The meeting was held in Miami, USA and held in the morning for those SG members who attended the State of the Arctic Conference. An annotated agenda was circulated prior to the meeting giving an opportunity to send written comments.

Co-chairs: John Calder, AMAP and David Hik, IASC

Participants:

Canada: Helen Joseph
Iceland: Halldor Johansson
Russia: Igor Ashik
Sweden: Terry Callaghan (alternate)
USA: Martin Jeffries, Peter Murdoch
Aleut International Association: Victoria Gofman
ICC: Eva Kruemmel
RAIPON: Alona Yefimenko
CAFF/CBMP: Mike Gill
SDWG: Joan Nymand Larsen
WMO: Barry Goodison
SAON Secretariat: Volker Rachold, Lars-Otto Reiersen, Odd Rogne
Observer: Gillian Lichota, NOAA

1: Expected workshop outcomes

As all workshop chairs and rapporteurs attended, the intention was to discuss and agree on how the various break-out groups should be run and common issues that should be addressed. The five possible issues in the annotated agenda were agreed and to be adapted according to the circumstances in each group.

Other issues mentioned in the discussion:
- Why is SAON needed?
- How to make SAON happen?
- Which gaps exist?
- Community-based monitoring.

2: Debrief on meeting with ELOKA on community based monitoring

David Hik presented the outcome of his meeting with ELOKA (Exchange for Local Observations and Knowledge of the Arctic) and he had also circulated a briefing paper:
'Exchanging and Sharing Knowledge: Toward an International Network Supporting Community-Based Monitoring and Local/Traditional Knowledge of the Arctic'.
This paper is attached to these Minutes for more detailed information.

It was noted that this presentation should be made available to the Community-Based Monitoring Group (CAFF/ICC), and actions and proposals suggested in the paper should be considered with a view to a circum-arctic network.

Other comments:
- Locals as samplers/observers for scientific research (all year)
- Inventory of local observations
- Who are the customers (users)?
- What added value can SAON bring to it?

3: Plans for a face-to-face meeting

The need for SAON SG members to meet has been argued earlier, as a hasty teleconference among people who do not know each other will give fewer outcomes. A main issue for this meeting could be the discussion on 'institutional framework'; e.g. how SAON should be effectively organized; and main tasks.

Conclusion: 25-26 May in Copenhagen

4: Plans for the data management meeting in June

The co-chairs had last autumn a meeting with the co-chairs of the IPY Sub-committee on data management, and agreed to organize a joint workshop back-to-back with the IPY-Oslo Conference (IPY-OSC), which will be held 8-12 June 2010.

The IPY Sub-committee is writing an IPY report on data management, which will be presented at the IPY-OSC.

For planning the joint workshop, this report would be very useful, and it was mentioned that a draft would become available in early April.
ICSU is discussing a 'Polar Information Commons' (PIC) and their thinking should also be considered.

Participants: IPY data managers + network data managers, max. 20 persons

Agenda:
- Draft data management policy
- Lessons from IPY data management
- PIC
- How to implement a data policy in SAON?

Planning group: Mark Parsons, SAON co-chairs, 3 agency/network data managers
Workshop organizer: AMAP Secretariat

Action: David Grimes to identify and circulate known data policies

5: Institutional framework

John Calder had circulated a discussion paper earlier and Odd Rogne and Volker Rachold had made some comments.
Items from the short discussion:
- Arctic Science Treaty is confusing
- Clarify the tasks for SAON
- How could WMO help? (GOOS)

Action: Odd Rogne to circulate John's paper and comments received to all SAON SG.

6: Any other business

6.1: US Interagency meeting on Arctic observations

Martin Jeffries reported that such a meeting had been held in Washington, DC focusing on interagency cooperation, and aiming at:
- National coordination (and savings)
- Identifying major decisions that will need data
The meeting had used 5 crosscutting working groups