (MIC) at the NWSO Des Moines come up to make some remarks.  Brenda then proceeded to make a presentation to Jim Snapp of a certificate of appreciation from the NWS regional director, Dennis McCarthy, KØWXF and Brenda.  She also had a cake specially decorated with the ARES and NWS logos.  While Jim was the recipient of the certificate, it is the countless hours that the Amateur Radio Service operators spend spotting and reporting severe weather events and the various repeater owners building and maintaining their machines for amateurs to use that this certificate is dedicated to.  Also the staff at the NWSO is very accommodating of the amateurs to maximize their potential.

Under new business, Jim announced a new call-in procedure for reporting severe weather events during formal SKYWARN nets.  It lists nine keyword severe weather events tornados, funnel clouds, wall clouds, hail damage, high winds, flooding, visibility and rainfall.  An amateur would use only the appropriate keyword with his call to the net control station (NCS).  The NCS would recognize the operator by saying his suffix and go ahead .  The calling station would then give the time, location, condition and source (TLCS) to the NCS and net control would then acknowledge receipt of the calling stations message.  Time would be when the event happened or if it was happening now in standard 12 hour format. Location would be the county, city, town (or distance and direction from) where the event takes place, condition would be the actual situation the calling station is reporting and Source would be the amateur operator or other group/person if it is being reported by another means.

The election of MISA officers was the next item to be addressed.  Jim called for nominations to fill the secretary/treasurer position.  There being none, Jim announced that Dan Case, KBØJUL would continue in that office if no one was nominated.  A motion was made and seconded to have Dan continue as MISA’s secretary/treasurer.  The members unanimously voted Dan into office.  The Vice President was then opened for nominations.  Jeff Johnson, KCØOGL, NWS warning coordination meteorologist (WCM) volunteered to be nominated.  With no other nominations being heard, Jeff was unanimously voted into the VP office.  The nomination for President was then opened up.  A motion was made to have Jim Snapp, NAØR, continue as president. 

A call for any other business was made.  There being none, a call for a motion to adjourn was made and seconded.  The meeting adjourned at 9:35 AM .  Brenda and her companion, Allan, then cut the cake and served it to the attendees.

Respectfully submitted

Jim Snapp, NAØR

Mid-Iowa SKYWARN Association
Officers Meeting
Saturday, September 27, 2003
National Weather Service Office – Johnston , Iowa

Present:  Jim Snapp, NAØR (President); Mike Mather, WDØCWT (Vice President); Dan Case, KBØJUL (Secretary/Treasurer)

The meeting was called to order at 9:03 AM .

Minutes of the February officer’s meeting were read and approved.

Treasurer’s Report:  We currently have a balance of $350.60 in our checking account.  It was noted that there are currently 73 members in our roster.

Old Business:

SKYWARN for the Deaf:  Because Bob Goldhammer is no longer with Polk County Emergency Management, the project is currently on hold.  The new EMA director is just getting acclimated with his position so Jim will probably pursue this after the first of the year.

SKYWARN Brochures:  Jim checked into printing costs, which will be $0.10 - $0.12/copy.  Jim has started to work on the layout and the material that will be included.  Jim and Mike will complete the content and forward to Dan for desktop publishing.  We may also decide to make the brochure electronically via the web (downloadable Word and Acrobat file) rather than making several copies.

SKYWARN Operations Manual:  Jim has been identifying material to include in the manual.  We still desire this to be in a format that would make it easy to take into the field or carry in a glove box.  Jim had an example from New York/Pennsylvania that we will adopt and make changes to fit our program.  Dan will work on making an electronic draft that we can edit with our changes.

Web Page:  Not much updating has been done over the summer.  Last year we solicited severe weather shots from people to put on the web page.  We have not received any from this year’s severe weather season, but will post them if we do receive some submissions. 

Meeting Time/Location Discussion:  It was noted that we received one response regarding the meeting time/location question that was posed in the February minutes that were distributed to the membership.  The consensus of the group was that we should continue to hold a business meeting at a hamfest once a year (typically during Hamfest Iowa ) rather than try to hold stand alone meetings.  We may review this issue again during the upcoming business meeting at Hamfest Iowa .

New Business:

MISA Dues:  Discussion was held whether we should collect dues from all members for 2003/2004, or waive the dues for paid members again as we did last year.  It was the consensus that we should waive the dues again for the upcoming year since we don’t anticipate any major expenses, particularly if we don’t plan to have any stand alone meetings where we would have to rent a facility.  A motion was made by Mike, seconded by Dan, to waive dues collection for the upcoming year.  Motion passed.

Membership Roster:  It was noted that we have several e-mail addresses that are not current and/or probably have some mailing address changes that need to be updated in the membership roster.  Dan is to prepare a list of bounced e-mails when the minutes are distributed to the membership so that we can work on getting updated e-mail addresses from these people.  Members are encouraged to e-mail address changes to Dan (KBØJUL@arrl.net).

Hamfest Iowa Meeting:  The annual business meeting of MISA will be during Hamfest Iowa , on Sunday, October 26^th at 9 AM .   Shane Searcy, NØZXJ, has volunteered to help man the SKYWARN booth at the hamfest but we could use some additional volunteers to help staff it. 

Election of Officers:  We are accepting nominations for all offices (President, Vice President, Secretary/Treasurer) for the upcoming year.  All members of Mid-Iowa SKYWARN Association are encouraged to submit nominations to Jim Snapp.  Election of officers will be held during the meeting at Hamfest Iowa .  It was noted that we would like to see new people volunteer for these positions. Anyone with an interest in amateur radio, weather and/or SKYWARN is encouraged to volunteer.  It was noted that we should make announcements on the various nets around the 51 county warning area to remind people about the upcoming meeting and election.

KØDMX HF Rig:  It was noted that the Icom HF rig that was installed at the Weather Service office was damaged by a lightning strike over the summer.  The radio is being checked out and it’s anticipated that it will be repaired.

SKYWARN Classes:  It was noted that we should make a better effort to communicate dates, times, etc of SKYWARN training courses that are offered during the spring by the National Weather Service.  We will plan on sending e-mails and continue announcing this information on nets next spring.

Magnets:  Jim suggested we look into having magnets made up that include severe weather spotting criteria, important phone numbers, a ruler to measure hail and other pertinent information.  The magnets would be handed out at spotter talks during the year.  Jim will visit with the NWS to see if there are resources available for this.  Otherwise, we may seek private sponsors to help pay for the costs of making these up.

Upcoming Business Meeting:  Topics for discussion during the upcoming business meeting include a review of the past year, progress on SKYWARN manuals, discussion of a proposed standardized reporting method for severe weather reports via amateur radio, NWS update, KØDMX station update, and discussion on encouraging more participation in MISA.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 10:10 AM .