Hi Cornell Weather,

A big welcome to our first years, and welcome back everyone else! It’s time to talk about chair positions for the upcoming academic year.

After careful consideration with the rest of the executive board, we’ve decided to shake up our approach to chair positions a little, so be sure to read this email in its entirety. We’ve decided to open four chair positions: Forecast Chair, Outreach Chair, Professional Development Chair, and First-Year Chair. Each chair position will likely go to one person, who will collaborate closely with the e-board to spearhead projects important to the club. We’ll describe in detail what each chair will do below, and how serving can help both you and the club.

We’re also including a google form that we expect everyone to fill out, whether they apply to be a chair or not, regarding which chair they want to work on club projects with. This form will be attached below.

Without further hand waving, here’s a description of each chair position:

Forecast Chair: If you want to practice forecasting in a low-stakes, educational environment in ways that reach thousands of people, while also beefing up the experience section of your resume, this could be the chair position for you. Responsibilities will include helping to coordinate daily forecasts that will be shown on the electronic screens all over Snee hall (and potentially campus, if all goes well), posting to the Cornell Weather Twitter account during significant weather events, and organizing the weekly forecast night. If you don’t have any forecasting experience, this is a great way to get your foot in the door. If you do, it’s an exceptional way to demonstrate those skills to future employers while sharpening your abilities with structured practice.

Outreach Chair: If you want to work on your organizational and communication skills in a way that will demonstrate interpersonal abilities on a resume, this might be your chair position. Responsibilities will include posting club information to our Instagram and Facebook, partnering with other campus organizations, planning social events like happy hours and group outings, designing merch, and helping to oversee outreach events like Ithaca weather 101, a visit to the local science center, and a table at homecoming. Hiring officials across meteorological sectors cite interpersonal skills as the single most important thing they look for when deciding who to employ, and this is a great way to showcase those skills.

Professional Development Chair: If you want to network with dozens of established alumni while improving organizational and leadership skills, setting yourself up to connect with career professionals in durable, personally useful ways, this could be a chair position for you. Responsibilities will include helping with the alumni weekend and the alumni buddy system (more info on that coming soon!), inviting alumni speakers, organizing internship panels with upperclassmen in the department, and helping plan certain aspects of conferences and trips. Making positive impressions on career professionals is a great way to land a future job, and this position will help you do that while simultaneously increasing marketable skills.

First-Year Chair: If you want to get involved with the leadership of Cornell’s only meteorology club as a freshman, this is your chance. We’re seeking a first year to serve as the main connection between the e-board and the freshmen cohort, which will allow the class to effectively find a community with Cornell Weather, something we consider super important. This chair position will help you to stand out when applying for internships and is a great way to become part of our leadership team now and in the future.

If you decide you want to apply for a chair position, shoot an email to Jacob (jf636@cornell.edu) and Julie (jac634@cornell.edu) with a few sentences about why you think the chair position would be good for you, and why you think you’d be good for it. Apps are due by August 15th. First years are encouraged to apply to all positions- I applied (unsuccessfully) for a position when I was entering my freshman year (:

We ask that every member of CCAMS help the chair of their choice with club projects. Whether you applied for a chair position or not, please fill out this google sheet with your interest.

We look forward to a wonderful year, folks!
Jacob and Julie