UNOLS COUNCIL MEETING
Thursday-Friday,
February 22-23, 2001, 8:30 am
Miami, Florida
Thursday, February 22, 2001 - Auditorium
The morning session will be a joint meeting of the UNOLS Council, Fleet Improvement Committee, and Federal Agency Representatives.
0830 Call the Meeting: Bob Knox, UNOLS Chair, will call the meeting to order and provide an opportunity for introductions. A moment of silence will be observed in remembrance of the KNORR crewmember's passing.
0840 Accept Minutes of September 2000 Council meeting.
0845 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 on activities since the September Council meeting. To view the reports, click on agenda item.) Chairs will identify any important issues that need to be addressed further by the Council.
0915 FEDERAL AGENCY and CORE REPORTS: Representatives of the Federal Agencies and CORE will be given an opportunity to report on activities of interest to the Council or to bring any issues before the Council requiring their input or action.
0935 Long-Range Planning for the UNOLS Fleet - Bob Knox will introduce a discussion on long-range planning for the UNOLS Fleet. The discussion will address:
1030 Long-Range Planning Discussion (Continued)
1230 Lunch Break
1330 Quality of Service Initiative (QSI) - Mike Prince will report on the research proposal submitted by Drs. Grabowski and Roberts to study UNOLS in regard to QSI. Plans for the next step will be open for discussion.
1430 Break (Please note: The schedule of agenda items between 1030 and 1430 may be adjusted to meet the schedules of meeting participants.)
1445 Statement in Favor of Future NAVO/UNOLS Work - Bob Knox will open a discussion on the UNOLS motion regarding NAVO ship use. A vote to approve the motion in favor of future NAVO/UNOLS Work will be conducted. The draft motion is appended to this agenda.
1500 DESCEND Follow-on Activities - Annette DeSilva will report on plans for follow-on activities for the DEveloping Submergence SCiencE into the Next Decade, (DESCEND) workshop. The executive summary of the workshop can be viewed at http://www.unols.org/meetings/1999/199910dcd/199910dcdmi.htm.
1510 Outreach Programs from UNOLS Vessels - Mike Prince will report on the recently created website that provides a listing of outreach programs, http://www.unols.org/info/outreach.html.
1525 Permit and Permission Resources- Bob Knox will open a discussion on the role of UNOLS in obtaining permits for research aboard UNOLS vessels. A website has been created listing some of the permit requirements: http://www.unols.org/committees/ssc/permits/permits.html.
1540 Meeting plans and Office Budget - Mike Prince will review the 2001/2002 meeting calendar http://www.unols.org/meetings/2001/index.html and the UNOLS office budget for next year. He will report on activities for the past nine months.
1555 Application for UNOLS membership - The Caribbean Marine Research Center, National Undersea Research Center http://www.cmrc.org, has applied for UNOLS Membership. A review and discussion of their membership application is planned.
1615 Recommendations for Changes to the Nomination Process - Bob Knox will review proposed changes to the UNOLS charter.
1635 Appointments to the Nominating Committee - The first terms of Tom Lee and Charlie Flagg are expiring in 2001. Appointments for this year’s nominating committee will be recommended.
1645 Council Member Nominations - Dennis Hansell has moved from Bermuda Biological Research Station to University of Miami. His position on the Council needs to be filled. The Council will recommend candidates to fill this position. Candidate vitae from the September Council elections can be viewed at: http://www.unols.org/meetings/2000/200009anu/slate00.html.
1700 Day One - Adjourn
Evening Social Hour ~ 5:30 pm ~ The Commons Room
This will be a combined affair with University of Miami students and alumni.
Friday, February 23, 2001 - Dean's Conference Room
0830 Long-Range Fleet Planning - Bob Knox will revisit the discussion from Day One regarding long-range fleet planning. Future activities, strategies and tasking will be discussed. A process and timeline for delivering community advice to FOFC need to be established.
0930 Discussion on any Ship Scheduling Issues
0950 Clearance Issues - Bob Knox will report on any outstanding clearance issues.
1000 Winch and Wire Update - Mike Prince will report on follow-on activities from the Winch and Wire symposium.
1015 Break
1035 Appointments to the Executive Committee - Bob Knox will recommend a candidate for the UNOLS executive committee to replace Paul Ljunggren, past RVOC Chair.
1045 Seismic Acquisition Issues and UNOLS Fleet Capabilities - The US academic MCS community has recommended that the EWING's MCS capability be enhanced in several ways. Information on the recommendations can be found at: <http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/Ewing/3dmcs/3dmcs.html>. Any follow up for UNOLS action in this area will be reported.
1055 UNOLS/NOAA Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) - Bob Knox will review the status of the draft MOU between NOAA and UNOLS.
1105 New Ship Construction - Bob Knox will updates the Council on new construction activities.
1130 Review Action Items
1145 Other business
From: Bob Knox <rknox@ucsd.edu>
To: council@diu.cms.udel.edu
Cc: "Dr. Richard Spinrad" <spinrad.richard@hq.navy.mil>,
ritzman@sio.ucsd.edu
Subject: NAVO/UNOLS resolution, amended
Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2001 16:40:43 -0500
Dear Council,
Recent conversations revealed some additional wordsmithing that would improve the resolution from the standpoint of people within the Navy. The following form seems better on that score - it is explicit on the matter of earmarks vs. truly supplemental money, and it is not confined to NAVO only, although NAVO is clearly the leading example of a partnership of this kind. The relevant mods. are in bold. From the UNOLS standpoint there's no significant change. I trust this will be OK; we'll take it up in Miami.
Bob
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draft motion...
The UNOLS Council takes this opportunity to affirm its support for the ongoing use of UNOLS ships to undertake operational activities of federal agencies when this is practical, appropriate and mutually beneficial. An example is use of UNOLS ships by the Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO) to carry out Navy projects. The benefits of this partnership to NAVOCEANO and to UNOLS have been spread nationally: since inception of the NAVOCEANO funding to UNOLS by congressional action in 1997 18 UNOLS vessels of varied sizes operated by 14 different institutions have provided over 5 ship-years of support to Navy programs in a wide array of coastal and open ocean areas. Consequently, NAVOCEANO has been able to satisfy Navy requirements in US and international waters without diverting its own fleet of ships from other high priority surveys elsewhere, and the UNOLS fleet, the major vessels of which were constructed primarily with Navy funds, has been more fully utilized on oceanographic tasks for which it is well suited. NAVOCEANO program managers have cooperated fully with established UNOLS mechanisms to schedule ships and to make the sometimes difficult scheduling decisions required to optimize the use of all the UNOLS ships on behalf of all participating agencies and projects. NAVOCEANO has received ship support that is technically and operationally first-rank, and has been able to select ships of different sizes, capabilities and costs according to program requirements. These are attributes of a partnership that works, and the Council goes on record in favor of continuing this and analogous partnerships with other agencies. Such continuation must be founded on the existence of genuine need for use of the UNOLS facilities in partnership mode, on the availability of genuinely supplemental funding to support the work, and on the principle of equitable access to UNOLS scheduling by programs of all user agencies.
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background:
Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2001 15:57:08 -0700
To: council@diu.cms.udel.edu
From: Bob Knox <rknox@ucsd.edu>
Subject: Statement in favor of future NAVO/UNOLS work
Cc: Office@unols.org, ritzman@sio.ucsd.edu, pdennis@brook.edu
Dear Council,
I'd like to enter the following item at the February Council meeting and ask for a motion to approve, followed by a vote.
Background. I've had recent conversations with our government relations person Kathleen Ritzman at SIO, and she in turn with Pat Dennis at CORE. Kathleen has been one of the principals in the annual work on this funding item ever since inception, working hand-in-glove with CORE, especially Terry Schaff when he was there.
The sense conveyed to me is that the work on the Hill by CORE, Kathleen, et al. would be made easier if there were an item on the UNOLS record of this kind and tenor. Note that this does not constitute lobbying by UNOLS - we cannot and should not. We are simply saying publicly that in our opinion this arrangement is a good one for both sides and should continue. The lobbying, in the proper sense of the word, is then done by those who can legitimately do so. They simply use our pronunciamento as ammunition, as they might use laudatory letters from NAVO (NAVO can't lobby, either) such as the ones we've received in the past.
Please look it over. Minor wordsmithing can wait until Feb.; the text does not have to be retained verbatim. But if there is debate about the substance of it, we can and probably should air that out a bit by email in advance, so that we can reach informed closure on the matter in Miami.
Assuming we do vote favorably on this, a subsequent useful step is for Council members to persuade your institutional CORE reps. (if you are not one and the same person) to back this when CORE, through its Public Policy Committee, assembles its priorities for the federal budget and work on the Hill in the next cycle.
Thanks,
Bob