NWIS User Group Costs
Following is the response to the CPAC action item to "document salary
estimates for members of the NWIS users group." The information request
arose from the discussion of the impact of the WRD policy on the
effectiveness of the users groups.
In fiscal year 1998, the following policy was developed for funding the
NWIS users groups activities.
Participation on Division-level committees is recognized as career-
enhancing for the participants, beneficial for the Districts, and in the
best interests of the Division. However, headquarters cannot fund the
salaries of the field experts for this development effort because of the
cost-cutting efforts recently completed to keep WOTSC at the lowest
possible level. User group members funded by WOTSC or NAWQA will have
travel costs paid by their respective offices. Travel costs for field
experts to attend meetings or work sessions will be paid by WOTSC.
Salary costs will not be reimbursed to any group member. Regional
hydrologists have agreed to work with the involved Districts to
encourage the necessary field experts for each of the user groups.
In striving to follow the above policy during fiscal year 1998, many
times exceptions to the policy were made in order to have the highest
quality personnel perform the user group tasks. In an effort to
analyze the costs of user group activities, two table have been
developed to demonstrate the real costs of running the user groups, to
set the stage for a review of the policy.
The two tables below list estimates for fiscal year 1999 for the
NWIS user groups. In table one, the columns of the table are the
user group name, number of meetings for fiscal year 1999, the number
of members, travel costs and salary costs. Data on non-WOTSC members
are keep separate from the information on the WOTSC members.
Table two lists the NWIS user group expenses under four scenarios for
fiscal year 1999. Scenario 1 shows the costs for covering travel and
salary for both the non-WOTSC members and the WOTSC members, totaling
$552,000. Scenario 2 shows the estimates for covering travel and salary
costs for the non-WOTSC members and travel only for the WOTSC members.
Scenario 3 shows the estimates for the travel and salary for the
non-WOTSC members and no costs for the WOTSC members. Scenario 4 shows
the estimates for only the travel costs for the non-WOTSC members and no
costs for the WOTSC members.
Funds have been budgeted according to policy for scenario 4 in the
FY'99 Office of Information budget.
TABLE 1.
NON-WOTSC MEMBERS WOTSC MEMBERS
-------------------- --------------------
USER # # $ $ # $ $
GROUP MTGS MBRS TRAVEL SALARY MBRS TRAVEL SALARY
GROUND 4 6 24K 48K 3 12K 24K
WATER 12 6 36K 3 18K (telecon)
WATER 8 3 24K 48K 4 32K 64K
QUALITY
WATER 3 4 12K 24K 2 6K 12K
USE
SURFACE 2 6 12K 24K 2 4K 8K
WATER
SURFACE 3 10 30K 60K 0 0K 0K
WATER
WEB
------------------------------------------------------------
Total 102K 240K 54K 126K
TABLE 2
SCENARIO 1 SCENARIO 2 SCENARIO 3 SCENARIO4
TRAVEL/NON-WOTSC TRAVEL/NON-WOTSC TRAVEL/NON-WOTSC TRAVEL/NON-WOTSC
SALARY/NON-WOTSC SALARY/NON-WOTSC SALARY/NON-WOTSC
TRAVEL: WOTWC TRAVEL: WOTSC
SALARY: WOTSC
$ $ $ $
--------------- --------------- ---------------- ---------------
GROUND 108K 84K 72K 24K
WATER 54K 36K 36K
WATER 168K 104K 72K 24K
QUALITY
WATER 54K 42K 36K 12K
USE
SURFACE 48K 40K 36K 12K
WATER
SURFACE 90K 90K 90K 30K
WATER
WEB
--- --- --- ---
TOTAL 522K 396K 342K 102K