June 6, 2018

Hello Coast Survey,

I’m pleased to have the opportunity to guest pen this week’s newsletter and tell you how much I appreciate the warm welcomes I received from you. Since arriving in Coast Survey last December, I’ve enjoyed getting to know many of you as well as the steep learning curve to fully understand all of the hard work that goes into each of our products and services.

In the front office we have a strong team who supports many of Coast Survey’s priorities by working closely with each division as well as with other programs within NOAA and our external partners. One of the ways we work with external partners is through the Hydrographic Services Review Panel (HSRP) Federal Advisory Committee (FAC). As director of the Office of Coast Survey, Rear Adm. Smith is the Designated Federal Official (DFO) and I serve as the Alternate DFO. After having just completed Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) training, I thought it important to highlight HSRP's value to Coast Survey as many of you may have heard of it, but may not know what it is or why it is exists.

The Secretary of Commerce established the HSRP FAC as directed by the Hydrographic Services Improvement Act (HSIA) Amendments of 2002. Over the course of the last 15 years, HSRP has advised the under secretary for oceans and atmosphere and the NOAA administrator on matters related to the responsibilities and authorities within the HSIA on varying topics such as NOAA hydrographic survey priorities, technologies relating to operations, research and development, and acquisition and dissemination of data and information, among others. The HSRP provided a series of reports, issues papers, and more than 231 recommendations to the NOAA administrator.

The HSRP meets biannually and consists of 15 voting members. The second public meeting of the year will be held in Juneau, Alaska, at the end of August and you can listen in via webinar. It’s also time to evaluate new members as several members will be rotating off at the end of the year. For more information on HSRP, please contact Lynne Mersfelder-Lewis, who is now part of the Coast Survey front office staff, and is the program manager for HSRP.

Thanks for all that you do each and every day,