Website Updates
( 4 items )
Updates on this website and coming attractions:
The initial launch of this site features a message Forum, Quips and Tips, The File Cabinet and Links to a few other websites. The File Cabinet is the entry point for several categories including - Unit by Unit, My Big Day and My Road to Kansas City - each of those sections has an explanatory paragraph or two when you click on File Cabinet.
Most sections of the message forum are viewable to all who visit the site with the exception of The Break Room - that section deals more with people of the Center and is "members-only". If you don't see the Break Room when in the Forum - it simply means you're not yet signed in to the Forum.
At launch the only section requiring registration and login is the Message Forum. The Forum is currently viewable by all who reach the website but registration is required to post to the Forum and to view the Break Room entries. Forum membership is open to all those who've worked in or with the Kansas City Forecast Center, their family members and others who have a sincere interest in the work and history of the Center. Indeed all past and present NWS employees anywhere in the world are invited to register.
This site is not affiliated with AWC, SPC, the National Weather Service or any organization above the NWS on an organization chart. It's an independent site created in late 2006 and launched on January 1st, 2007 to collect and preserve the personal history of the Kansas city operational forecast offices.
There will be a gentle effort to keep messages and other articles on the core topic. From experience on other Internet boards a site with a specific focus best serves those who visit and take part in the site.
Features to be added as development continues:
- Gallery - a repository for images from personal collections.
- Rosters - unit rosers. No central source - this'll depend on our collective memory
- The ABCs - letters we used letters, lots and lots of letters. An acronym dictionary
- ???? - this site will evolve and new categories can be added as suggested by site visitors.
I'd like to acknowledge three people who've given impetus to this project: Don Whitman, Joe Audsley and Steve Corfidi.
Don for years has been the focal point for Kansas City and Central Region retiree communicatins. He relays not only the "hearts and flowers" material about the retiree commmunity but also serves as a gathering and relay point for recollections of our past endeavors, big days and even images from the past.
Don's "Retiree Net" brought forth an excellent article by Joe Audsley written in May 2005 with his personal recollections of the 5/20/57 Ruskin Heights tornado outbreak here in Kansas City.
That article, now available on this site, provided the germ on an idea - really the inspiration for this site. The "thinking part" festered for several months and site prep began in earnest in the fall of 2006.
The third acknowledgment goes to Steve Corfidi, SELS/SPC Lead Forecaster now in Norman. Steve authored two SELS/SPC history articles available online and linked via our LINKS section. Steve's papers on SELS/NSSFC/SPC history provide a scholarly look at the people and programs associated with severe weather forecasting from the 1800s to the present time and his work was a very useful reference in setting up this site. Steve also provided me with many of the photos from the SPC stash that liven up the site. More will be available by the gallery yet to come.
One more Kudo for assistance in setting up this website: Jim Howard in Miami. We've collaborated by email and IM over the past several weeks. There was a learning curve for both of us and I appreciate Jim's assistance.
We will add more from the Aviation side (my side) of the house in futue months and the unofficial historian for Kansas City aviation history has been Carolyn Kloth of AWC. In the future we'll have a report on KC Aviation History edited by Carolyn with contributions by Roy Darrah and RJW online in PDF format.
Finally - thanks in advance to all of you. By visiting the site you share in the rich history of
the Kansas City forecast offices. This site is mostly a framwork at present - awaiting your contributions. Volunteer or await the draft just as I did in 1966.
One last word to all who pass this way: experiment, browse all sections and take part by registering and posting to the Forum. This is a participatory site and content will come from users. It's envisioned that over time you will write the infomal, personal history of the Kansas City Forecast offices bit by bit via this website.
And remember -"You can't hurt anything - it takes the Administrator to really mess things up" so have at it.
Have a happy 2007 - check back from time to time and start putting it down in writing.
Dick Williams
12-31-06
For techies this site operates under Joomla! 1.0.12 -a free open source Content Management System or CMS package. The Forum is from Simple Machine Forum or SMF using the SlickPro:Graphite theme and as installed here operates independently from Joomla but displays within a Joomla frame or wrapper. The hosting company is ICD Soft with servers in Hong Kong and Boston: www.icdsoft.com. Setup was done in November and December 2006 - the site was launched on January 1st, 2007.
