Note

Regional NEON Congress

Objectives of the Congress

The overall objective of this meeting will be to assist the regional NEON consortia in organizing for (1) effective and timely participation in the national NEON planning process during the next two years, (2) education of NEON participants and stakeholders as planning progresses, and (3) participation in construction and operation of NEON once funded. For a map of the NEON regions and descriptions of the regional boundaries, organizational status and contact information please see the Regional Index.

The specific topics that will be discussed at this congress include:

1. Organizing and operating regional NEON consortia
   1. Models of consortia organization and operation (e.g. membership, governance, etc.)
   2. Approaches to engaging institutions at the regional level, such as Non-academic research institutions (national laboratories, Service experiment stations, USGS research groups, etc.) Federal and state agencies (generators and users of data)
2. Regional consortia as a collective body
   1. What kind of collective linkages should the regional groups have? For example, should there be an umbrella organization and, if so, what form should it take?
   2. What relationship would we like between the regional consortia and NEON Inc.?
   3. Refining/understanding the current regional boundaries. What are they intended to represent? Where are modifications needed?
   4. Adequacy of biogeographic and sociopolitical coverage of existing consortia. Too many or too few?
3. Participating as regional consortia in the national NEON planning process
   1. Populating the national committees
   2. Identifying and compiling relevant data bases for the national effort: Existing facilities, experimental installations, data bases (including long-term data sets), etc., relevant to designing NEON
   3. Organizing regional groups for WEB-based participation in the planning process: how to do this most effectively
4. Comparing questions, requirements, and context of NEON at regional and National levels.
   1. What contrasts and overlaps are likely to exist between regional and national questions?
   2. What contrasts and overlaps are likely to exist between regional and national infrastructure requirements?
   3. What should be the relative emphasis on fixed and mobile capabilities at the regional and national level?
   4. How are the social and educational dimensions of NEON likely to contrast at regional and national levels?
5. NSF funding for regional consortia activities
   1. How should modest funding to support consortia be utilized?
   2. Should some be used to support additional collective meetings?

Preparation

All participants should thoroughly review the informational materials related to NEONÕs history and to the upcoming planning process on both the http://ibrcs.aibs.org and http://www.neoninc.org websites; Copies of key organizational charts and activity schedules will be made available at the meeting.

There will be an optional field trip on the morning of October 20. This is an opportunity to levitate up through the canopy of a 500-year-old Douglas-firÑwestern hemlock forest facilitated by a construction crane. If you intend to participate you probably should bring some raingear (we hope that the weather will be good but...) and something other than street shoes. Weather could either be clear or rainy in mid-October.

Tentative Agenda

Meeting Objectives

• Identify the key scientific questions, hypotheses, or issues around which NEON should be organized in order to support research in the Climate Change arena
• Suggest infrastructure design needs associated with these questions

Participants

Senior Management Team (SMT)

Jeff Goldman,
Elizabeth Blood,
Bruce Hayden,
Carol Brewer,
William Michener,
James Macmahon,
Jerry Franklin,

Contact Information

• Meeting organizers: Jerry Franklin, and James MacMahon,
• American Institute of Biological Sciences: Jeff Goldman,
• Logistical arrangements: Annette Hamilton,