Joint Action Group for the National Wildland Fire Weather Needs Assessment 12 Oct 2006, 12:30 – 4:30 EDT Cochairs: Dr. Al Riebau, Mr. Eli Jacks OFCM: Lt. Col. Dave Andrus Telecon # , pass code 55381# GoToMeeting ID is https://

Agenda Welcome and administrative remarks Approve record of actions from last meeting Review goals, timeline, and open action items GOES DCS operational requirement update 3 rd International Fire Ecology and Management Congress session plans Fire Congress survey question discussion Open discussion Plans for next meeting Review of new action items

Welcome and Administrative Remarks Welcome!  Federal Coordinator for Meteorology, Samuel P. Williamson Administrative remarks  Attendance roster  Facility information  GoToMeeting use

Primary Goal The Western Governors urge NOAA to: Complete a National Needs Assessment Report, by NOAA’s Office of the Federal Coordinator for Meteorology, of federal, state and local fire managers needs for weather information in their wildfire and prescribed fire decision making processes and a framework to meet those needs by the NWS and Predictive Services.

JAG-Established Goals Comprehensive assessment of weather and climate needs of providers and users in their wildland fire and fuels management activities Assessment of provider agency capability to deliver weather and climate information to fire managers and other users Raise the critical nature of fire weather to a new level of community awareness

JAG-Established Functional Areas Data collection, integrity, processing and archival Fire weather research and development Forecast products and services Modeling, prediction, and data assimilation Information dissemination and technologies Education, training, outreach, partnering and collaboration User response, decision support, and resulting user impacts Funding and human resource considerations Socioeconomic impacts

Timeline Oct Update members and refine Fire Congress questions Oct JAG update to FENWT meeting in Athens, GA Nov 8 -- Deadline for Fire Congress survey development Nov JAG panel at 3rd International Fire Congress Nov Deadline for responses to Fire Congress surveys Dec Meeting to review responses, frame assessment issues and agree to assessment reportables Jan -- JAG drafts assessment report Feb 1 -- Deadline to submit draft assessment to editor Mar-Apr -- Revise report based upon editor comments Apr JAG meeting to review final publication pre-print Jun Findings and recommendations presented to WGA

Action Item Update (1/2) Action Assessment Functional Areas – Gathering information.  Status: Done Action Assessment Functional Areas – Gathering Information. Part II.  Status: Done Action Workshop for Stakeholders’ Review  Status: Session established during 3 rd International Wildfire Ecology and Management Congress. Topics and speakers identified. Short survey being developed for use during the session.

Action Item Update (2/2) Action Assessment Information Gathering Tool (amendment to ).  OFCM will review the functional area documents and produce a draft of the “survey” or “questionnaire.” This tool will incorporate the changes provided at the meeting, along with the clarification of positions from Action  Status: Done

GOES DCS Operational Requirement Update Mr. Charles Kazimir, NIFC, BLM, DOI

3 rd International Fire Ecology and Management Congress Session Mr. Bob Dumont, OFCM

Fire Congress Survey Questions Strategy  Design a short survey for participants and make available to other fire weather stakeholders  Focus survey on primary and established JAG goals  Keep survey short enough to encourage voluntary completion with short turn-around time  Phrase questions clearly, so that respondents can reasonably answer intended questions  Phrase questions positively so that respondents are encouraged to respond without negatively impacting associates  Phrase open-ended questions to encourage thoughtful and meaningful responses

Open Discussion (1/3) Appoint functional area lead agents and teams for survey question refinement.  Final questions needed by 8 Nov. Additional survey distribution plans

Open Discussion (2/3) NWS briefing at next JAG meeting  Available NWS fire weather products and services  Fire weather products and services issues NWS is currently aware of due to previous outreach and customer feedback Predictive Services briefing at next JAG meeting  Available PS fire weather products and services  Fire weather products and services issues PS is currently aware of due to previous outreach and customer feedback

Open Discussion (3/3) Document requirement for GOES DCS data flow within the data functional area Plan to provide draft report to editor by 1 Feb  Functional area drafts  Misc draft topics Document job descriptions of common fire duties Others? ???

Next Meetings 3 rd International Wildfire Ecology and Management Congress ( Nov)  Panel discussions, 14 Nov  Survey distribution and collection JAG Meeting, 7-8 Dec at OFCM  Briefings from NWS and PS on their products and services, to include their assessment of wildland fire community products and service needs  Review brief analysis of survey responses  Partition assessment work throughout JAG

New Action Items

Agenda Welcome and administrative remarks Approve record of actions from last meeting Review goals, timeline, and open action items GOES DCS operational requirement update 3 rd International Fire Ecology and Management Congress session plans Fire Congress survey question discussion Open discussion Plans for next meeting Review of new action items