Minutes of the UEC Meeting  of 17 May 2003

Present:  Chris White
          John Conway
	  Fernanda Garcia
          Leslie Groer
	  Sharon Hagopian
          Martin Hennecke (GSA)
	  Joey Huston
          Reid Mumford (GSA)
	  Rob Plunkett
          Paul Sheldon
          Wendy Taylor
          Bob Tschirhart          
	  Eric Zimmerman
	  
Absent:   Benn Tannenbaum                	                           
          Sherry Towers 
	  
Guests:  Gerry Blazey (D0 Spokesperson), Luciano Ristori (CDF Spokesperson),
         John Womersley (D0 Spokesperson)
          

1. ICAR meeting 

Chris briefly recounted the events of the recent meeting in Washington, D.C. 
of the Illinois Coalition with the Illinois Congressional Delegation,  which
focused on science funding. Rep. Judy Biggert (R-IL) spoke, as did Mike
Witherell, Fermilab Director and Hermann Grunder, Argonne Director.
 

2. Meeting with Tevatron Experiment Spokespeople

Three of the Tevatron collide experiment spokespeople attended the UEC meeting
to discuss the problems we have in communicating our message and getting strong
funding support from Washington.

Robin Staffin visited FNAL a week ago to speak about the crisis in funding and
the problems with meeting Tevatron luminosity goals.   He spoke about the
difficulties in communicating the goals and expectations of the labs  to the
funding agencies in Washington.  There is a stark different in cultures and
priorities which makes translating the physics goals into identifiable
performance measures very difficult.

This talk was a direct outgrowth of the events of the recent past: the UEC
meetings in Washington with OMB/OSTP, the meetings of the Tevatron experiment
spokespeople with Ray Orbach,  and the growing realization that the Tevatron
collide program  was "oversold" on the basis of achieving 15 fb^-1 and a
possible observation of the Higgs.   

We as physicists understand the goals and nature of the  Tevatron physics
program, but have failed to communicate these to the DOE, OSTP, and OMB in a way
that makes the case compelling.  There are a number of ideas that were brought
up: colloquium at the DOE, monthly summaries of Run 2 results, educational
posters and brochures, articles in science  magazines, as well as more general
outreach.  

The question arose as to whether the responsibility  for organizing this
"upreach" effort lies with the lab or with the collaborations.  A good deal of
discussion  ensued - most felt that there has to be a coordinated effort
between the collaborations and the lab in consultation with outside, 
professional advisers.

3. Users' Meeting

Preparations for the Users' Meeting are nearly complete. The schedule is
finalized, the posters are up, and the negotiations with the caterers are well
advanced. There was some discussion about how to get the word out about the
meeting to bring in a good audience and about how to organize the open mike
session on the future of Fermilab.  This session will be finalized in the
coming week. Registration is free, but necessary to attend the dinner. To see
the schedule and register, go to: http://www.fnal.gov/orgs/fermilab_users_org/


4. Career night

Fernanda reported on the plans for a career night, most likely in July.  She
plans to have several speakers, including one from outside the lab, and others
from the lab and universities.

5. Visa-related issues

It has been pointed out by Steven Pordes and others  that the requirements for
visas and detailed personal information are a major threat to our ability to 
hold conferences and operate normally as a international research laboratory. 
Apparently for the Lepton Photon meeting one needs to provide  sensitive
information over an open website - there are great concerns about the
confidentiality and security of this information.

6. IJAS State Science Fair

ICAR and URA awards of $100 each were given to two high school students.
William Edward Thompson  St. Ignatius College Prep, received the ICAR Award,
for the project  "Optimizing Toroid Cavity Detector Sensitivity" and  Maggie
Bujak, Resurrection High School received the URA Award, for the project   "Do
Magnetic Fields Affect Light Intensity?"  Two UEC awards of $50 each were given
to middle school students. Jonathan Naber, Waterloo Junior High School,
received a  UEC Award for  a project on Cosmic Rays and Solar Flares. Matthew
Drake, Grant Middle School, received a  UEC Award for a project on Holographic
Images of Speaker Vibration. They also received certificates, as well as
Fermilab hats and  scintillator rulers.

7. Scientific Conduct Panel

Rob Plunkett described the activities of the Panel on Scientific Conduct,
recently convened to address the lab's policies on scientific fraud, and
preventing it. Given the string of incidents at other laboratories around the
country, and indeed in our own field,  the panel must craft a relevant and
useful policy.