1.1 Opening of the meeting (agenda item 1(a))
1.1.2 The Third Meeting of the Programme Committee for the International South Atlantic Buoy Programme was opened by Admiral Fernando Di‚gues, Director of Hydrography and Navigation, at 10:00 on Tuesday 15 October 1996. The meeting took place in the Hydrographic Office, Directoria de Hidrografia e Navegacao, Niteroi City, Guanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro state. Annex 1 refers to the opening address of Admiral Di‚gues. The Chairman thanked Admiral Di‚gues for his kind words and proceeded to welcome on behalf of the Steering Committee all the participants. He expressed the hope that the deliberation will be fruitful and that all the participants will leave the meeting with a feeling of accomplishment.
1.2 Adoption of the agenda (agenda item 1(b))
1.2.1 The meeting adopted its agenda (Annex 2) after amendments.
1.3 Working arrangements (agenda item 1(c)).
1.3.1 The meeting agreed on its hours of work and other arrangements for the session.
2. REPORTS (agenda item 2)
2.1 Chairman's report (agenda item 2(a)). The Chairman referred the meeting to ISABP-3/DOC 3 i.e. his written report (Annex 3). He emphasised that the programme is participation driven, and that all participants should participate freely during the meeting. His report was then read and discussed.
2.2 Programmeme Coordinators report (agenda item 2(b)). The Programmeme Co-ordinator referred the meeting to his written report ISABP-3/DOC 4 (Annex 4). The programmeme coordinator reviewed the performance and effectiveness of the programme over the past year. He also emphasised the fact that the programme depends on the input of participants for its success. His report was discussed, while certain items were earmarked for later revisit and thorough discussion.
3. ACTIVITIES AND FUTURE PLANS (agenda item 3)
3.1 Reports from Organizations and Institutions (agenda item 3(a)) The Chairman suggested that this agenda item be used by participants to introduce themselves and also to describe their present and future activities where applicable. Annex 5 is a summary of the participants contributions.
3.2 Listing of possible contribution (agenda item 3(b)) The PC circulated a form to be completed by participants indicating possible contributions to the ISABP. The idea being that participants list their contributions during the meeting and at a later stage ie. Agenda item 7.1(c) the list will be discussed and a deployment strategy be determined. Tasks and responsibilities will determined under agenda item 7.1(d).
4. REVIEW OF THE OBJECTIVES, OPERATING PRINCIPLES AND DATA ARCHIVING 4.1 Objectives
(a) The chairman referred the meeting to working document. ISABP-3/DOC 5.
(b) Programmeme Principles The chairman referred the meeting to working document ISABP-3/DOC 6.
(c) Data Archiving The chairman referred the meeting to working document ISABP-3/DOC 7 The programmeme objectives, principles and data archiving were reviewed and minor alteration were made. The amended documents are included as Annex 7, 8 and 9. At this juncture of the meeting the chairman referred to the possible ISABP brochure. He requested participants to study the draft with the intention of discussing it the next day under agenda item 7.1(a).
5. TECHNICAL PRESENTATIONS
5.1 Technical presentations were made by INPE, NDBC, ARGOS, GOOS and the DBCP representatives. The chairman thanked the individuals for their contributions. An interesting discussion evolved around GOOS/ISABP co-operation. The papers read are included as Annex 10 to 14.
6. ADMINISTRATIVE ASPECTS
6.1(a) Election of Intercessional Steering Committee The Vice Chairman of the DBCP on request took over as chairman in order to conduct the election of intercessional steering committee. He explained the programme principles in this regard and subsequently asked for nominations. The following participants were duly unanimously elected as the intercessional steering committee:
6.1(b) Appointment of Programmeme Coordinator
In accordance with programme principles Mr. Eugene Burger was re-appointed as programme coordinator.
7. GENERAL
7.1(a) Discussion of a possible ISABP brochure
The chairman referred to the success of the programmeme thus far. He made the point that notwithstanding the success there will always be room for improvement. Improvement could be accomplished by canvassing more participants and to also bring the ISABP under the attention of all the possible users of the data. For this reason therefore the possibility of a brochure was considered. He referred the meeting to working document. ISABP-3/DOC 8.
The Brochure was discussed by the meeting and changes were made to the draft copy. The representative from Brazil offered to have the brochure printed by the DHN. The offer from the representatives from Argentina and Brazil to translate the document into Spanish and Portuguese was respectively accepted.
7.1(b) Discussion of the Programmeme Co-ordinators quarterly reports. The Chairman asked the participants if they are satisfied with the contents of the report. The DBCP Vice Chairman suggested that some indication of the usage of the buoy data by eg. numerical models be included in the report. He offered to supply this information to the PC on a timely basis. The committee again thanked the PC for the trouble he takes every 3 months. The PC then responded by thanking those who contribute to the success of the reports. He also reiterated that contributions was vitally important for the success of the report.
7.1 (c) Discussion of the list of possible contributions. The chairman referred to the list compiled under agenda item 3(b) and asked the Programmeme Co-ordinator to take the meeting through the contents of this list. The meeting discussed the list and concluded that the programmeme is off to a good start for the 1996/97 operational year (Annex 15).
7.1(d) Discussion of tasks and responsibilities which emanated from the meeting. The chairman explained that as stated in the programmeme principles the ISABP is a participant driven programmeme and therefore the participants will largely determine the success. A list of tasks and responsibilities was initiated by the PC. Every participant was offered the opportunity to add to the list in his/her own time. All the inputs was eventually combined and the result in Annex 16 to this report. The Chairman added that with all the tasks and responsibilities in place the participants only had to keep in touch with one another and the PC in order for the plans to materialise.
8. DATE AND VENUE OF THE NEXT MEETING
8.1 After a lengthy discussion the meeting decided that a suitable venue for the next meeting would be the Caribbean Meteorological Service, or alternatively AOML Miami. It was decided that one day before the next meeting would be set aside for the training of possible new participants in buoy matters. A tentative date for the next meeting would be from 9 to 11 September 1997.
9. ADOPTION OF THE MEETING REPORT
The draft report which was a combined effort by various participants was reviewed and after some changes, adopted by the meeting. The Chairman expressed the hope that between himself and the PC they would able to disseminate the final version not later than December 1996.
10. CLOSURE OF THE MEETING
The Chairman afforded every participant the opportunity to summarise his or her feeling regarding the success of the meeting. All the participants expressed their satisfaction with the accomplishments of the meeting and also referred to the cohesion and cooperation that came out of the three day meeting. The meeting was subsequently closed on 17 October during lunch presented by Admiral Fernando Di‚gues in the officers mess and a photo session on the premises of DHN.