SKYWARN ADVANCED CERTIFICATES PAID FOR OUT OF MY OWN POCKET
Here are some emails relating to that...
From: Angela Enyedi
Sent: Tuesday, September 14, 2004 04:53 AM
To: Todd L. Sherman / KB4MHH
Subject: Spotter Certificates
Hey Todd,
How are you doing in the aftermath of Frances? Hope you and yours
are doing well and that your home and community did not suffer much
damage overall.
I have some disappointing news regarding the long-awaited advanced
certificates; we won't be able to mail any out until, the earliest, next
FY. I was told that there is little left in our budget to produce let
alone mail out the certificates--I am very sorry. I have had spotter
cards ready to go for about almost 2 months now, and I am going to see
if I can at least get permission to mail them. If you get any queries
or "the NWS forgot about me" remarks, please extend my apologies and, if
you want, my perhaps lame, but truthful, explanation.
On another note...things are looking better for us wrt Ivan.
Sustained winds right now look like they'll be up to 30 mph,
with higher gusts Wed night and Thursday...mainly along and west of
I-75. Despite the weaker winds (compared to Frances), I am still
cautioning folks about the extremely saturated ground and consequently
weak tree root structures; it won't take much wind for trees to be
uprooted this time around.
Well, better get back to more busy work. Gotta update some forecast
procedures.
Take care,
--Angie
From: Todd L. Sherman / KB4MHH
Sent: Monday, September 20, 2004 10:06 PM
To: Angie Enyedi
Subject: Spotter ID Cards
Hi Angie,
Regarding those cards that pertain to Alachua Co., I have someone who has to
head up to Jax soon and he volunteered to actually pick up the Alachua Co.
cards and bring them back here if that would help. That way, you'd only have
to mail the other out-of-county cards which would be far less in number by
comparison.
All we'd have to then do down here would be to announce that we have them and
set up a meeting date to distribute them and tell people to come and get them.
How bout the certificates? Is the postage the problem there, too? or is it
in printing them? If not, maybe we can do the same thing...pick em up and
distribute them down here ourselves?
What-think?
Take care,
Todd
From: Todd L. Sherman / KB4MHH
Sent: Monday, September 20, 2004 10:10 PM
To: Angie Enyedi
Subject: Re: Spotter ID Cards
Heh. :) Another spotter down here wondered about the possibility of
"donating." (i.e., paying for the cost)
...Another idea to run by your supers. :)
Todd
From: Angela Enyedi
Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 2004 11:28 AM
To: Todd L. Sherman / KB4MHH
Subject: Re: Spotter ID Cards
Attachments: angela.enyedi.vcf
Hey Todd!
If someone could pick up the cards (and maybe some certificates...I am still
working on that issue) that would save us a ton of $$ in postage. I think in
the future, we'll make certificates in advance of the talk, then have some
blank ones on sites that I can just write people's name on. I feel so bad for
those folks who have been waiting patiently for their tangible recognition.
I will be here this week, and will get a packet ready for whomever can pick
them up. Just let me know a date.
How are you and yours in the aftermath? I hope well.
Take care,
Angie
From: Todd L. Sherman / KB4MHH
Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 2004 12:07 PM
To: Angela Enyedi
Subject: RE: Spotter ID Cards
> If someone could pick up the cards (and maybe some certificates...I am still
> working on that issue) that would save us a ton of $$ in postage. I think in
> the future, we'll make certificates in advance of the talk, then have some blank
> ones on sites that I can just write people's name on. I feel so bad for those
> folks who have been waiting patiently for their tangible recognition.
(sigh!) I apologize though, because that was your original idea in the first
place, and then I suggested you didn't do that because I was thinking of you
sitting there like William Shatner all night signing "autographs" and not
getting home until 1am or something...which would have made me feel bad. :(
But now...
Well, pfbt! What are we talking about? It's not EITHER of our faults. It's
this thing called an "empty budget pot." :)
> I will be here this week, and will get a packet ready for whomever can pick them
> up. Just let me know a date.
Okay. I'll try to find out when Jim will be stopping by.
[...]
> How are you and yours in the aftermath? I hope well.
Doing ok. Nothing major happened to me personally. :) There were lots of
trees down around town and lots of areas flooded, last week, though.
REALLY worried about Alisa, now. Pensacola is incommunicado. Word is by
media. No comms ability there, right now. Every building at Pensacola NAS was
damaged. Max winds there was supposedly 115mph I'm told; but unknown where
that figure comes from. Their obs station is down. Power out. Everyone on
boil water alert. No word from Alisa since it hit. (sigh!)
Todd
After receiving the certificates and cards, I matched them up together and
placed them all in manilla envelopes and mailed them out to the addreses the
spotters indicated in the class attendance rosters. Some, Angie got back
because a few of the addresses left were illegible and our interpretation of
what was handwritten was thus incorrect. Some were incorrect or even false
because some people were actually worrried about all of that "spam" mail that
everybody knows the government sends out. (pauses; shakes head) And still
yet, some didn't get anything because they had left deliberately incomplete
or even completely missing addresses. Would you believe that these
people complained because they hadn't received their stuff either?
Of the ones that Angie got back, she sent them back to me and we tried again,
but they only came back again. From this and my job at the Census Bureau I
can tell you for an experienced fact that there are way too many people out
there who have far too many hugely unnatural fears about our government and
that they believe in the most ridiculous of things; and because of this people
end up causing more problems for themselves, and for others, than is really
necessary.
I ended up having to repeat this again for the 2005 class. After that, they
switched to online certificates that the spotters themselves had to print out
at home after entering a password...to save on postage and printing costs.