Minutes of the December 8 2001 Meeting of the Fermilab Users' Executive Committee (UEC) Attendees: John Conway(conway@fnal.gov) Robin Erbacher(robine@fnal.gov) Joey Huston(huston@pa.msu.edu) Sally Koutsoliotas(koutslts@bucknell.edu) Larry Nodulman(ljn@fnal.gov) Rick St. Denis(stdenis@fnal.gov) Benn Tannenbaum(benn@physics.ucla.edu) Wendy Taylor{wendyt@fnal.gov) Sherry Towers(smjt@fnal.go) Gordon Watts(gwatts@fnal.gov) Freya Blekman(GSA) Absent: Rob Plunkett(plunk@fnal.gov) Roger Rusack(rusack@hep.umn.edu) Chris White(cwhite@fnal.gov) Nate Goldschmidt (GSA) Mike Kirby (GSA) Heather Ray (GSA) Michel Sorel (GSA) Guests Mike Witherell, Dee Hahn, Roy Rubinstein, Borys Jurkiw, April Burke (phone) Benn called the meeting to order at 10 AM. He started by discussing issues raised in the HEPAP sub-panel report and the reaction to it. He noted that while the fixed target community was unhappy, the collider community seemed silent. He noted that the recent (November 14) B&B presentation was had a hostile reception and that Bagger and Barish used soothing phrases such as "not a welfare provider." This hostility was quite evident despite the change to referring bTeV to the putative "P5" super PAC. Robin reviewed the Snowmass survey and discussed the level of consensus on LC. There was some speculation that the flavor community would do a line drive type series of talks. The GSA is organizing a 3 day LC symposium to enlighten grad students on LC issues. The UEC offer to collect responses to the sub-panel resulted in one response; after much discussion we voted to wait to see if more came. [Note: more came and they were forwarded.] Mike Witherell The lower, House version of the HEP budget is what passed, and there have been several reductions to that. As a result, the Fermilab budget is 6-7 M$ below what was in the President's budget. So far LHC, the Tevatron, and NUMI are being preserved, the Run 2b upgrade is under review, and all others will suffer; accelerator and experimental work on LC, neutrinos, VLHC etc are frozen for funding. Beams Division funding for operation is OK. For Run 2b, the detector groups presented funding profiles this week. There will be some constraints, but not too bad. Beams Div. is to be reviewed next week. A baseline is expected in late spring. The accelerator plan going into the Lehmann Review looks OK, but the experiments will get more detailed guidance. Beams Division is working on a plan for the next couple years with luminosity prediction. The 132 ns bunch operation will come in with Run 2b. The 2e32 limit for 36 bunches is soft, more bunches needs lots of anti-protons, so D0 not being ready for 132 ns is not so bad. A lot of learning is expected on accelerator performance in the next 6 months; Mike Church is in charge, the hardware is in place and 3-5 shifts per week will be devoted to studies. The end of Run 2b should correspond to first LHC physics, could be the end of 07. Run 2b is to start in 2005. The D0 silicon lifetime projection was regarded as too conservative. Announcements of new threats have prevented lowering security level. Parking near the high rise may become available with employee stickers. The construction is almost done, horseshoe parking is OK. April Burke and Joey - Washington Trip Joey went to visit NSF, also talked to April, Mark Marin (April's office) and the MSU lobbyist. Easter is early this year, March 31, the Congressional recess to be avoided. Late April might be good, will coordinate with SLAC, they are not started. We should also figure out what DPF is up to. Mondays and Fridays are bad. We will be targeting appropriators, authorizers, administration insiders, and (new addition) international relations experts. We may want to recruit foreign participants (Rick does not count). We would emphasize that the scale of our accelerator facility projects results in world wide collaborations. John brought up possibilities of linking to security issues. Mike W. advised that we should take the long view as noted in the second chapter of the Hart/Rudman report (http://www.nssg.gov/phaseIII.pdf). Emphasis on laboratory - university - international interactions would be good. Roy Orbach (UC Riverside) had not yet been officially named for head of DOE Office of Science. The 03 budget is due Feb. 4, leaks show NSF flat other than Smithsonian transfers, and Office of Science flat, which for DOE is seen as doing well (deja vu). The current administration has an "MBA" (management as opposed to mission importance) approach which might eventually wear off. For preparing for the Washington trip, we should get a web site going in January, start assignments, start contacts in February. April should be here for the February meeting. We may not have much influence on the outcome, but putting faces on our budget helps, and getting users involved is itself a good thing. Quality of Life Subcommittee Report (Wendy): The subcommittee met at Chez Leon December 5. John, Larry, Wendy, Michel and Robin were there, Heather, Joey, Kirby not. Full minutes, provided by Wendy, will be posted to the web. The user survey report will be edited and posted on the UEC web page. The main areas of concern were divided up amongst the committee members for further action: 1) Taxi Service : Larry and Michel Issues: hitchhiking signs, staggered hours for taxi drivers, a bulletin board for car-pooling to Family Foods and or the train station. We might be able to get PACE to run a morning and evening shuttle to the train if 4-6 riders can be guaranteed. 2) Trailer/office maintenance: Wendy and Sherry Issues: discuss trailer/office issues with George Robertson, request an annual spring cleaning, keep an eye on the new janitorial contract. 3) Health Care : Michel and Larry Issues: get the Users Office list of local providers for GSA, check the user sign-off form on badge renewal, check out a possible bad communication on visa health care requirements. 4) Library Cards : Wendy Check Warrenville Public Library, contact Phil Yager on past efforts on the Batavia Library. 5) Pedestrian Path Along Eola Road : Robin and Joey All agreed that this was a good idea and something that UEC should pursue. Will present a request to Bruce Chrisman. 6) Housing: John and Heather (Robin helping out) Houses are allotted to each experiment and the policy governing the distribution is the responsibility of the spokespersons. Users need to be reminded of this. John and Robin met with Jack Hawkins to discuss physical improvements: (from John) He told them that Dorm 5 has been refurbished, including new mattresses, Dorm 4 is currently being done, and the others will follow. They do charge different rates for the different dorms, and they let him know that we thought he had room to increase rates if it meant accelerating the improvements. For the houses, he needs better feedback from the occupants, especially in houses that have a single group in them for years. They welcome complaints and suggestions at x3777. We suggested that they put out another "newsletter" to the housing mail list, which they were using during the water project, to let people know what was in the works. They are installing wireless DSL in the dorms, and starting to get computers in a couple dorms, but the need to determine a better system for fixed computers. Laptop users should find connections (either wireless or cable) now or very soon. They have no plans to install cable TV in the dorms or houses. Heather investigated internet connections in the dorms with Jack Hawkins: (from Heather) Currently: there are a limited number of Ethernet connections available for the village as a whole. If we want more high speed Ethernet connections they will need to dig trenches, a costly proposal. His contact in computing is Donna Moore (sp?). She said there is no specific process to put people on a list for having connections run to the dorms/houses. Currently there are 10 houses that have high speed Ethernet connection, and dorms 2, 3, 4, 5 and Aspen East. The dorms are setup up with a 10 base T setup so you can plug in your laptop. Obviously, carrying your desktop computer to the commons area to use these connections is less than optimal. Jack has been in contact with John Urish. If John finds any spare computers he will give them to Jack and they will be set up in the dorms permanently. One has already been put into dorm 2. Future: Jack is in the process of installing wireless in dorms 4 and 6 similar to that which is in place at Wilson Hall. He already has an estimate for cost and has had the sites tested for receivers. The equipment is coming from computing division. So anyone with a wireless card in their laptop or desktop can use this service. As building manager he doesn't want wires in the rooms for safety. In dorm 3 there is a server on the second floor. He had found some wires installed "on the sly". It turns out someone had requested this from their experiment (d0 or cdf, he couldn't remember) and they had installed it for him. Jack would prefer that this is done correctly without a bunch of wires sticking out all over, so he does not recommend this as an avenue for Ethernet. If there is a higher demand for dorms 4 and 6 due to the wireless he'll try to get it installed in the rest of the dorms. Dee Hahn (UFAC Report) The Users Facility Advisory Committee provides oversight on the Users Center, the gym and village recreation. Day care was at one time within its scope but was removed some years ago. The Gym has about 455 members, $70 per year, $40 student, $20 per month for up to 3 months. The Users Center seems to be doing OK. The pool may be a worry, loses money, may need major work. Other facilities are in better shape. There are 8 people on the committee and half need to be replaced. Two are to be named by UEC; so far Sherry volunteered. Need to find another name at the next meeting (or disband). Sherry will talk to parents about day care issues. Roy Rubinstein (and Borys) - VISA issues: There are 3 relevant visas, although there are problems with each for Fermilab foreign users: The B1 is nominally for business (and the Visa Waiver program is essentially equivalent, although with restrictions); it is simple; multiple-entry visas are often given to frequent vistors, and a B1 can be renewed in the US. The number of B1 2 year ID cards issued annually to Fermilab iss about 700 , 200 visits by Russian users alone. You can't get an Illinois drivers license (new!) but you can drive on a foreign license (a letter from the Illinois Secretary of State's Office is on file), international permit in English from the home country would help. You can get TIN (Taxpayer Identifcation Number) to open a bank account. Typically Brookhaven uses B1s for visits up to 6 months, SLAC for visits up to 3 months, and Fermilab for visits up to a year; many cases are not typical. Sometime consulates and INS interpret rules restrictively, e.g. not for long or frequent use. The J1 is for cultural exchange. It can take 6 weeks to get. A required medical coverage level is specified. After a stay from 6 months to 3 years the visitor must leave for a year. You must obtain appropriate documentation before leaving the US if planning to return. The lab issues about 30 J1/year to users where B1 is not appropriate. The H1 is for employees and they actually have to get paid the same salary as other equivalent employees. Fermilab has proposed to the State Department a visa category ("Scientific Researcher") which has none of the problems of the types described above, and BNL had a very similar proposal; however this does not seem to be high on agendas since 11 September. At present, because of 11 September, the visa situation is fluid, unpredictable; for example, there have been many recent denials of for "Third Country Nationals" (such as a Russian applying for a visa in Germany). Overall, it seems to be going in the direction of problems for Fermilab foreign users. GSA report (Freya): The web page has a new front end. As noted above, linear collider lectures are being organized. Judy Jackson is helping get work done on the Guide to life to make it printable and web OK. Bylaws are coming along. Outreach report: Perhaps some off-site event can be organized in association with the Lederman staff. Next UEC meeting will be January 12. Tentatively, the following meeting will be February 9.