April 27th Town Hall Will Be Streamed Live Tonight

Tonight, a very special Town Hall meeting will be held in conjunction with the National Weather Association Annual Meeting. Alagasco is the underwriting sponsor for the audience response technology. We thank them for this generous donation that made the event possible.

The NWA members will listen to real Alabama folks talking about their perception, interpretation, personalization and reaction to severe weather warnings.

The goal will be to gather data from everyday people from all walks of life that can be used to enhance our understanding about how people process information during severe weather events in order to make decisions about their safety.

The participants signed up several weeks ago and received their official invitations last week. Over 100 of them will be present tonight. They will be armed with remote clickers that will allow them to answer a series of nearly 40 questions designed by social scientists, who are experts in gathering this information.

It will be questions like:

* How do you typically receive your warnings while you are awake?
* When did you become aware that severe weather was being forecast for Wednesday 4/27?
* Do you rely on sirens to make you aware of a severe weather threat?

Ten of the folks have been specially chosen to be part of a focus group on the stage during the event. These folks will actually respond verbally to some of the key questions.

There will also be a panel of experts that will be able to provide color commentary on some of the responses as well.

If you did not apply and did not receive an official invitation, you won’t be able to attend the session since it is limited to invited participants and NWA members. But Aliant Bank has made it possible for you to attend virtually!

The Ustream Town Hall Link is:
https://www.ustream.tv/channel/nwa-2011-town-hall

At 6:45, Dr. John Scala, the moderator, will take the stage.  He will lead the audience through an exercise to familiarize them with the clickers.

At 7:00, Dr. Scala will introduce the event.  You will be recognized and asked to say who you are and what you do. He will will recognize the two social scientists, Laura Myers and Kim Klockow, the experts and the focus group. The event will get rolling a few minutes after 7 p.m.
 
This event is all about listening to the end user in order to gather research that will help reduce future death tolls from tornadoes. The NWA audience will actually use this information tomorrow in a panel discussion at 1:30 p.m.

Alabama Power is the major underwriting sponsor for the NWA Annual Meeting in Birmingham. Without the generous support of all our sponsors, the NWA meeting would not have been possible.

Category: Hodgepodge, Severe Weather