Memories of the journal

Memory 1 ‐ My grandfather was involved in the creation of Weather

Martin Poulter (age 58)

My grandfather, Robert Martin Poulter OBE, helped to create Weather magazine.

He worked at the Met Office from 1914, serving in World War I as a Meteorological Observer with the Royal Engineers and in World War II as a Meteorological Officer with the RAF. He became a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society in 1933.

In 1946, when the RMetS was considering publishing a new popular weather magazine, my grandfather was one of four members of a special committee set up to examine the idea. They met during January/February 1946 and their recommendations led to the publication of Weather in May of that year. I have a copy of a report that the committee produced.

My grandfather was involved in putting together the early issues of the journal. He wrote articles, such as (in the June issue of that year) ‘The Forecaster Speaks to You’ which was about the Air Ministry's recently resumed broadcasts of weather reports. He also sought articles from colleagues in the RAF (and others) and promoted the journal to them. He appears to have compiled the first weather reports in Weather (his initials, RMP, appear at the bottom of them).

Memory 2 ‐ Production process of Weather and The Quarterly Journal (QJ)

Richard Pettifer

During 2005/2006, as the then Executive Secretary of the RMetS, it became clear to me that the Society could not sustain much longer the in‐house processes which had produced Weather and QJ for many years. The digital publication and production of journals was fast approaching and the investment required for the Society to make that paradigm shift for the scale of publication that we could sustain, was far too great. Moreover, the additional concerns of ‘open access’ and ‘pay per view’ were putting considerable strain on the then standard model of a cover subscription. Libraries were becoming more and more reluctant to accept routine increases in subscription charges and the level of charge that would have been needed to sustain the journal income that had for many years been so important to the Society was unrealistic. Something had to be done.

So, working with Paul Hardaker, the then Chairman of the Publications Committee (later my successor as Chief Executive of the Society), I proposed that the Society should cease internal publication and put the journals out to tender to the science publication companies. This was a major, indeed almost revolutionary, change. ‘QJ’, in particular, had always been seen as the ‘crown jewels’ of the Society and there were many strongly held and understandable views among senior people that they should not be ‘given away’. The business case for the change was complex (partly because of the ‘free issue to members’ status of Weather) and it took many revisions of the figures and projections before Council were convinced. The result of a long tendering process was the relationship that has existed ever since with John Wiley & Sons and which has sustained and grown the Society's journal income ever since. For most members of the Society this may well be a rather obscure ‘weather event’ but it is one that has reshaped the Society itself over the past 15 years or so.

中文翻译：

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天气记忆

日记的回忆

记忆1-我的祖父参与了天气的创作

马丁·珀特（年龄58）

我的祖父Robert Martin Poulter OBE帮助创建了Weather杂志。

他于1914年开始在大都会办公室工作，曾在第一次世界大战期间担任皇家工程师的气象观察员，并在第二次世界大战期间担任皇家空军的气象官员。他于1933年成为皇家气象学会会员。

1946年，当RMetS正在考虑出版一本新的流行天气杂志时，我的祖父是为审查这一想法而成立的特别委员会的四名成员之一。他们在1946年1月/ 2月开会，他们的建议导致该年5月出版了Weather。我有委员会编写的报告的副本。

我的祖父曾参与整理该杂志的早期期刊。他写了一些文章，例如（当年的6月号）“天气预报员对您讲话”，这是关于美国空军部最近恢复的天气报告广播。他还从英国皇家空军（及其他地区）的同事那里寻求文章，并将该杂志推广给他们。他似乎已经汇编了Weather中的第一份天气报告（他的缩写RMP出现在它们的底部）。

记忆2-天气和季刊（QJ）的生产过程

理查德·佩蒂弗（Richard Pettifer）

在2005/2006年间，作为当时的RMetS执行秘书，我清楚地知道，协会无法维持产生天气和QJ的内部流程更长的时间很多年了。数字出版物和期刊的生产正在迅速发展，学会为了使我们能够维持的出版规模发生这种范式转变而需要的投资实在太大了。此外，对“开放访问”和“按次付费”的其他担忧正在极大地限制当时的标准订阅模式。图书馆越来越不愿接受订阅费的例行增加，而维持多年来对学会如此重要的期刊收入所需要的费用水平是不现实的。必须要做些事情。

因此，我与当时的出版委员会主席保罗·哈达克（后来是我的学会继任首席执行官）合作，提议学会停止内部出版，并将期刊招标给科学出版公司。这是一个重大的变化，实际上几乎是革命性的变化。特别是，“ QJ ”一直被视为学会的“皇冠上的明珠”，并且在老年人中有许多坚决且可以理解的观点，即不应将它们“给予”。更改的业务案例很复杂（部分原因是Weather的“会员免费问题”状态），并在说服安理会之前对数字和预测进行了多次修订。漫长的招标过程导致了与约翰·威利父子公司之间一直存在的关系，并且自此以后就一直维持并增加了协会的期刊收入。对于协会的大多数成员来说，这可能是一个相当晦涩的“天气事件”，但这是在过去15年左右的时间里重新塑造了协会本身的事件。