Data Management and Analysis Subcommittee Minutes
Ellicottville, New York - October, 1997
reported by Luther Smith
(with a significant assist from Karen Harlin)


Monday, Oct. 6:


(1) Election of officers

The following slate of officers was elected for the 1997-1998 year:

(2) Approval of spring minutes

The minutes from the spring meeting in Asilomar, California were approved.

(3) Executive committee report

Luther Smith reported on the executive committee meeting. The major item to relay was that the Coordination Office would be moved to the Illinois State Water Survey. A host of issues are associated with this move, and Luther indicated that a major portion of the subcommitteeÆs time in Ellicottville would be used to discuss them. (n. b., This indeed turned out to be the case.)

The executive committee tabled (until the fall meeting) the proposal carried to it regarding the revision of the advisory on the protocol change. The executive committee felt that the proposal should be fleshed out with the percentile tables. (n. b., The final proposal was later presented to the executive committee; it was thought best to place the proposal before the full technical committee. This was done at the final business session. After much discussion, some amendments were offered. The upshot of all this was that the amendments and the proposal itself were defeated; the advisory would remain unchanged.)

(4) MDN

Molly Welker, Eric Prestbo, and Bob Brunette provided insightful comments on the status of the MDN data base. Much discussion revolved around two major areas: the CO move and resolving the final technical details on data treatment so that the MDN data could be made available on the web. The key outstanding issues regarding data availability were some coding questions and the preferred choice of precipitation amount in deposition calculations. (These were resolved in a subsequent meeting on Tuesday.) At this point, the questions related to the move were unresolved.

The special case of methyl mercury was also brought up at this time. It was pointed out that these analyses were carried out by specific agreements between Frontier and site sponsors.

(5) Annual data summary, status of the move, and general move related items

Bob indicated that the only thing certain about the annual data summary report is that it would not be ready on the usual schedule; this issue was later addressed at a subsequent meeting. (At the earlier joint session, Rick Artz had also expressed concern that the AIRMON data was behind schedule. Bob and Rick later came to a resolution on how to deal with this.)

Bob will stay with the program through March, 1998. He would essentially be the sole source of transition management and support at CSU; to the best of his ability, he would also assume Cathy CopelandÆs duties. Bob planned to spend some time in Illinois to facilitate the transition to the Water Survey, although the schedule was tentative at this point. The current plan was that the major data base transfer would take place in February, and Illinois and CSU would run in parallel for approximately a month.

Luther expressed some concerns about the outstanding uncertainties associated with the move. Discussion of other move related items was deferred to the following day.

 

Tuesday, October 7 (morning):

(1) Report from the previous dayÆs executive committee meeting

The major news from the meeting was that a motion that the executive committee recommend that Molly Welker be retained as MDN coordinator (beyond the end of the year) was defeated on a 5-2 vote.

(2) Move related questions

The vast majority of the meeting related to questions surrounding the move. Luther essentially presented a laundry list of rather general topics to be considered. Van Bowersox provided input on the current status and future plans (where appropriate).

The following provides a brief synopsis of this discussion. Van described the general roles envisioned for the various personnel at the Water Survey and CSU. A rough outline of time frames for various activities/processes was provided; some of the timing was still uncertain at this point. The question of availability of AIRMON data would be resolved between Rick Artz, Bob Gilpin, Van, and Gary Lear. The status of file documentation, both internal and external, varied; some was in draft form, some needed adaptation to the new computing environment, and some needed to be developed. A high priority would be placed on making and keeping data available to users. Mary Ann Allan would be asked to continue holding the QA questionnaire data until a proper solution could be found at the Water Survey. (As before, it is envisioned that the new QA manager will take on all QA related topics.) Site history and variance files were considered less of a priority for coordination since considerable overlap existed for these between Illinois and CSU. The "trends on the web" project would continue (eventually) with Bob Larson at Illinois replacing Bob Gilpin. Web site issues seemed to be generally under control; It was felt that CSU could maintain a link to Illinois for approximately a year with no trouble. The status of electronic copies of various items varied from well known to not known; this would be an issue for resolution as part of the move process. The question of QA for the move itself was still to be worked out; it was suggested that MDN be used as a test case.

No one had anything to add to the laundry list. Van asked for a copy and it was provided later.

(3) Annual report

Regarding the fact that the annual report was not ready for delivery to the executive committee, the following motion was adopted for presentation to the executive committee: That the executive committee approve deferring the delivery of the annual report in paper form to its members until the 1998 fall technical committee meeting.

(4) MDN

To resolve the remaining issues regarding MDN and the availability of its data, it was decided to call a special lunchtime session of the subcommittee.

 

Tuesday, October 7 (lunch):

(1) MDN

The following issues were addressed from the standpoint of making the MDN data available on the web. The basic thrust of the proposals was to make the MDN data treatment as compatible as possible with treatment of other NADP data.

It was decided that the availability of the methyl mercury data would be decided between Frontier Geosciences and the site sponsors paying for those analyses. Since methyl mercury analysis is handled through individual agreements between Frontier and the sponsors, these data do not fall under NADP purview.