Users Executive Committee Minutes, October 19, 2002 UEC Attendees: John Conway (conway@physics.rutgers.edu) Fernanda G. Garcia (fgarcia@fnal.gov) Sharon Hagopian (hagopian@hep.fsu.edu) Leslie Groer (groer@fnal.gov) Joey Huston (huston@pa.msu.edu) Rob Plunkett (plunk@fnal.gov) Sherry Towers (smjt@fnal.gov) , Wendy Taylor (wendyt@fnal.gov) Chris White (cwhite@fnal.gov) Eric Zimmerman (edz@fnal.gov) GSA Officers Attending: Andy Haas (haas@yahoo.com) Martin Hennecke (hennecke@fnal.gov) Amber Jenkins (amber.jenkins@ic.ac.uk) Reid Mumford (reid@pha.jhu.edu) Jun Zhang (jz203@columbia.edu) Absent: Paul Sheldon (sheldon@fnal.gov) Bob Tschirhart (tsch@fnal.gov) Guest: M. Witherell 1. Sub-Committees Breakout Sessions ************* The following UEC subcommittees have been formed: Quality of Life (QL) - J. Conway, M. Hennecke, A. Jenkins, W. Taylor, S. Towers (chair) Inreach (IN) - F. G. Garcia (co-chair), A. Haas (co-chair), M. Hennecke, A. Jenkins, P.Sheldon, E. Zimmerman Outreach (OR) - A. Jenkins, R. Mumford, P.Sheldon (chair), S. Towers R. Tschirhart, C. White, J. Zhang Non-US Users (NU) - L. Groer, M. Hennecke, R. Plunkett (chair), J. Huston, S. Towers, Washington DC Visit (DC) - F.G. Garcia, S. Hagopian, J. Huston (chair), R. Mumford, R. Plunkett, R. Tschirhart, E. Zimmerman Users Meeting (UM) - J. Conway (chair), F.G. Garcia, S. Hagopian, M. Hennecke, J. Huston, W. Taylor, E. Zimmerman The Inreach, Non-US Users, DC Trip and Users Meeting Committees had half hour organizational meetings. The Quality of Life and Outreach Committee postponed their organizational meetings until November. Committee reports were given at the end of the meeting. (See Sections 3-6) 2. Lab Update - M. Witherell ********************************** Accelerator/Experiments The accelerator peak luminosity continues to increase, with a new record integrated weekly luminosity of 6.7 pb-1. This is a 40% increase over luminosities of a month ago, due to accelerator improvements which have been implemented during the last 3 months. The Directors Review of the Run II Luminosity Plan, chaired by M. Tigner, went very well. Public materials for this review can be found at: http://www.fnal.gov/directorate/program_planning/Dirs_Luminosity_Rev.html A DOE Accelerator review is scheduled for the end of October. Budget FY03 will be a hard budget year, with no increase in Fermilab funding. Accelerator improvements will have funding priority. If funding remains flat over the next 5 years, experiments currently approved will saturate the funds available, leaving little money for future accelerator R&D or new experiments. Security All users are requested to wear their Fermilab ID badges when on the Fermilab site. Limited public access to the lab has been approved. Work continues in this area. 3. Report of the Inreach Committee Attending the meeting: F.G. Garcia (co-chair), A.  Haas (GSA representative co-chair), E. Zimmerman, W. Taylor, J. Conway, A. Jenkins After educating ourselves about the committee goals we were convinced that Inreach and GSA have some goals in common.  Based on this discussion, we decided that it will be natural to have a GSA representative as being the co-chair for this committee. Andy Haas volunteered for position. The meeting concentrated on ideas how to get young physicist (postdocs+grad-students) interacting more among each others.  Career seminars seemed to be a success last year and we intend to repeat the dose this year as well.  Also a possibility of organizing a job fair was brought up. The committee will meet regularly. We will discuss when and what time is the best for everyone.    4. Report of the Non-US Users Committee Rob Plunkett called the meeting to order and welcomed all the volunteers. The group agreed that the name Non-US Users' Subcommittee was correct and it was adopted. Agenda: 1) Do we know who the non-US users are? What difficulties arise in finding and/or using such information? - We need to find out if the User's Office databases currently contain information on this subject. - We do not know if we are entitled to this information if it exists. There are serious issues of privacy involved. - A voluntary form for new users was suggested, but this does not handle current users. - It was suggested that a general mailing to users asking if they wished to receive and/or give information on their status to the UEC could be developed. - A chat room or news group was suggested, but it was clear that there are questions of liability if one moderates the group. We need to understand this better before we offer advice. Action Item: Rob agreed to find out what the current database status is. Action Item: Leslie Groer agreed to maintain any mailing list we create. 2) Are there currently identified individuals or groups who can help us reach the people we want to be talking to? - Several national groups have administrative assistance. UK, Italian, Japanese. - Informal groups may exist for others. - Should be frequent interaction with directorate to understand the issues. 3) List of some of our expected concerns for users: - Driving - Insurance - Housing - Banking - Schools - Health Care - Taxes Note the lab is already making efforts on some of these issues, as we were informed at the September meeting. 5. Report of the Washington DC Visit Committee For the newcomers, there was a brief review of the modus operandi of the trip, i.e. the collaboration with SLAC, the desire to visit on a Wed/Thurs at a time when budget information is known but is not yet set in stone. This year Easter is relatively late (April 20), so we will definitely want to make the visit before the Congressional Easter recess. Rob Plunkett stated that some of the staffers he visited last year felt that we would be more effective coming earlier. We will take this into account in our planning. The SLUO members responsible for organizing the Washington trip from their end are Homer Neal and Amanda Weinstein, both of whom participated in the visit last year. We will try to have reasonably frequent phone conferences to coordinate. We have also been in contact with Jonathan Bagger regarding coordination with the DPF for the visit. A series of tutorial sessions will be set up for future UEC meetings to discuss the "way" in which Washington works. 6. Report of the Users Meeting Committee The Users' Meeting Committee met and proposed 9-10 June for the 2003 meeting. Subsequent to the meeting it was pointed out that this conflicts with NuFact03, and so the proposed date is now 2-3 June. There is a general feeling that it would be good to get outside perspectives and visions on the lab's future, including the view from CERN, and from other fields outside HEP in particular. A return to more of a town meeting atmosphere is also desired. Conway proposed the creation of an award for outstanding postdoctoral research, to be awarded at the meeting, and he will pursue this. The GSA will again organize New Perspective and participate on the UM committee. 7. UEC Web site improvements S. Hagopian has agreed to bring the UEC web site up-to-date. Improvements in the main page layout and useful links to other pages will be added. A link to the main Fermilab page will be requested. Each sub-committee will maintain their own web page, with information on current efforts and future plans, which will be linked to the UEC main page. 8. Other Business ********************************************* Possible future guests include Greg Snow (University of Nebraska/Fermilab Board of Overseers), April Burke (URA), Judy Jackson (Fermilab) and Sidney Nagel (University of Chicago). Fred Gilman, HEPAP chair, requested information from the UEC on the proposal process at Fermilab. The UEC wrote a letter in reply, which will be presented by Chris White at the November 7-8 HEPAP meeting. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- | The next UEC meetings are scheduled for November 16 and December 14. | -----------------------------------------------------------------------