Reflections for the 20th Year of Monthly Virtual Informal Regional Focus Group Sessions

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites (CGMS) has supported a Virtual Laboratory for Education and Training (VLab) since 2000. One of the training activities promoted early on was conducting regular virtual sessions to continue and expand upon formal in-person training. For WMO Regional Associations III and IV in the Americas and the Caribbean, these were named Regional Focus Group (RFG) Sessions. They began in 2004 and took the form of monthly bi-lingual (English and Spanish) climate and weather discussions. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), its Cooperative Institutes, and WMO Regional Training Centers of Excellence (CoEs) coordinated the activities. The design of the sessions reinforced the retrieval, understand, and practice aspects of the science of learning and continued to connect instructors, researchers, forecasters, and students after the formal training. The themes focused on using geostationary and low earth orbiting satellite imagery and products to observe and interpret climate and weather patterns, hurricanes, severe weather, flooding, volcanic eruptions, and other significant events.

In 2019, after 15 years of activity, we paused to reflect on our activities and realized we had a community of practice. As a result, we added focus areas to 1) actively encourage continuing professional development, 2) look into how to expand efforts to interact with other related disciplines, and 3) promote the “weather ready nations” perspective of better communicating the forecast to partners and users. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Because of our extensive experience, we were able to adapt to a rapidly expanding audience and continue to offer the regular RFG sessions, additional single topic sessions, and convert in-person workshops to the virtual environment. We thrived. It had not always been this way, there were many years when we struggled to attract new participants. In retrospect, the successes highlight the importance of having a foundation of trust, collaboration, and a community of support. Like many other organizations, we realize that hybrid and virtual events are beneficial and here to stay.

We are now in the post pandemic phase and attendance for the informal RFG sessions remain higher than pre-pandemic. Why is this so? In this presentation, we reflect on the content and flow of the sessions, the people and the networks they are part of, the importance of a welcoming environment, and plenty of patience. We will highlight small steps we took to improve training impact and potential ways we can demonstrate the impact.