"Dream" Drafting Team in Place for AMS Priorites Statement

A recent post reported that the AMS Council, at their September meeting in Boston, decided to move forward, on an accelerated basis, with the proposed AMS Statement on Weather and Climate Community Priorities. Recall that Congress has asked for such a statement, updated as necessary, to help them make ongoing decisions on legislation and budgets. The next step for the statement has been to assemble, and gain Council approval for the statement drafting team.

Today that hurdle was cleared.

AMS Council approval of the drafting team starts the timer, which under current AMS rules, requires the final version of the Community Priorities Statement to be completed within eight months. But, if their current goals are achieved, it will be completed much sooner.

Since this will be a Policy Statement, the drafting team must be chaired by a member of the AMS Policy Program. APP Director, Bill Hooke is one co-chair and the other is Matt Parker, CCM and Chair of the AMS Board on Enterprise Communications. Filling out the team are AMS Past President (and current Enterprise Commissioner) George Frederick, two current AMS Councilors, a prominent former Office of Management and Budget staff member, and another APP staff member.

The team's goal is ambitious: write, in record time, a draft policy statement that puts forward the highest priorities of our weather and climate community, taken as a whole. The draft statement must be complete enough, correct enough, and well enough written that the AMS Council will approve it for posting for public comment when the Council meets again in January at the AMS Annual Meeting in New Orleans.

Is this "dream" drafting team up to its objective? Time will tell. I, for one, wish them Godspeed.