On behalf of the Board of Overseers, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate you on the outstanding performance of the Tevatron Collider during the past two months. It is a great achievement for the Laboratory and bodes well for the exciting physics results that will come for Run II. There are many challenges facing you in the coming months and years but the systematic approach to solving problems that has been characteristic of the past year will serve the Laboratory well. We are confident that these challenges will be resolved quickly and efficiently. We are particularly pleased with the palpable change in the Accelerator Division under the leadership of Roger Dixon and Dave McGinnis. The careful, efficient and effective carrying out of all the tasks with the help of all the divisions of the Laboratory during the recent shutdown was impressive. This was followed by a quick restoration of collider operations. Two unfortunate problems were quickly resolved and operations resumed rapidly with a steady improvement in performance of the collider complex culminating in a recent record luminosity of 6.7 x 10³¹ cm^-2sec^-1. More importantly, the integrated luminosity that gives the number of events has improved even more with typical stores lasting 25 to 30 hours as compared to 15 to 20 hours before the shutdown. The other strong indication of very much improved reliability is that the starting luminosities for the stores have been consistently high and have shown little variation in their value. All in all an outstanding show.

At our Board meeting on February 6 it was decided that we would not send this letter until after the DOE Run II Review so that there would not be any prejudice for the review. The review went very well and at the DOE closeout, the true sign of the positive nature was to downgrade the next six-month review to a mini-review, to be followed by a full status review in February 2005. There were only two action items, and these were the two reviews. Jay Marx summarized the review comments and recommendations for the DOE Review Committee with

"We're very impressed with the progress in the past seven months.

We have increasing confidence that Run II will be successful.

We look forward to continued progress toward the Tevatron complex being reliable, and well-characterized to serve as a platform for the cutting edge upgrades.

But there's a long way to go in the complex campaign of operations, maintenance, upgrades, R&D and studies that must succeed if the luminosity goals are to be reached.

We see a significant challenge in the installation and successful commissioning of electron cooling in the next 16 months.

Keep up the discipline, focus, dedication and good work. We are very encouraged!!!"

We can only echo the last line and look forward to a great Run II.

Don Hartill
For the Board of Overseers