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NWS Director Notes Achievements and Challenges During Town Hall Meeting/Webcast
Technical difficulties reduced the quality of the September 1, 2004, town hall meeting/webcast for employees participating via the
Internet. An alternate version of the broadcast with improved audio has been posted to the webcast site; the previous version with open captioning remains available. Click here for a look at the presentation visuals. Following are highlights of the session.
Brig. Gen. D.L. Johnson, USAF (Ret.) described his first 7.5 months as NWS Director as "awesome" and told about 200 NWS employees
attending the town hall meeting at the NOAA Auditorium in Silver Spring on the state of the weather service that, "We are world-class at providing environmental information." During the one-hour session, Johnson discussed agency performance and
issues. He also answered employee questions.
Successes
Fire Weather: Among the successes during his tenure, Johnson discussed the fire season in Alaska, Hurricane Charley, and the Illinois
Tornado. "This is the worst fire season on record in Alaska. About as much acreage has burned as the size of the state of New Jersey," he
said. Johnson noted that we are an "integrated part of the team."
Hurricane Charley: "The Hurricane Center did an industrial strength job on Hurricane Charley," he said. "I was a little unprepared for
some of the backlash...Max Mayfield and Lou Uccellini tell me that if you don't have a thick skin you need to grow one- and I'm in the
process of doing that."
Illinois Tornado: Johnson called the July 13, 2004, Roanoke, IL, Tornado a "good news story" where someone paid attention to a watch,
took action to a warning and consequently saved about 130 people when a tornado barreled through and demolished a manufacturing plant.
Employee Recognition Coins: Johnson knows our successes are directly linked to the hard work of our employees. He spoke about his
philosophy on recognizing employees for good work and explained the significance of the special NWS coins he occasionally gives to
employees.
Performance
The NWS is not meeting four Government Performance Requirements Act Performance Measure goals for FY 04: Tornado
Warnings-False Alarm Rate; Aviation Forecasts (Ceiling and Visibility)-Accuracy; U.S. Seasonal Temperature-Skill; and Marine Wave
Height Forecasts-Accuracy. Johnson stressed that we need to have good goals and measures when they are thought up because you can
not go back and fix them. He said we can do "good for America" if we have good goals that are meaningful, within our span of control,
we can do something about and are achievable. He explained that this enables us to conduct a cost benefit analysis to figure out where we
should best put our resources.
Budget
Johnson said about the FY 05 budget, "This is going to be an extremely difficult year so we are trying to do things that are smart for the
longer term anticipating some lean years ahead...We know that we are competing to sustain existing products and services and to do smart
intelligent things in the future."
Corporate Board
Johnson noted the Corporate Board is "doing much better." "We've tackled some pretty difficult issues right up front," he said. For
example, the Board has looked at workload issues and whether employees add any value over the models at days 4-7. According to
Johnson, if employees add the most value in days 1, 2, 3, maybe we don't need to waste employee time crunching grids beyond day 3.
This may be a smarter way of applying the talent and abilities that we have, he said. The Board also created priorities for FY 07-11. Click here for a related story.
CWSUs
Johnson acknowledged that the Federal Aviation Administration has been in the midst of a reorganization for a long time. He said that in the meantime, we know
that we need to learn more about the customer, and however the customer is going to be structured we know we will need to have certain
functions to help out so we are marching down that path. "We can't be paralyzed from doing the right thing just because somebody else is
studying options for their own organization."
AWIPS Test Messages
Johnson said there are opportunities for us to do better. He talked about erroneous test messages that have gone out and said, "We don't
want to teach America to ignore us...(we) need to be able to test our software and make sure that when we do need to warn America, we
actually can." There are software issues that we must address. He also said that there are opportunities to put the word test "right up front"
so if there is a glitch in the system-people will know it is a test. "We count on the smart employee to assume we do the right thing and if
perchance we make an error-that all know it is only a test. We need to teach America to pay attention and heed our warnings."
NOAA Update
Johnson discussed several NOAA issues including the Ocean Commission Report, talk of moving NOAA into the Department of Interior,
the research review team and communication between his counterparts in the other NOAA Line Offices.
Ocean Commission Report: Johnson reminded employees that when it comes to ocean "we are players" and we need to continue
educating NOAA and our partners that we already do a lot of things wet and we are part of the team. In fact, the NWS has the lead on the
water quality initiative which is going to be a big part of the Ocean Commission Report.
Department of Interior?: In regards to the members of Congress that are questioning why NOAA is not in the Department of Interior he
said that this was mostly fish-related and he expected there to be some hearings in September. For now, Commerce is our home.
Research Review Team: A new NOAA Research Review Team is looking at research NOAA-wide and not just that done in the Office
of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR).
AA Communication: Being "the new guy" Johnson is trying to be the catalyst for improved communications between all of the Assistant
Administrators. In addition to lunches, the four Line Office AAs will meet formally in a group called the "Quadriga" to discuss issues of
mutual concern leading to better planning, programming budget, and execution.
Space Environment Center
Johnson said the NWS anticipates during the next fiscal year, the Space Environment Center may come under the budgeting and daily
operational control of the National Weather Service. "We are not going to abandon the research functions of the Space Environment
Center," Johnson said. "We are going to focus on doing 24-7 operations and maintain robust research."
Questions and Answers
Johnson accepted questions in advance of the event via e-mail, and live, via telephone during the meeting. Click here for a summary of
questions answered during the town hall session.
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