7/7/99

Tuesday

8:30 am - Call the Meeting: Bob Knox, UNOLS Chair, will call the meeting to order at 8:30 a.m., July 13, 1999. 

8:40 am - Accept Minutes of the February 1999 Council Meeting.

8:45 am - COMMITTEE REPORTS: Bob Knox will provide a brief summary of the UNOLS Committee written reports and open the floor to a question/answer period. (Prior to the meeting, Committee Chairs submitted written reports for distribution to meeting participants.) Chairs will identify any important issues that need to be addressed further by the Council. 10 minutes per report for presentation and discussion combined, six committees.

9:45 am - AGENCY and OTHER REPORTS: Reports from agency representatives and CORE on funding outlooks, facility updates, and special projects. 10 minutes per report for presentation and discussion combined; 20-minute morning break inserted.

• Department of State - Tom Cocke
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Oceanographic and Atmospheric Research (NOAA/OAR) - CDR Elizabeth White
• NOAA/National Marine Fisheries Service - Jim Meehan
• National Science Foundation - Dolly Dieter
• Naval Oceanographic Center - Gordon Wilkes
• Oceanographer of the Navy - Pat Dennis
• Office of Naval Research - Tim Pfeiffer
• Consortium for Oceanographic Research and Education - Terry Schaff

UNOLS ISSUES:

11:25 am - Executive Committee Appointments: Bob Knox will announce the Executive Committee Appointments.

11:30 am - NSF Academic Research Fleet Review: Dolly Dieter will provide a status report on the NSF Academic Fleet Review. Discussion of this process, future implications of the results.

12:00 - Lunch Break

1:15 pm - Winch and Wire Symposium: Jack Bash will report on plans underway to conduct a Winch and Wire Symposium in the fall.

1:25 pm - DESCEND Workshop Plans: A report on plans for the DEveloping Submergence SCiencE into the Next Decade, DESCEND. The workshop is planned for October 25-27, 1999.

1:45 pm - RVOC Safety Standards Update: The RVOC has submitted an update to the RVOC Safety Standards for Council review, see Enclosure 1. The update will be discussed and considered for adoption.

2:05 pm - Public Outreach Plans: Jack Bash will review 1999 public outreach projects and plans: Undersea Exploration Conference, Betzer Book, UNOLS Brochure, Fall AGU, and UNOLS Tutorial on CD-ROM.

2:20 pm - Afternoon Break

2:40 pm - Session on aspects of future fleet evolution (Continued from the last meeting): Bob Knox will note developments on this topic since the winter meeting. Included are (a) data and charts showing more clearly the future attrition of the UNOLS fleet in the absence of new constructions – see Enclosure 2, (b) recent correspondence with FOFCC, (c) linkage to NSF Fleet Review, (d) future course of NAVO/Navy needs for use of UNOLS ships, and (e) future role of research ships in performing global observations for climate and other purposes, including mention of an October CLIVAR-UOP/OOPC meeting on ocean climate observations. General discussion of (a)-(e) or any other facets of this topic will follow.

3:10 pm - AGOR 26 Construction Update: Sujata Millick will provide an update on the Navy’s construction of AGOR 26, SWATH research vessel will be provided.

3:30 pm - New Ship Construction: Updates on Skidaway’s construction of R/V SAVANNAH and Miami’s replacement plans for CALANUS will be provided. UConn’s new vessel RV CONNECTICUT will also be discussed. The status of WHOI’s plans to build a SWATH vessel will be reported. Jack will report on the MTS SWATH session.

3:50 pm - SEA CLIFF Report: The status of DSV SEA CLIFF engineering study by WHOI will be discussed.

 4:10 pm - The UNOLS Biennial Review of Sea Going Oceanographic Facilities: Larry Atkinson will report on the status of FIC’s plans to prepare a UNOLS Biennial Review of Sea Going Oceanographic Facilities.

4:30 pm - UNOLS Charter Revision: Jack Bash will review proposed modifications to the UNOLS Charter, see Enclosure 3.

4:50 pm - UNOLS Office Transfer: The current UNOLS Office grant with the University of Rhode Island will expire on 30 April, 2000. MLML with Mike Prince as Executive Secretary was the only applicant to host the office. Jack Bash will brief the Council on the current status.

Wednesday

Session on scheduling and related issues:

 8:30 am - White Paper on Ship Scheduling: At the last Council Meeting there was a discussion on the Interchangeability of Ships. It was recommended that a white paper be developed to educate PIs on the fleet capabilities and scheduling process. Jack Bash will review modifications to the White Paper on ship scheduling, see Enclosure 4.

8:45 am - UNOLS Website Upgrades: Jack Bash will review the status of development of an electronic database system for collecting and summarizing Post Cruise Assessments. He will also report on the latest progress of the improvements to the UNOLS ship scheduling process.

9:05 am - Progress Report on the New Ship Scheduling Procedures: Mike Prince will report on the new ship scheduling procedures being tried this year.

9:25 am - Discussion of scheduling problems: Bob Knox will report on any developments related to the ship scheduling problems addressed during the February Council Meeting.

9:45 am - Moorings as a Facility: Dennis Hansell will lead a discussion on the concept of running deep-sea moorings as facilities. These facilities would then be accessible to scientists outside of the operating institution in a scenario similar to that of a UNOLS Ship.

10:15 am - Morning break

10:35 am - Two-Year Review of the NOAA/OAR and UNOLS MOA: Review of the UNOLS and NOAA/OAR MOA is required two years from adoption, see Enclosure 5.

10:55 am - NOAA Fishery Needs: Bob Knox will report on the status of NOAA’s AMLR work off the Antarctic. A discussion on potential future fisheries work by UNOLS vessels will follow.

11:15 am - UNOLS/NMFS Memorandum of Agreement (MOA): Jack Bash will review the draft MOA between NMFS and UNOLS, see Enclosure 6.

11:35 am - Status of U.Hawaii as a UNOLS Operator: The MOANA WAVE has been retired from UNOLS Fleet Operations. As a result, the University of Hawaii is currently not operating a UNOLS vessel. The Council will discuss their status as an Operator Institution.

12:00 pm - Lunch Break

1:15 pm - UNOLS Council Slate: The first terms of Dennis Hansell and Clare Reimers are expiring in 1999. The nominating committee will present the draft 1999 state for discussion. Enclosure 7 includes the list of nominations received.

1:35 pm - Application for UNOLS Vessel Status: The University of Minnesota, Duluth, has applied for UNOLS Vessel Status for their vessel, Blue Heron. (see Enclosure 8). The Council will discuss the application

1:55 pm - 1999 Annual Meeting Plans: The 1999 Annual Meeting is scheduled for 21 September. Discussion on Keynote Speaker and agenda items.

2:15 pm - SeaNet Update: A report on the progress of the SeaNet installations will be provided.

2:25 pm - UNOLS Brochure: The status of plans for updating the UNOLS brochure will be discussed.

2:35 pm - Adjourn

Calendar for UNOLS Meetings: