Volunteer Opportunities

Volunteers Needed for the Weather-Ready Nation Scouting Event at AMS Annual Meeting

AMS will host a Weather-Ready Nation program for Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts in the Phoenix area from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, 4 January. This event builds on the success of the inaugural event held in Atlanta, Georgia, at last year’s 94th Annual Meeting. The program will once again focus on both weather and emergency preparedness, and participating scouts (ages 11–17) will have the opportunity to earn the new Weather-Ready Nation Patch, as well as their respective Weather Merit Badges in full. AMS is in need of several volunteers to lead or assist with the instructional sessions. Specifically, AMS needs the following volunteers in the following areas:

  • 16 professional scientists (meteorologists, climatologists, hydrologists, etc.), including at least 4 National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office (WFO)/broadcaster meteorologists, to teach weather-specific segments and some of the emergency preparedness segments;
  • 14 people from the emergency management community to teach emergency preparedness segments;
  • 20 general helpers (students, adult Scouting volunteers, other AMS members, etc.) to help instructors and event organizers in various capacities; and
  • 2–3 certified Boy Scouts of America (BSA) Weather Merit Badge Instructors to help with important administrative functions in the afternoon during WeatherFest (i.e. signing BSA blue cards).

Those interested in volunteering should contact Chrissy Warrilow (e-mail:[email protected]) and Charlotte Dewey (e-mail: [email protected]).
 

Volunteers Needed to Judge the 4th Annual Student Conference Poster Contest

The AMS Student Conference Planning Committee (SCPC) is proud to announce the 4th Annual Student Conference Poster Contest, which will occur during the 2015 Annual Meeting in Phoenix, AZ. About 200 undergraduate and graduate students will display their research posters on Sunday, January 4, 2015 from 5:00 6:30 p.m.

In order to make this event a success, we need your help! Our goal is to recruit at least 25 professionals and/or graduate students with advanced standing to serve as volunteer judges. The SCPC will organize judging sheets, and pair professionals in a judging “team,” who will judge a small selection of prescreened posters during the actual poster session? the precise number of posters each team will judge are dependent on the number of judges we get. Judging will be based both on the poster itself, and a short research presentation (no more than 5 minutes) if the student is available during judging. First, second, and third place will be awarded in undergraduate and graduate categories.

This is a fantastic opportunity to preview and interact with the upandcoming generation of meteorologists and atmospheric scientists. Many students elect to present their research at the Student Conference in lieu of the Annual Meeting itself, so this may be your only chance to see some truly spectacular work!

If you or any of your colleagues are available to help, we ask that you fill out this form: http://goo.gl/forms/YR4HRGBs7n Any questions or comments can be directed to Student Conference CoChair Daniel Rothenberg ([email protected]) with the following information. Thanks in advance for your help? we look forward to an exciting Poster Contest!
 

AMS Volunteer Project: Desert Rain Garden CANCELLED

Annual Meeting attendees are invited to come out and get their hands dirty working with community members to construct a desert rain garden. The project will take an existing landscape area at a Phoenix school and transform it within a few short hours into a rain-harvesting landscape that supports a diversity of native plants. Volunteers will help with fine grading, rock work, and plantings. Attendees should plan to wear closed-toed shoes, a wide-brimmed hat, long pants, and long sleeves. The goal is to also have some of the AMS participants that are volunteering give brief and informal talks (three to five minutes) to the local volunteers during work breaks. These talks will be relevant to the project or on other areas of the atmospheric sciences that might be of interest to the other participants.

There is a $25 fee to participate, which will help to cover the cost of the project along with transportation to and from the volunteer site. Buses will depart from Third Street in front of the Phoenix Convention Center at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday, 4 January, and will return by 12:30 p.m. Interested attendees are invited to sign up for the project when preregistering for the meeting. The deadline for registration for the volunteer project will be Monday, 15 December 2014. For information on this event, please contact Jen Ives ([email protected]). For those that are participating, plan on meeting at the Information Desk, located on the first level of the convention center at 7:45 a.m.