Final Version: 4/28/09

Scientific and Technical Employee Development (STED)
Conference Call March 26, 2009

Committee members:

Meeting Introduction:

• Bob Hainly opened the teleconference and reviewed the agenda. No additions were suggested.

Comments on the minutes from the January 2009 meeting:

• No comments were received.
• ACTION ITEM – Bob will send a reminder to the absent members to review the draft minutes and then send the finalized January 2009 meeting minutes to be posted on the STED web page.
  (completed 4/10/09)

Review of the Action Items Log:

• Few items require review. No updates were received.
• 1/29 ACTION ITEM – Steve Blanchard to recruit new members to replace our current NRP and IT reps whose terms are expiring.
• Action Item progress – Bob will check on Steve’s progress.

External Communication

• WR Data Conference – Three sessions provided an opportunity to discuss TEL courses and/or STED activities.
• Pacific-NW Science Conference – Alan provided and manned a poster and provided information to attendees.
• No other reports.

Rotational Committee Membership

• This is the last meeting for Leo House, our NRP representative, and Kurt Schultz, our IT constituent group representative. The committee members thanked them for their service to STED activities.
• Leo indicated that Harry Jenter would be a good NRP representative to the committee and has agreed to serve if asked.
• ACTION ITEM – Bob will pass this information on to Steve B.
• Kurt Schultz had no specific suggestions for his replacement.
• A decision about term extensions for the remaining rotational members is still pending.
• ACTION ITEM – Bob will poll rotational members and determine willingness to stay on or rotate off committee and then contact Steve B. with results.

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Final Version: 4/28/09

TRAINING PROGRAM UPDATE: OSW Activities – Mike Nolan

• Developing coordinators and schedule to provide what is needed
• Recognized that economic downturn has reduced training activities
• Instrumentation training usually takes the place of tech. (hydro.) training
• Looking at ways to make more basic training available to more employees
• Hold more classes at Gateway? A way to assist students.
• Seeing a big demand from cooperators and other DOI participants

TRAINING PROGRAM UPDATE: Sediment Transport Course - Alan Ward

• Not much progress since last meeting, but moving ahead.
• Demo for introductory module possibly available soon.

• Still looking at alternatives for MATLAB.

FY2009 HR Initiative Funding Status - Alan

• Will need more frequent reporting from recipients
• Additional $6K provided to real-time records process and GRSAT courses

TRAINING PROGRAM UPDATE: SW Procedures and Policies Course Status – Mike Nolan

• All modules are complete except one
• Still stuck on completing Basic Electronics module
• Remainder of modules have at least one colleague review - index-velocity is exception
• Working towards Directors approval for module (bundle of modules)
• Three narrators working on modules - Mike, Joe Nielson, and Jake Jacobsen

TRAINING PROGRAM UPDATE: QW Principles Course Status – Alan Ward

• QW Principles contract in place; expecting EOY delivery
• No report on effort to track expenses and review process to provide info for future course developments

STED Web Page Enhancement – Mike Nolan

• Still looking for comments and design ideas
• Expecting to get back on this task soon
• Comments will still be accepted for video postings

Wrap-up

• Should we request time to report our activities to Senior Staff?
• Bob to discuss with Steve
• We could provide updates on TEL courses, NTC activities, and STED approach to support training activities with limited WSC funding
• Training methods for the current fiscal environment
• Streamlining video established at NTC
• Deployment of training aids to other locations
• Request input from Center Directors

The next conference call is scheduled for Thursday, May 28 at 1:00 pm EDT.

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