Recognition of Your Peers
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RECOGNITION OF YOUR PEERS ast month at the AMS Annual Meeting in Long The first step in the process is obtaining the appro- Beach, a number of outstanding individuals from priate nomination form that is used to coordinate the Lour community were honored for their contribu- package. These are easily found on the AMS Web site tions either by being elected to AMS Fellow or by re- (www.ametsoc.org/AMS) by choosing "Awards- ceiving one of the many awards presented by the Nomination Forms" on the pull-down "Navigate Society. There always seems to be general agreement through our site" menu at the left of the AMS Home that those chosen for the various awards are deserv- Page. From here you can print out forms for Fellow ing, but I often hear someone say, "I wonder why 'so- or award nominations, as well as see descriptions of and-so' has never been elected to Fellow," or some all the AMS awards. As outlined in the associated text similar comment. This seems a good opportunity to on the Web site, the award should be accompanied remind everyone of how the awards process works by up to three supporting letters that supplement the in the Society and to issue a "call to arms" to mem- original nomination. It is recommended that the text bers to nominate their deserving colleagues. of the original nomination be supplied to those who I think most of the membership knows that elec- will write supporting letters so that each can highlight tion to Fellow and all the awards and lectureships additional strengths or accomplishments of the nomi- awarded by the Society are conferred on the recipi- nated individual to make the package as strong as pos- ents by your elected Council. Some seem unaware, sible. All nomination packages must be complete and however, that the process starts at a very grass-roots submitted prior to I May. level—by an AMS member taking the lead in creating Many of the award nominations are reviewed by a nomination package for a deserving individual and one or more AMS committees. For example, the securing supporting documentation that is submitted Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Advance to the AMS. Thus, in many cases, the reason why "so- of Applied Meteorology has its nominations reviewed and-so" has never received an award is because "so- by the Board on Private Sector Meteorology with in- and-so" was never nominated for one. put from the Applied Climatology STAC Committee. The nomination process does require a bit of ef- Other awards are handled by a volunteer committee fort. No matter how great the contributions made by constituted specifically for the award process, such as an individual in some area, the Society is diverse the Atmospheric Research Award Committee, which enough that those working in other areas may not makes recommendations on the Rossby Medal and be familiar with those contributions and in some cases other atmospheric awards. AMS Fellow nominations may not even be familiar with the name of the indi- are reviewed by the Fellows Committee, which is vidual. Thus, the nomination package must be com- chaired each year by the second past-president of the plete enough that all members of the various volun- AMS. teer committees reviewing it—including those on the The recommendations coming from these various Council—will see the merit of the nomination in com- committees are all forwarded to the Awards Over- parison to the nominations of other individuals. Thank- sight Committee (AOC), which is chaired by the first fully, each year a number of AMS members are willing past-president and made up of the chairs of the awards to invest the time and effort required to nominate a committees and the commissioners. The AOC reviews colleague for election to Fellow or for one of the all recommendations from the various committees to Society's awards. ensure consistency and balance before passing the rec- AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY MARCH 2003 BAfft I 389 Unauthenticated | Downloaded 10/07/21 04:36 AM UTC ommendations to the Council for vote at its fall meet- pends on good nominations, however, and while many ing. (The AOC is also responsible for continual review members take on this unselfish task each year there is of the awards policies and procedures to keep them always the risk that very deserving individuals are be- current.) A nomination that is unsuccessful is held over ing overlooked simply because they have not been for consideration in the following year, but after three nominated. I hope that all of us will do our best to years becomes inactive. see that those in our community who deserve recog- The process of taking a nomination submitted prior nition, receive it. to I May to presentation of the award at the Annual Meeting eight or nine months later may seem long and bureaucratic—and to some extent it is—but it is a pro- cess governed by volunteers from start to finish and one that leads to the best of those nominated being KEITH L. SEITTER recognized for their contributions. The process de- DEPUTY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MEET THE STAFF CARA GUALTIERJ Senior Copy Editor ara Gualtieri, senior copy editor in the AMS Pub- me well." She liked that the editorial assistant posi- lications Department, has had a long-standing tions in the Publications Department are designed Cinterest in the intricacies of language and meth- not only to provide support to other staff members ods and styles of communication. Naturally, publish- but as definite stepping stones toward copyediting ing seemed like an ideal career choice, and AMS and more. "To have gone from exclusively marking has turned out to be the perfect place to pursue her up references to supervising the copy-editor staff interests. within 2xh years is something that I could never have In terms of educational preparation for a publish- expected to happen in the larger corporate environ- ing career, Cara did not go the traditional route of ments in which I started my publishing career." majoring in English as an undergraduate; instead, she As senior copy editor, Cara's responsibilities in- received a bachelor's degree clude copyediting, specifically for Journal of Atmo- in geography from Clark spheric and Oceanic Technology and Journal of Hy- University in 1993. Coinci- drometeorology; checking all final page-proofs for dentally, as part of that each of the eight print journals; assigning duties; hir- course of study she took sev- ing; giving performance reviews; training; and gen- eral classes in meteorology, erally being available to the staff (and authors) as a which she found interesting trustworthy resource for questions of grammar and but did not pursue as a spe- AMS style and procedure. cialty. Subsequent graduate Cara finds it difficult to say which of these is most work centered around writ- appealing. "On a personal level, I particularly enjoy ing and publishing. the mental and physical aspects of copyediting a Before coming to AMS manuscript: employing proper grammar and consis- in 1999, Cara gained exten- tency of style, and the visceral pleasure of marking sive experience in several facets of publishing, includ- edits with a well-sharpened pencil." She also likes the ing marketing, manufacturing, and production, but idea of performing a service for authors by enhanc- only on books and with limited editorial responsibili- ing the appearance and readability of their manu- ties. "AMS offered me the chance to explore not only scripts. "As a nonprofit scientific publisher AMS has an entirely editorial position but a faster-paced pro- taken on the role of steward of the research presented duction schedule, both of which I thought would suit in the manuscripts submitted to our journals, and I 390 I BAI15- MARCH 2003 Unauthenticated | Downloaded 10/07/21 04:36 AM UTC 5 BE/CON think it's important to live up to that responsibility trains, and supervises, but also on the present and fu- by treating each manuscript as if it were as impor- ture of the Publications Department as a whole. "I tant to the staff at AMS as it is to the author(s) who like working for an organization that has a mission entrusted it to us." other than profit, and one that is responsive to the As for the supervisory aspects of her job, Cara needs and opinions of its members and staff, and to finds hiring and training to be the most rewarding. the demands of a changing communications land- She feels that hiring is a test of one's ability to judge scape. I think that this is an especially interesting and character, intelligence, compatibility, and potential dynamic time to work for the AMS Publications De- with only limited, and rather artificial, exposure to a partment—the transition to online editing and elec- candidate. Cara says that training is a different kind tronic publishing will be really exciting, and I look of challenge because not everyone learns and pro- forward to being involved in the process." cesses information in the same way. "As I continue Cara credits her positive experience and successes to be exposed to varying personality types, I expect thus far to the dedicated and talented group of edi- to learn more about myself and my skills as a torial assistants and copy editors that she works with teacher." every day, and to the advice and support from expe- After some initial skittishness with regard to ac- rienced people like Gary Gorski, journals production cepting a managerial role, Cara finds that it is grati- manager, Ken Heideman, publications director, and fying in that not only can she have a direct and posi- Barry Mohan, AMS controller.