The first meeting of the Memphis, TN Chapter of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) for the 2000-2001 academic year was held on 19 September 2000. The location was the National Weather Service Forecast Office at the Agriculture Center in Cordova. Sixteen people were present at the meeting which began at 7:00 PM. Chairperson Mike Wroten opened the meeting by introducing the officers for this year which included Vice President Erik Proseus and Secretary/Treasurer Greg Spielmann. Each person at the meeting then introduced themselves and told how they were related to the meteorological community. As this progressed, a new mailing list was passed around the room to acquire any new e-mail or street address.

The featured speaker of the evening was Mr. Gerry Rigdon, who lead the tour of the National Weather Forecast Office. The focus of the tour was to show off the AWIPS installation now in place at the Memphis office. Also shown on the tour was the NOAA weather radio broadcast room. A demonstration was held on how the weather radio is both automated and trouble free compared with the old way of recording a human voice on tape. To wind up the tour, Gerry showed how AWIPS can overlay any computer model over any region specified by the meteorologist. He commented on the vast improvement over previous systems used in older days. AWIPS will eventually replace even the PUP workstations were meteorologist monitor the WSR-88D and issue warnings. Everyone marveled at the newest technology in place at the NWSFO and a good time was had by all!

Respectfully submitted,
Greg Spielmann
Secretary / Treasurer

Minutes Approved,
Erik Proseus
President