The Long and Winding Road by John Toohey-Morales In the past few years NCIM has stepped forward to become a visible and respected leader in this country's Weather Enterprise. While the important relationship between the varied sectors in our industry was becoming increasingly contentious, NCIM sought to maintain an even keel and ensure that communication lines remained open and cordial.

There were and continue to be differences in opinion on how to best move the U.S. Weather Enterprise forward, but one thing is clear: without a strong partnership between the public and private sectors, we will not achieve our loftiest goals.

Before seeking to strengthen the partnership, I believe we needed to ask ourselves, "How can we trust a partner that we hardly know?" The issue of trust was brought up several times during the debate over the new NOAA Partnership Policy (now approved and subsequently modified) that would replace the 1991 version. It was openly discussed during the AMS sponsored webcast on the proposed policy change which took place in the spring of 2004. As one of the panelists for the webcast, I had a chance to interact with Ed Johnson, Director of Strategic Planning and Policy for the National Weather Service, whom I had met at previous NCIM meetings.

Later that year I began my term as NCIM president. These were challenging times! The debate over NOAA's proposed partnership policy raged on. NCIM participated in the debate by formulating a Position Paper and submitting comments as an organization to NOAA regarding their new policy proposal. But other parts of the commercial weather sector became quite vocal and aggressive. As the discourse became more heated between the "partners," NCIM maintained open lines of communication with government representatives.

The idea for a public-private sector partnership course started with a meeting between NOAA's Ed Johnson and me at the AMS Annual Meeting in San Diego in January 2005. Ed and I thought that we should launch a grass roots effort to educate meteorologists in the field from both sectors about how things were "on the other side." We wanted to reach a broad audience -- from those down in the National Weather Service Offices, to us private sector consultants, employees and entrepreneurs. The goal was to have us look at each other as friends, instead of enemies. This better understanding between the sectors would go a long way in improving the partnership between the public and private sectors.

The idea was great, but neither Ed nor I were sure how to implement it. The ultimate goal was to have a CD or DVD distributed across NOAA and the private sector. But how could we put the educational material together, who would produce it, and -- no less important -- who would fund it?

Events in the second half of my term as NCIM president gave our concept a big push. At my invitation, Brigadier General (retired) Jack Kelly, NOAA's Deputy Under Secretary for Oceans and Atmosphere participated in the NCIM Annual Meeting in Cocoa Beach in June 2005. General Kelly was able to hear many of our concerns as private sector meteorologists regarding the new NOAA Partnership Policy, and the underlying theme of trust. Later that month I joined General Kelly as part of the U.S. Delegation to the 57th World Meteorological Organization Executive Council meeting in Geneva. During my week in Switzerland I was able to interact with many other NOAA officials, including National Weather Service Director Brigadier General (retired) D.L. Johnson. During a reception at the United States Mission in Geneva General Johnson and I had a frank conversation about the public-private sector partnership. He had previously heard of the idea for the partnership course from Ed Johnson, but I took the opportunity to emphasize how important I thought the course would be in defusing what some were starting to call a crisis between the government and commercial weather sectors. This meeting also helped set up another encounter between NCIM and NOAA which took place in Washington during the AMS Broadcast Conference in the summer of 2005 and included General Johnson, Ed Johnson, Sean Potter, Walt Lyons, Phil Falconer and myself. The possibility of a training course was mentioned at every meeting.

The public-private partnership course idea was rapidly gaining traction. My term as president of NCIM was over, but with momentum in our favor we called for another high-level talk at the AMS Annual Meeting in Atlanta in early 2006. By that time, the Training Director of the National Weather Service, Percy Thomas, had become involved. His office would play a critical role in bringing the course to fruition. It was determined that if we could conduct a live course, the event could be recorded and packaged by the National Weather Service's Decision Training Branch in Norman, Oklahoma into a distance learning module to be given wide distribution within the public and private sectors.

A Memorandum of Agreement was drafted and agreed to between NOAA and NCIM to officially establish the joint project between the National Weather Service and NCIM. Pursuant to this agreement, the parties agreed to co-sponsor a short course on public/private partnerships in the Nation's Weather Enterprise, to introduce participants to the size, scope, structure, function and complexity of establishing and maintaining a thriving public/private partnership and explore major issues pertaining to government and private sector roles in the Weather Enterprise. In addition, NOAA and NCIM agreed that the short course would be recorded, and the recordings used to prepare a distance learning module which will be made available to the public to improve understanding of public sector and private sector roles in the Nation's Weather Enterprise with the aim of improving the effectiveness of the enterprise as a whole.

We decided to hold the live course in Washington preceding the 2006 NCIM Annual Meeting. Thanks to Percy Thomas' contacts at Howard University we were able to secure a venue. Meanwhile many NCIM members contributed to shaping the content of the course. On June 1st, 2006 we held the day-long workshop and case study at Howard. While the live course was not perfect, it was well received. It was also gratifying to see how many key players in the government and commercial sectors were in attendance.

As I write this, the course is in the process of being turned into a distance learning module. Ed Johnson and I have periodic web meetings and conference calls with the great professional educators in Norman, Oklahoma. We expect a pilot module to be ready by October 2006, and the final CD's ready for distribution before the end of the year. I think the end result will surprise many with its quality and production values. It will be a valuable tool in breaking down the barriers that sometimes prevent our nation's weather enterprise from becoming the strongest it can be. If you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to email me at morales@climadata.com.