The following document was revised based upon comments received. The revised paragraph is marked by an asterisk.

The intent of this white paper is to provide the view of the Office of Information (OI)/National Water Information System (NWIS) concerning the broad issue of training concerning NWIS. The document is intended to provide the thoughts of OI/NWIS with the hope of stimulating comment from those who have an interest in this most important subject.

For the sake of this white paper, NWIS training is divided into three principal categories as follows:

1. Database administrators (please note this includes a very specific training requirement for the DECODES software).
2. NWIS users.
3. Water Resources Division leadership, including both Senior Staff and District Chiefs.

What follows is a brief discussion of each of those three principal categories.

It is wholly the responsibility of NWIS to provide training for the database administrators. The next offering of training for database administrators is tentatively schedule for October 1999 (this training has been slipped slightly to accommodate the need to deliver an expanded 4_1 release on time).

The DECODES training is also considered to be wholly the responsibility of the NWIS staff. The DECODES training is given regularly, as required. DECODES is a program to take data, in any format, from commercial data log products and transform it into input format for ADAPS. Training is specific on use of the software and does not deal with how we do hydrology. Persons attending are generally senior technicians or hydrologists from district data sections who know hydrology and ADAPS. DECODES is generally used only by a handful of senior technicians or hydrologists within a district.

Concerning training for NWIS users, it is the consensus opinion of NWIS user groups and the NWIS staff that the most effective training for general uses of NWIS software is not stand-alone training but training where hydrology is the primary focus with use of tools (NWIS) as an integral part of the training activity. Within this model, there are four elements of NWIS upon which user training is required. Those elements are ADAPS, QW Data, GWSI, and SWUDS. The manner in which the QW Data training is included in a general water quality course is considered to be the most effective model for how to undertake NWIS training within a discipline specific activity.

* Kathy Fitzgerald is developing a new course, Managing Water Quality Data and Records. She has included in this course a section on QW Data. Bill Roddy of the NWIS staff is working with Kathy to develop the session. The session on QW Data is tentatively scheduled to run for 1-2 days of an overall 5-day class. The next offering of this class, including the QW Data module, is scheduled for Fall 1999. Generally, the class will focus on how to review and manage water-quality data and policies associated with the collection of water quality data. The QW Data section demonstrates how to use QW Data tools to capture the information.

NWIS stands ready to work with the Discipline Offices in the development of training experiences that would include the use of the various NWIS modules. The NWIS staff hopes that the water quality model will be used in development of training modules that will include the use of ADAPS, GWSI, and SWUDS.

With regard to providing training for leadership, two separate audiences are to be included, those are Senior Staff and District Chiefs and equivalent.

With regard to Senior Staff, NWIS is a regular agenda item on Senior Staff meeting agenda. Through these briefings, it is the hope of OI to keep Senior Staff current on activities and developments associated with NWIS.

Concerning District Chiefs, it is the opinion of OI that the best way to provide briefings to District Chiefs concerning NWIS is through Regional District Chiefs' meetings. NWIS will establish a goal that it will provide a sufficient number of briefings to Regional District Chiefs' meetings and that each District Chief will receive an NWIS update briefing at least every other year. As appropriate, NWIS will also use the National District Chiefs' meetings to provide overview briefings on NWIS capabilities.

The above is provided as the opinions of the OI and NWIS staff concerning training regarding NWIS activities. Please review the material and make it better by providing comments and additions.