Message from MOTN President, Cheryl Zimmerman

Tuesday December 26, 2008
 
Dear MOTN members and friends,

It has been an active year for MOTN. Our thanks go out to the folks at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for hosting our annual dinner back in May. It was a pleasure and an honor to meet with the new director, Dr. Susan Avery. The very busy Networking Cubed event held at UMass Dartmouth's School for Marine Science and Technology was a terrific event, the café style meal and the upstairs hospitality were enjoyed by all! We held a very interesting event at Roger Williams University where Intellectual Property was addressed by presented by Matt Reece from Pepe & Hazard,....a topic that will come up again and again. Finally, the briefing we received by Dr. Malcolm Spaulding of the URI Center for Ocean Engineering and Underwater Technology (COEUT), Sam De Bow, COE for Research in Offshore Renewable Energy and the technologies being developed in the Ocean Engineering  Department were unforgettable.
 
All of these interesting events could not happen without the enthusiastic support of our board members, our members and all of our friends. Thank you so much for stepping up and please don't be shy to offer your ideas. We are planning a full calendar of informational and networking events for the coming months. Please let me know if you would like to host and/or organize something.
 
MOTN has been represented by Mike Mathewson of McLane Research labs and Maggie Merrill of Marine Marketing Services at several meetings of the Massachusetts Ocean Partnership Fund. MOTN is only one of many stakeholder organizations following this groundbreaking policy formation. MOTN members have received notice of the Requests for Qualifications to bid on several of those projects. Their web site is up to date and full of useful information. http://www.massoceanpartnership.org/

I have been representing MOTN on the newly formed NERACOOS board for Coastal Ocean Observing Systems. One of the primary responsibilities of NERACOOS is to prioritize and appropriately allocate federal funding from NOAA to entities in the region for ocean observing and product development. More information and opportunities will be presented as the information becomes available.

(See below for the Executive Director position announcement).
 
Membership Renewals: Coming in January the membership renewals will be sent out along with invoices. Please be sure to pass those along to the appropriate person at your organization to ensure timely payment. www.motn.org
 
Jobs Available! In the very unsettling economic environment, there are some very promising positions opening up. MOTN.org has been posting available jobs and resumes of job seekers.  Our aim is to connect people with jobs and vise versa.
 
NERACOOS Executive Director: http://www.motn.org/NERACOOS_Exec_Dir_Announcement_FINAL_Dec_22_2008.pdf

Other positions can be seen at the Careers section of the MOTN web site: http://www.motn.org
 
2008 has been a great year for MOTN. I look forward to what 2009 has to offer.
 
Yours Truly, Cheryl M. Zimmerman, President MOTN, CEO FarSounder, Inc.