The January Institute of Navigation Washington Section meeting was held at the Russell Senate Office Building and was attended by 17 people. 13 members of the Section were joined by 3 visitors and a guest speaker.

6:00 pm
The meeting started with a social hour.

6:30 pm
Introduction and Comments

Introductory remarks were given by the incoming Congressional Fellow, Tom McCaskle, who has recently retired from NRL. The speaker was introduced by outgoing Congressional Fellow, Clark Cohen.

Speaker:
David Lyles addressed the legislative process, work and the impact of Congressional staffers, and discussed generally some of his experiences in 25+ years as a staffer, including his most recent significant role as senior staffer for the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC). He graced us with an extensive question and answer period. In several cases, the current state of the GPS constellation was mentioned by various questioners, and other comments/concerns about GPS, and Mr. Lyles indicated he was planning to look into the situation. It was a very informative presentation and an interesting Q&A period.

7:30 pm Business Meeting

Jim Doherty discussed the importance of getting the word out the Executive Fellow program which is newly approved by the ION Council. The Executive Fellow is similar to Congressional Fellow. The application deadline for both Fellow programs is March 31, 2003 and service begins in the 2004 calendar year.

Scholarships Chair, Terry McGurn, passed out a notes sheet describing issues to consider in the development of a scholarship program. The Scholarship Committee will probably schedule a separate meeting in the near future. More information is likely to be presented in upcoming meetings. Members who would like to be involved should contact Terry McGurn (tjmgps@msn.com) or one of the Section officers. Jim Doherty will get a copy of the Rocky Mountain Section's scholarship proposal and make it available to the Scholarship Committee.

Jim Doherty is also planning to obtain some of the ION handouts and fact sheets on the Congressional and Executive Fellows programs. All ION members can use the handouts to help recruit candidates for these programs.

9:00
Meeting adjourned.