NASA Science Mission Directorate EPO Update February 15, 2008

Dear EPO Community;

As you all know, the Science Mission Directorate (SMD) has convened an Education and Public
Outreach Management Operations Working Group (E/PO MOWG) to provide input on a wide variety of
issues facing SMD E/PO.

Please feel free to attend the MOWG telecons.

Weekly on Thursdays — 11:30 am EST
TELECPHONE NUMBER : 800-857-0950
PARTICIPANT PASSCODE : 88925

Due to the short time available for discussion during each telecon, we must ask non-MOWG members
who are not presenting, to participate in an observer (listen only) mode. Please send me your views
via email and I will do my best to collate and incorporate all input at the relevant time.

As for the MOWG, the work is just beginning! The members will be gathering input over the next
couple of weeks from many sources. It’s going to be an exciting and busy time, and we are hoping
that we can count on your help as we wade through some of the issues on the table. The MOWG is not
going to be effective without you! Collectively, you all have a tremendous amount of background and
experience within SMD that the MOWG needs to be able to draw upon.

The panel members represent all four divisions for the Science Mission Directorate: Astrophysics,
Earth Science, Heliophysics, and Planetary Science. Each member has been tasked to collected
information from the various venues of Education and Public Outreach: active scientists, Higher
Education, K-12 Formal, and Informal Education. The assignments are as follow:

We would like to collect input from you on a wide variety of issues facing SMD E/PO. The driver
for the fired up timescale below are the needs to modify ROSES to include the replacement for
supplemental grants and/or the need to create new for the community on other issues.

• What are the strengths and successes of the SMD EPO Program?
• Where would you like to see improvement?
• What is the support you have received from the Forums?
• What are the interactions you have with SMD Missions EPO?

During the last telecom, the MOWG has determined their timeline for immediate discussions and it is as follows:

21 February : Discussions on how to increase scientist involvement in Outreach
28 February : Discussions on the next call for EPOESS grants
7-8 March : Discussions on the need for and options for a Directorate Support Group
Post-March 7th : Higher Education, Other issues
April 30th : Present Findings to SMD

Longer term issues will be discussed as needed after this time period as well.

We appreciate your input. This work will result in a forward looking SMD EPO Program!

Sincerely,
Emily and Yvonne