GOOS News Flash # 2

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Dear GOOS Colleagues,

The invitation letter to Member States of the IOC and Members of WMO to attend I-GOOS-VI on March 10-14 2003, at UNESCO HQ in Paris, is on the GOOS web site at:

http://ioc.unesco.org/goos/ig6/IOC_WMO_UNEP_CL2048.pdf

Hard copies of the letter will be mailed to those same contact points in due course.

The invitation letter will be available in due course in Spanish, Russian, and French, once the translation process is complete.

The provisional and annotated agendas for the meeting may be found on the GOOS web site at:

http://ioc.unesco.org/goos/ig6/IG6_doclst.htm

Translations will be available in due course.

Please note that many of the documents for the meeting are not yet available. We hope to be placing them on the documents list for you to access electronically during the period before the meeting, and will provide a reminder about this from time to time.

We would appreciate it if, before the meeting, a statement on the national situation regarding GOOS is presented to us by each country by using the template found on the GOOS web site at:

http://ioc.unesco.org/goos/ig6/Nat_%20Annual_%20Rep_Template.pdf

If I-GOOS is to be fully effective, then the attendees at its meetings will need to have in depth knowledge of GOOS, and preferably be people who are actively engaged in GOOS activities. We sincerely trust that the IOC and WMO contact points to whom the letter is addressed will work very closely with their national GOOS Focal Points to ensure that the national representatives who attend the meeting comprehensively represent the national GOOS activities and interests. In order to ensure that GOOS develops as an integrated and comprehensive whole it is highly desirable that national representatives at I-GOOS-VI be from both oceanographic agencies and from those meteorological agencies dealing with marine meteorology, operational oceanography, and forecasting based on marine data. Recognising that GOOS covers all aspects of observation of the sea and its contents, where it is possible we also welcome the attendance of the representatives of national agencies dealing with fisheries and environmental matters, since these too form part of the spectrum of the activities covered by GOOS.

This letter is also to be taken as an invitation to Chairs of GOOS Regional Alliances to attend the meeting, again with the objective of ensuring that GOOS develops as an integrated and coherent whole. Personalised invitation letters can be provided if needed for visa purposes.

In case there is some remote chance that the IOC and WMO contact points may not know who the national GOOS contact points are, they may be found on the GOOS web site at:

http://ioc.unesco.org/goos/MS/General/nat_GOOS_contacts.htm

Should you find this list not to be up to date, please do let us know right away.

I look forward to hearing from you

With every good wish

Colin Summerhayes,
Director, GOOS Project Office