Fleet Improvement Committee

Mt. Washington Conference Center
Baltimore, Maryland  21209
November 12-13, 1998

Meeting Agenda

THURSDAY, 12 November

9:00 am      FIC Welcome and Introduction - Larry Atkinson will welcome the Committee and review the meeting’s  agenda.

9:05 am      Accept Minutes - Accept the minutes of the November, 1997 FIC Meeting.

9:15 am      UNOLS Report - Bob Knox, UNOLS Chair, will report on UNOLS activities over the past year and plans for the future.

9:30 am     Agency Reports - NSF, ONR, NOAA, and USCG representatives will provide agency reports.

10:15 am     Break

10:30 am     FIC - Directions for the Future - Bob Knox and Larry Atkinson will discuss the role and future directions of FIC.  The long-term agenda items identified in the last meeting will be reviewed.

11:30 am     NOAA/National Marine Fisheries Service Update - A representative from the NMFS will comment on NOAA’s Fishery Needs and report on the status of their vessel construction efforts.
 
12:00 pm     Lunch
 
1:00 pm      AGOR 26 Status Report - Robert Hinton will report on the status of design and    construction efforts of AGOR 26.  His report from the September UNOLS Annual Meeting is  attached, see enclosure 1.
 
2:00 pm       Alaska Science Mission Requirements (ASMR) Committee Report - Tom Weingartner will review the draft ASMR and open it for committee discussion/endorsement.  Follow-up actions will be discussed.

2:30 pm     Break

2:45 pm     Alaska Science Mission Requirements (ASMR) Committee Report continued.

3:45 pm    East Coast Science Mission Requirements (ECSMR) Committee Report - Larry Atkinson will provide the status of the ECSMR Committee efforts and will review the draft SMRs.  There will be a discussion on follow-up activities.

Friday, 13 November

9:00 am     Ship Construction Project Updates

•  R/V SAVANNAH - Report on the construction status of Skidaway’s vessel SAVANNAH.
• CALANUS Replacement - Report on Miami’s plans for replacement of CALANUS.
• WHOI SWATH - Joe Coburn will report of the status of WHOI’s plans for construction of a regional SWATH vessel.

9:30 am     Review of Ship Use Trends - As part of the on-going NSF Academic Fleet Review the UNOLS Office compiled a series of statistics on use of UNOLS ships.  These figures will be reviewed.

10:00 am     Break

10:15 am     Near and Long-Term FIC Agenda - The committee will discuss FIC agenda items and assign tasks.

• Fleet Improvement Plan Update - Discussions will focus on how to proceed with the update and how to address the following areas:
  • Ship use trends
  • UNOLS Fleet Characteristics
  • Cycles for ship replacements and refits
  • The present fleet situation
  • Political Implications
  • Specialized facilities and technologies
• SMR Development - Are additional SMRs required to meet future oceanographic research requirements?

12:00 pm     Lunch

1:00 pm     Review FIC Terms of Reference - The FIC Terms of Reference (UNOLS Charter, Annex IV) will be reviewed to determine if they are still current (see Enclosure 2).

1:30 pm     General Business

• Review of FIC Member Terms
• Scheduling of Next Meeting
• Recap of FIC Action Items

Adjourn