2020 Ottawa Congress Communication
*Update*
June 21, 2020
Dear CMOS members and CMOS Congress participants,
From May 26 to June 15, the 54th CMOS Congress was successfully held online! We are very pleased with this experiment, which included more than 900 registrants from the atmospheric, oceanographic, hydrological, climate, and related scientific communities.
We thank all of the session convenors, presenters, and attendees for making the Virtual Congress a great success on a very tight timeline. The convenors are to be congratulated for collectively organizing 16 sessions with 31 parts and about 180 presentations, covering a wide range of topics related to the theme of “Building Societal Resilience to Changing Weather, Climate, Oceans and Environment”. We also thank the Ottawa LAC and SPC for all the work they did for the 54th Congress. Indeed, the virtual presentations represented fully half of the original abstracts submitted before the cancellation of the in-person Congress.
Our annual Awards Ceremony also went virtual, with an online celebration held on June 11. Information about this year’s recipients can be found at https://www.cmos.ca/site/all_awards_2020.
We would greatly appreciate receiving feedback from all participants. Please take a few minutes to complete the brief survey at https://cmos.in1touch.org/survey/2020congress-online by June 30 . Your comments will help inform planning for the 55th CMOS Congress, which will likely have an online component. Next year’s Congress has the theme “Climate Change: Risk, Resilience, and Response” and will be held in Victoria, BC in June 2021.
Congress presenters are encouraged to submit their work for publication in the CMOS refereed scientific journal Atmosphere-Ocean. Submissions are also welcome for the CMOS Bulletin.
About two-thirds of the Virtual Congress registrants are not CMOS members – we invite you to consider joining our Society and getting involved in other CMOS activities. Information about membership can be found at https://www.cmos.ca/site/membershipinfo.
Thank-you again to all Virtual Congress participants!
Virtual Congress Ad Hoc Organizing Committee: Bruce Angle, Len Barrie, Denis Bourque, Gordon Griffith, Bob Jones, Paul Kushner, Qing Liao, Mike Manore, Gordon McBean, Chantal McCartin, Marek Stastna, Kimberly Strong (chair)
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May 16, 2020
We are pleased to announce that the online alternative to the 54th Congress of the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (CMOS) is going ahead from Tuesday, May 26 to Wednesday, June 10, 2020.
After receiving enthusiastic support for moving the Congress online, we worked with convenors to create an online forum consisting of 16 virtual sessions spread out over three weeks. These sessions cover a broad range of topics related to the Congress theme of “Building Societal Resilience to Changing Weather, Climate, Oceans and Environment”.
The Congress website has been reconfigured to support the new format, and the revised program and registration page can be found there. The sessions will be hosted by their convenors and will be live-streamed, primarily using Zoom. There are no fees associated with joining this online event, but all participants must register to obtain access to the virtual sessions.
We encourage you to share this announcement of online sessions with people who are not members of CMOS. There are many sessions of potential interest to the broad science and policy community.
In addition to the scientific forum, the CMOS Annual General Meeting is scheduled for May 25, 2020 from 2:00pm – 4:00pm EDT. All CMOS members are welcome to attend via this Webex link and the meeting documentation will be made available in this Google Drive folder. Because we are unable to hold the traditional CMOS Banquet, this year's recipients of CMOS prizes, awards, and fellowships will be announced at the AGM.
This online format is a new endeavour for CMOS, and we hope it will provide useful lessons for adding a virtual component to future Congresses. And although we will miss meeting old friends and new colleagues in Ottawa, we look forward to hearing about our community’s scientific results and seeing many of you online in a few weeks!
If you have any questions, please contact Gordon Griffith at exec-dir@cmos.ca
Best wishes,
Kimberly Strong, CMOS President
Bruce Angle, 2020 CMOS Congress LAC Chair
Leonard Barrie and Gordon McBean, 2020 CMOS Congress SPC Co-Chairs
Gordon Griffith, CMOS Executive Director
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April 23, 2020
Dear CMOS members and CMOS Congress participants,
We are writing to inform you about plans for an online alternative to the 54th Congress of the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (CMOS), which was to have been held in Ottawa from May 24-28, 2020 but has been cancelled due to COVID-19.
These plans are the result of discussions involving the Scientific Program Committee (SPC), the Local Arrangements Committee (LAC), session convenors, and CMOS Executive and Council.
The annual CMOS Congress is an important event for maintaining connections within our scientific community. We have decided to offer an online forum for some of the science represented by the 350 submitted abstracts. Moving to an online format will be a new endeavour for CMOS, so we will be keeping it simple.
This new format will involve some of the originally proposed sessions being held online over the three weeks from Monday May 25 to Friday June 12. The sessions will be hosted by those convenors who are able and willing to run them, and will be live-streamed using Zoom. Although Zoom is not accessible to federal government computers, federal government participants may phone in or work through their personal mobile devices to get access.
The SPC Co-Chairs will be contacting session convenors with additional details, and interested convenors will be responsible for contacting those who submitted abstracts to their session to determine who wishes to give a presentation. All abstracts that have been submitted to the Congress have been accepted. The Ottawa LAC will post the schedules and video conference details when the sessions have been determined.
There will be no abstract or registration fees associated with participating in this online event.
In addition to this scientific forum, the CMOS Annual General Meeting is scheduled for May 25, 2020 from:
11:00am – 1:00pm Pacific (Vancouver Island, BC Lower Mainland, BC Interior/Yukon)
12:00pm – 2:00pm Mountain (Alberta) & Central Standard (Saskatoon)
1:00pm – 3:00pm Central Daylight (Winnipeg)
2:00pm – 4:00pm EDT (Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, Rimouski)
3:00pm – 5:00pm Atlantic (New Brunswick, Halifax)
3:30pm – 5:30pm Newfoundland Daylight (Newfoundland)
This will be a virtual meeting. Connection details and the agenda will be distributed soon.
Other business meetings that normally take place during the Congress will also be scheduled for late May or early June. These will be held as virtual meetings with remote attendance enabled. We are also considering an alternative format for the annual Awards Ceremony.
A second component to the 54th Congress may involve a plenary on societal resilience and science of extreme events such as tornadoes in Ottawa in September on the two-year anniversary of the destructive Ottawa tornadoes; details regarding this event will follow at a later date.
While cancelling the Ottawa Congress was a great disappointment, we hope that this online scientific forum will enable our community to present and discuss their latest scientific results with friends and colleagues. We hope to see you online next month!
If you have any questions, please contact Gordon Griffith at exec-dir@cmos.ca .
Best wishes,
Kimberly Strong, CMOS President
Bruce Angle, 2020 CMOS Congress LAC Chair
Leonard Barrie and Gordon McBean, 2020 CMOS Congress SPC Co-Chairs
Gordon Griffith, CMOS Executive Director
2020 CMOS Congress website: https://www.cmos.ca/site/congress_home
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April 3, 2020
Dear CMOS members and CMOS Congress participants,
The 54th Congress of the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (CMOS), scheduled for May 24-28, 2020 in Ottawa, has been cancelled.
This decision was based on the recommendations of local, provincial, and federal governments and public health agencies regarding actions needed to slow the spread of COVID-19 and protect our communities. It was made in collaboration with the Local Arrangements Committee (LAC), the Scientific Program Committee (SPC), the CMOS Executive and Council, and the Delta Hotel.
All abstract submission fees and registration fees will be fully refunded through your original method of payment. This will be done automatically and no action is needed on your part. We will process refunds as quickly as possible, but please be patient as this may take several weeks to complete. We have confirmed with the Delta Hotel that all Congress-related hotel reservations have been cancelled. All payments made by exhibitors and sponsors will also be refunded.
We will communicate with you later about the scheduling of the 2020 CMOS Annual General Meeting and other business meetings that normally take place during the Congress. These will be held as virtual meetings with remote attendance enabled.
We are also considering options for an online alternative to the Congress this year. A separate communication about this will be sent to session convenors and those who submitted abstracts.
We are sincerely grateful to all members of the LAC, the SPC, and the Ottawa Centre for the tremendous effort that they have put into organizing the 2020 CMOS Congress. We also thank CMOS staff, as well as session convenors, invited speakers and panelists, presenters, exhibitors, and sponsors for their support of the 2020 Congress. It is deeply disappointing that we will not be able to enjoy what was shaping up to be a terrific meeting with an outstanding scientific program.
However, organization is already well underway for the 2021 CMOS Congress, which will be held in Victoria from June 6-10. Please mark your calendars. We look forward to connecting with many of you there next year.
If you have any questions, please contact Gordon Griffith at exec-dir@cmos.ca.
We appreciate your understanding and flexibility as we wind down plans for the Congress. Meanwhile, please look after yourself, and be supportive of others as we all adapt to new challenges at home and at work in these uncertain times.
Best wishes,
Kimberly Strong, CMOS President
Bruce Angle, 2020 CMOS Congress LAC Chair
Leonard Barrie and Gordon McBean, 2020 CMOS Congress SPC Co-Chairs
Gordon Griffith, CMOS Executive Director
2020 CMOS Congress website: https://www.cmos.ca/site/congress_home
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March 22, 2020
Dear CMOS members and CMOS Congress participants,
We would like to give you a brief update regarding the CMOS Congress in Ottawa, which is scheduled for May 24-28, 2020. The Chairs of the Local Arrangements Committee (LAC) and the Scientific Program Committee (SPC), along with the CMOS Executive, continue to monitor the rapidly evolving COVID-19 situation on a daily basis.
We are currently evaluating all options for the Congress. In the meantime we are pausing registration for several weeks while we wait to see what further government actions are taken.
We will inform CMOS membership and Congress participants of any changes, and updates will be posted on the CMOS Congress website. The health and safety of our friends, colleagues, and communities remain our top priority.
We will communicate with you later about the scheduling of the 2020 CMOS Annual General Meeting and other business meetings that normally take place during the Congress. Remote attendance will be enabled, as it was last year.
For further information see:
Ontario Ministry of Health
Public Health Ontario
Public Health Agency of Canada
World Health Organization
Government of Canada COVID-19 Site
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada
Kimberly Strong, CMOS President
Bruce Angle, 2020 CMOS Congress LAC Chair
Leonard Barrie and Gordon McBean, 2020 CMOS Congress SPC Co-Chairs
Gordon Griffith, CMOS Executive Director
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March 9, 2020
Dear CMOS members and CMOS Congress participants,
As concern about the COVID-19 virus is increasing and some international scientific conferences are being cancelled, you may be wondering about the status of the CMOS Congress in Ottawa, which is scheduled for May 24-28, 2020.
At this time, the CMOS Congress is still scheduled to proceed as planned. The Chairs of the Local Arrangements Committee (LAC) and the Scientific Program Committee (SPC), along with the CMOS Executive, will continue to monitor the situation.
If anything changes, we will inform CMOS membership and Congress participants. We will also post updates on the CMOS Congress website.
For further information see:
Ontario Ministry of Health
Public Health Ontario
Public Health Agency of Canada
World Health Organization
Government of Canada Travel Advice (COVID-19)
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada
Kimberly Strong, CMOS President
Bruce Angle, 2020 CMOS Congress LAC Chair
Leonard Barrie and Gordon McBean, 2020 CMOS Congress SPC Co-Chairs
Gordon Griffith, CMOS Executive Director
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