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Tampa
Bay Day, May 30th, 2003
What do you get when you place
the three largest NOAA offices in Tampa Bay together
for a day of orientation, information sharing,
and an afternoon at the beach? The foundation
of a stronger, more corporate NOAA identity; something
far greater than the sum of its parts in the region.
On May 30th, as part of a NOAA-wide initiative
to improve internal and external coordination,
the three major NOAA components in west central
Florida gathered. Employees from the National
Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Southeast Region,
St. Petersburg, the National Weather Service (NWS),
Ruskin, and the National Marine and Aviation Operation
(NMAO) Aircraft Operations Center (AOC), gathered
together at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa to
learn more about each others roles in the area’s
greater NOAA mission. Hosted by the AOC, NOAA
employees and families were able to take a closer
look at NOAA aircraft and boats, and meet one
another to share experiences at a picnic on the
shores of Tampa Bay.
The
event was kicked off with a welcome and introductions
from Jack Parrish, Aircraft Operations Center
project manager and Mike Matthews from NOAA’s
Program Coordination Office - who is overseeing
the startup and progress of NOAA’s regional
coordination programs across the country.
The
initiative began back in 2001, when NOAA’s
Administrator, Vice Admiral Conrad C. Lautenbacher,
Jr., requested employee input on how to improve
NOAA. Employee feedback from this process was
documented into a report and results of the NOAA
internal program review included 68 recommendations
to guide NOAA into the future. One of the recommendations,
#54, was the development of a pilot program to
improve coordination between offices in targeted
regions to heighten awareness of various regional
NOAA activities. The NOAA regional coordination
program includes San Francisco Bay, Seattle-Tacoma,
Ann-Arbor Detroit, the Tampa Bay area, and Hawaii.
The
day long event at Tampa drew over 120 NOAA employees
to MacDill AFB and began Friday morning with talks
from line office representatives who shared information
on what they do in Tampa.
The
first regional speaker was Dan Noah, Warning Coordination
Meteorologist from NWS Ruskin. His talk emphasized
the various types of severe weather that threaten
Florida on an almost daily basis. “Look
at the number of people in Florida we lose to
lightning strikes every year, as compared to hurricanes
and tornadoes. And it’s an everyday hazard
during the summer”, Dan imparted in his
talk.
What
followed were informative discussions by four
speakers from the St. Pete office, highlighting
the comprehensive mission of NMFS in the southeast.
Jim Jeansonne, NOS Damage Assessment Center, started
off the discussions with the very heavy commercial
use of Tampa Bay, and the numerous ways the ecosystem
is impacted by this necessary commerce. Leslie
Craig, from the NMFS Restoration Center, highlighted
the many partnerships that pay off daily in funding
and staffing of sea grass plantings, beach cleanups,
and other forms of ecosystem restoration. Next
was a fascinating talk from Tracy Dunn, Deputy
Special Agent-in-Charge, Southeast Enforcement
Division, NMFS. His team is actively involved
in long-term investigations of fisheries violations,
netting the large fines and penalties we read
about in the papers. “Most people think
of enforcement as catching them in the act on
the water. Our main job is longer term, with much
larger impacts if the work is done right”.
Buck Sutter, the new Deputy Regional Administrator
for Southeast NMFS, wrapped the NOAA fisheries
topic with an overview of the enormous NMFS scope
in southeast waters, covering activities, partners,
and constituents, from commercial to recreational.
Buck cited the usual weekend on the Florida coastal
waters, “When at times you can almost walk
across the Bay from boat to boat”.
Just
before everyone  had
the chance to visit the NOAA aircraft at AOC’s
Hangar Five, Jack Parrish briefed about the line
and staff offices being served by NOAA aircraft,
from research and surveillance to aid in critical
hurricane landfall forecasting to the year-round
mammal surveys conducted by the AOC Twin Otters,
a very popular NMFS-support plane. Then it was
time to break for Hangar 5 and
the planes, with a chance for all of the NOAA
families to climb into a hurricane-hunting WP-3D,
the high-flying G-IV jet, and one of the Bell
212 helicopters, serving as a logistic platform
for Everglades restoration these days among other
tasks.
Capping
the day, it was time for food, fun, families and
fellowship at the MacDill Marina, where one of
the NMFS Habitat Restoration boats was on hand
for some of the 125 NOAA participants to climb
aboard. With everyone mixing freely amid hamburgers,
potato salad, and lots of desserts, the afternoon
ended way too soon as the groups headed back to
their respective sides of the Bay and NOAA roles.
But it was with a new understanding and appreciation
of what “NOAA Tampa Bay” is all about,
what our colleagues go through while serving NOAA,
and a better understanding of who our constituents
are. Captain Bob Manson said it best, “Look
at all of the talent gathered together today.
Each office has so much to offer the others, from
joint outreach events to combined training opportunities.
It’s just a matter of knowing who to coordinate
with on the other end of the phone line.”
From another employee, “I never thought
by coming across the Bay today, I’d learn
so much about what else is going on in my home
office.”
For
additional information on Performance Review Team
#54, please visit http://www.joss.ucar.edu/salljex |
