EXCO Minutes - September 12, 1996

Dear GLOBEC Georges Bank PIs, 

Minutes of the September EXCO meeting follow.  As always, your
comments are welcome and necessary.

Dian Gifford

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MINUTES

US-GLOBEC Georges Bank Executive Committee Meeting

12 September 1996

Present:  E. Durbin, P. Wiebe, C. Davis, D. Lynch, D.
Mountain, G. Lough, D. Gifford
Absent: S. Bollens, A. Bucklin, M. Fogarty
Guests: D. Busch, K. Wishner, R. Groman

The meeting convened at 0920 h at the Graduate School of
Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, RI.The
following items were discussed:

1.  Review of ship time allocations. The program has received
all of the ship time it requested. Some details regarding
specific ship assignments for individual program components
are presently under review and discussion. There are two major
areas of conflict: 

(a) Dian Gifford and Karen Wishner would like to exchange
cruise times in May with Bob Houghton's CMOP cruise, i.e. to
switch from Oceanus to  Endeavor. The request is based
entirely on equipment needs, which can best be supplied by
Endeavor. It was agreed that Dian and Karen  will approach
Houghton, as necessary, after the final cruise schedule is
known. Dian Gifford and Cabell Davis will do the appropriate
homework regarding minor changes to other scheduled cruises on
both vessels. If necessary, the Program Office will make a
formal request to Bob Houghton. It was noted that Jim Irish's
mooring work is now scheduled on Knorr, joint with moorings by
the CMOP program in March/April/May 1997.

(b) Cabell Davis' VPR cruise needs are not acommodated
completely. He is presently scheduled on Endeavor in January,
on Delaware in February, on Cape Hatteras in April, and on
Endeavor in June.  Although the VPR component requires fewer
bunks than other cruises, the science requires sampling during
storm events and thus requires a seaworthy ship. Cabell feels
that Delaware and Cape Hatteras are not appropriate vessels
for Georges Bank in winter. Dave Mountain  disagreed that
Delaware is not seaworthy, and pointed out that the program
now uses Albatross, which is arguably less seaworthy than
Delaware on the Bank during all seasons. EXCO agreed that Cape
Hatteras is likely to be less seaworthy than other vessels in
the program.  As an alternative, Cabell suggested moving his
work to 1998, but this is not acceptable in terms of program
coordination. Because no other vessels are available, Cabell
agreed to attempt to work on Delaware and Cape Hatteras. If
the work fails, he will propose to return to the field  in
1998 (with  a request for supplemental funding). EXCO agreed
to leave open the possibility of reviewing the suitability of
Delaware for the Broadscale Survey, which could then trade
Endeavor time with the VPR group. It was noted that, in the
past, Delaware was not capable of deploying the MOC10, but
this may have changed with the ship's refit.
 

2. MOCNESS use in 1997. There are three 1M MOCNESS systems in
program: Peter Wiebe's, URI's, and Greg Lough's. There are two
MOC10s belonging to Larray Madin and Greg Lough. Ted Durbin
asked which MOCNESS will be used for the 1997 Boradscale
Survey cruises, since the surveys won't be on Endeavor and the
Endeavor users have requested the URI MOCNESS. Peter Wiebe
agreed that his MOC-1 would probably be used, but noted that
it needs replacement nets and buckets. Ted Durbin noted that
the URI MOC-1 also has missing nets and cod ends. It is likely
that the MOC-10 parts also need to be replaced. 

3. Phase II funded projects. Peter Wiebe reported that a memo
from NSF Program Manager, Phil Taylor, is posted on the
program's HOme Page. Requests for unfunded elements amounted
to about 3% of the total program budget. Little money was
available for give-backs this year because the program funded
9 new PIs, lost 2, and cut most awards deeply. Peter has
volunteered to return his acoustics research budget to the
program in order to support modeling. His proposal has not yet
been formally declined. To date, several additional or missing
elements have been funded including, egg production (J. Runge) 
and mortality (M. Ohman). The remote sensing (J. Bisagni)
research budget was restored, the zooplankton modeling post-
doc (C. Davis and D. Lynch) was restored, and stratified
sampling of icthyoplankton (D. Mountain) was funded. Charlie
Miller was asked to resubmit his zooplankton dynamics
proposal. 

The committee noted that budgets are still inadequate overall
to do the work because most PIs were cut severely and must
reduce their effort. 

Dan Lynch noted that there was no supplemental request by
Lynch,  et al., as stated in Phil Taylor's memo on the Web. It
was agreed that Bob Groman would add a note to the web memo
stating this.  

Peter Wiebe reported that he and Tom Powell have agreed to
begin the Phase III RFP process now in order to begin Phase
III in a timely manner.  EXCO agreed that Phase II has had far
too short a fuse. It was noted that the GLOBEC SSC is supposed
to review the Georges Bank program in 1997. The timing of
review relative to the timing of the AO is not known, but the
committee agreed that the review is needed before the AO is
released. In order to obtain a better lead time for field work
in 1999, the target date for the AO should be May 1997, with
a September 1997 submission date.

4.  November SI Workshop. Peter Wiebe reported that the
Workshop dates and location are set for 5-12 November at UNH.
The idea of the workshop is not show-and-tell, but to work on
data analysis and synthesis. The agenda will be set on the
first day, not in advance. The meeting will focus on
multidisciplinary aspects of the research, rather than
unidisciplinary working groups. Peter proposes one lecture/day
(but not a lot of lectures). The meeting venue will be fully
networked. 

The committee engaged in considerable discussion regarding the
need for an agenda. Dan Lynch and Dian Gifford pointed out
that many PIs cannot come for all 8 days and would like an
agenda in order to choose which days to participate. Solid
dates are needed particularly for 1997 cruise planning and
election of a new executive committee. It was agreed that
Sunday 10 November would be devoted to cruise planning and
that the election whould start early Friday, 8 November and
end on Monday evening, 11 November (a federal holiday). This
means that ballots must be received by Monday a.m. [NOAA PIs
take note and vote before the holiday and weekend]. There is
more on the EXCO election in item 6 below.

The committee agreed to the following general agenda: 
Disciplinary groups will function in the mornings and cross-
disciplinary groups function in the afternoons throughout the
workshop. The final agenda will be set on Tuesday pm (1st
meeting day). There will be one or two lectures on Wednesday
and Thursday concerning fundamental program goals. It was
emphasized that the meeting must focus on stratification as
its theme. EXCO agreed that Bob Groman will circulate a
general agenda for meeting, along with a call for suggestions
regarding more topics. 

5.  Future opportunities to present US GLOBEC Georges Bank
findings at meetings and plans for special volumes. Peter
Wiebe emphasized the continuing need to produce products in
the next 6-12 months. We should be targeting meetings that
GLOBEC as a group should attend. The next major meetings are
AGU/ASLO in San Diego in February 1998 and ICES in Baltimore
in the fall of 1997. Suggested publications include DSR-type
special volumes, MEPS special sections; Fisheries
Oceanography; Continental Shelf Research special volumes; and
JMR.  The suggested timeline is one set of manuscripts
immediately and  another set by next summer. Suggestions from
SIs for other meeting and publication venues are welcome.
[Note: A request is now pending to add a GLOBEC special
session to the Baltimore ICES meeting--D.G.].

6.  Election of new Executive Committee. Dian Gifford reviewed
Ann  Bucklin's suggestion for an Election Committee (composed
of EXCO members who are not standing for reelection). It was
agreed that the Election Committee will communicate with all
PIs and compile a list of Phase II PIs who will serve on EXCO
if elected. The need to cover all disciplinary, institutional
and geographic areas was emphasized.  It was agreed that all
PIs are eligible to vote and to serve on the committee, with
a PI defined as having signed the cover page of a GLOBEC Phase
II proposal.  Bob Groman will  provide the Election Committee
with a provisional list of people who can vote. The list will
then be forwarded to the ggball e-mail list for review and
revision, as necessary.  It was noted that "serve" means
attending monthly meetings, and there is some work associated
with this.  Travel to meetings must be covered by the
indicidual's own grant funds. It was also noted that the
committee needs people in charge of large portions of the
program to be represented. Bob Groman will mark the PI list to
reflect who is now on committee and up for re-election. 

Of the present EXCO members, Dian Gifford, Steve Bollens, Ann
Bucklin and Mike Fogarty wish to exit the committee. Hence,
the Election Committee is comprised of Bucklin, Gifford and
Bollens. The COP representative, presently Mike Fogarty, is
appointed, not elected. It was agreed to delay discussion of
the appointment until the new Executive Committee is elected. 

7.  Modeling software on-line for SI meeting. Dan Lynch stated
that the models are already on line at Dartmouth, so they can
be accessed via the net. However, model runs typically take a
long time. Alternatively, the models may be pre-run and images
stored.  Dan agreed to work with Bob Groman to set this up for
the SI meeting.

8.  GLOBEC SSC meeting in San Francisco. Are there any
messages from EXCO to the SSC? It was agreed to emphasize the
need to get the Phase III AO out early. It was also agreed to
ask what the SSC believes constitutes a review and when/where
do they want a "site visit"? It was agreed that there is a
serious need to better educate reviewers and panel members
about Phase III programmatic objectives, althouh the
mechansims to accomplish this are not clear. Suggestions
include the Home Page and a video presentation. The need to
lobby for follow-on environmental monitoring (but not GLOBEC
Phase 4) after the program spins down was suggested as a topic
for the SSC.

9.  September 1996 Mooring cruise. Bob Groman reported that
Jim Irish's mooring retrieval cruise was successful. Despite
the hurricane, most gear has been recovered and they are are
now doing an intensive broadscale CTD survey on Endeavor to
study the effects of the hurricane.  

Mooring cruises in December 1996 have been curtailed for lack
of funding. Bill Hahn would like to acommodate a SEASOAR/VPR
test cruise on these now extra 6 GLOBEC days. EXCO endorsed
this plan. Ted Durbin would also like to use this time in the
Gulf of Maine to collect zooplankton samples. Ted agreed to
discuss this with the mooring group.

10. Greg Lough reported that he served as a panel reviewer for
the Canadian GLOBEC proposal, which was funded at $3.3 Million
(total for three years). The program is bicoastal, with 1996
the startup year and field programs in the 2nd and third
years. The east coast component heavily emphasizes modeling
(led by John  Loder). Its field program (led by Chris Taggert)
is focused on Western Bank.

The meeting adjourned 1500 hours.