Minutes of the November 10 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) Rob Plunkett(plunk@fnal.gov) Roger Rusack(rusack@hep.umn.edu) 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) Chris White(cwhite@fnal.gov) Freya Blekman(GSA) Nate Goldschmidt (GSA) Mike Kirby (GSA) Heather Ray (GSA) Michel Sorel (GSA) Absent: none! Guests Bruce Chrisman, Marge Bardeen, Judy Jackson, Tom Nash Benn called the meeting to order at 10 AM. He started by discussing issues related to budget and to the HEPAP subpanel which he had discussed with Mike Witherell Tuesday. Subpanel, Budget and Security On the HEPAP subpanel, Bagger and Barish will be giving a talk Wednesday Nov. 14 at 10 AM in the auditorium. John and Roger suggested that the UEC provide a forum for voicing user response. Robin pointed out that we could not expect to get a coherent statement. We decided to attempt to provide a forum for reaction, to try to get the Wednesday presentation on the web and recorded, and to announce it to the users list. The bTeV language was of particular concern but there was some expectation that it might be changed. A subcommittee of Gordon, Chris, Rob, Larry and Roger was designated to come up with an appropriate reaction to whatever happened Wednesday. As many as possible will attend and Gordon will be the direct contact for Wednesday. [Note added: the proponents requested that the session not be broadcast, and Gordon, acting for UEC, organized the question section. bTeV language has been changed.] Funding for FY02 is disappointing; the House budget passed conference, and there will be a reduction beyond that of about 6 out of the 716 million. Universities are particularly hard hit. Prospects for FY03 look bad again, and LHC money is protected. The reductions are reflected in lower numbers for run 2b upgrades. There is a science advisor but no head of DOE office of science yet but someone being talked about. The current DOE mission statement emphasizes security issues. Roger pointed out that research cuts at universities are running 2% for BaBar/CDF/D0, 4% for MINOS, and 8% for the rest. Security is at modified SECON3 (see previous minutes), and SLAC and JeffLab are now similar. Outreach vs Security: Bruce Chrisman and Marge Bardeen Discussion with Bruce: So far closing the lab to the public has raised some concern but there is reasonable public understanding. Fishing and biking are stopped. Visits to experiments are stopped. Saturday morning physics is going, as is the lecture and arts series. The lab wants to get back to normal as quickly as possible. The security level (Modified SECON 3) is demanding badges and parking restrictions. It is possible, at least for an occasion, to move where the west guard is so that the Lederman center is outside. If this could be done on Saturdays, the "ask a physicist" could move there. Robin asked about the film society. The St. Charles Library may be willing to host that. It would be good to get back but is not high on the list. The outside presence at the lab is expanding, high school groups have returned. The size of the group and the entry impact (eg names in advance) are important. Robin pointed out that Susanne Vega went well. There is a high overhead on doing all the needed arrangements. There has been some discussion of moving the east guard post in to put the village outside, but associated cost are of order $200 k, and the west side, for the Lederman Center, would come first. Experiment tours with preregistration might be possible. Security at current level is expected to last at least another 6 months. Discussion with Marge Bardeen: Marge works on K=12 education. The Lab does staff development, summer research/ sabbaticals, class field trips and tours, classes, teacher resource work, the Lederman Center, and web based classes and references. In the fall they do prairie field trips, physics trips later. Due to security, there are no adult tours (165 canceled). College tours were initially canceled but are now allowed. Some school group tours which would have been OK at this end were canceled soon after Sept. 11. The Lederman Center has no walk-ins, 2-300 per month was normal. It is now open to the general public during the week but not on weekends. Bruce pointed out that security is now costing $600k/year beyond the "fenced" security budget, so additional costs (eg making a new guard structure) are not very welcome. The Fermi anniversary symposium was held but an associated birthday party for kids was canceled. A "traveling show" is active off site. Forty four quarknet teachers are at Fermilab now. Friends of Fermilab may be able to sell logo stuff, currently sold only at the Lederman center, on the web. It is important to let people know that most functions are still possible. Docents tyoically handle up to twenty students each. Currently, for physics field trips and tours only eighty students can visit inside the fence; fortu at the Lederman Center and Forty at Wilson Hall. This could be advertised on the web. Fermilab is issuing a new style of badge, with the smaller logo and the DOE seal according to new DOE tier 3 lab standards. Lunch Discussion: Results of Survey of Users There were 60 responses to the survey. The "user" concept is not widely understood. Extended taxi hours seemed the most frequent preference. Other suggestions were about facilitating pickups for going off-site, and trailer cleaning. David Nevin (FESS) and George Robertson (Facilities and Operations) should hear of cleaning type complaints. The Quality of Life subcommittee will be meeting shortly to discuss how to disseminate and act upon the results of the survey. Advisory Committee for Computer Training Programs Roy Thatcher requested that both UEC and GSA provide members of a committee to advise on issues in computer training possibilities. Sherry and Kirby got the nod. VISA issues There has been some concern that in some circumstances, B1 visas are illegal. They are appropriate for students and sabbatical faculty. But postdocs (J1) might have to leave a year after three. Various INS horror stories were told. A new category of visa is appropriate, and a task force is looking into it, but there are distractions. A request for power strips in 1W will be appropriately forwarded. Discussion with Judy Jackson: The lab does public affairs in order to enable doing science. The worries are about the budget for HEP and relations with neighbors. The community survey results form late spring are in; the survey was funded by the Illinois Consortium on Accelerator Research. Only 20% were opposed to off-site expansion by Fermilab. The Fermilab border closing has been bad. In the last couple years, UEC worked with PA on tours, 6-700 people through CDF, D0, KTeV, NUMI, and helped with 'ask a scientist.' Recent public questions include 'is it safe nearby?' Such issues have been documented for the local communities. There is a speakers bureau, a new community web page, and by rearranging the guard post, having the Lederman Center public may be recovered, will do a news release when it happens. We will be called upon to be PA outreach web chat room moderators. Poking around in university physics departments to see what other people think of HEP, would big initiatives be resisted, Judy found, at Michigan, other than the wonder at huge collaborations with assembly line research, support would depend on 'show us the science!' Tom Nash and Judy Jackson on Web Policy Note: this discussion was triggered by a member of the public complaining about particular content of the GSA guide to the area web listings. Tom noted that the lab tries to maintain an open academic environment, and keep it as open as possible. The cyber security concern is disruption, rather than protecting information. Lab cyber security has been rated 'outstanding' in independent review, and this is useful in defending policies during zealous oversight activity. Common sense is needed by all users of computing since providing a long list of detailed rules is not effective with the internet environment changing as fast as it is. If there is any kind of incident, like hacking, it should be reported right away, to x2345 and/or computer_security@fnal.gov. It is good to avoid offending people, and GSA can work with PA, but it is not to be regarded as getting approval. An appropriate disclaimer on GSA pages would be good. Policy on computing can be found at http://www.fnal.gov/cd/main/cpolicy.html and computer usage guidelines at (from on-site only) http://www.fnal.gov/cd/guidelines/AUguide.pdf Marge Bardeen on Quarknet There is a new (green) particle physics education and outreach book, see www-ed.fnal.gov/hep/home.html Quarknet is described at quarknet.fnal.gov Thirty six sites so far are in the 5 year grant cycle. The first year, 2 teachers join and work on research as well as classroom transfer, and plan an institute for the next year. The second year, there is a three week institute for 10 more teachers. In the third and following years, there is a 1 week follow up program for teachers. NSF supports these programs and expects matching money. There is work on detector components, datasets for students, web activity, a muon lifetime experiment, and cooperation with the CROP cosmic ray project. See www-ed.fnal.gov/data/physical_sci/momentum which students can analyze online. Funding for teachers and students as researchers comes from NSF education, NSF EPP, DOE etc. Marge, Mike Barnett, Randy Ruchti and Kieth Baker are PIs. Users Organization Mailing List issues (Robin) Users signing up will now default to being on the e-mail list, had to request previously. For Fermilab employees, they need to get directorate help in changing procedures. Distributions are controlled through the Users Office (Pat Sorensen). Next UEC meeting will be December 8. Tentatively, the following meeting will be January 12.