Users Group: Board of Directors Minutes
Minutes of the meeting on December 6, 1998
Directors Attending:
W. Boeglin, J. Calarco, H. Crannell, D. Day, S. Dytman, D. Geesaman (chair), C. Glashausser
Laboratory Attendees:
H. Grunder, L. Cardman, K. Hokansson (User Liaison)
Executive Session:
A nominating committee for the 1999 JLAB board of directors elections was selected. Betsy Beise has agreed to serve as chair of the nominating committee and Jeff Templon and Claude Marchand have agreed to serve on the committee. We welcome suggestions for candidates from the community. Three new directors will be elected in 1999 to replace J. Calarco, H. Crannell, and S. Dytman. Please send your suggestions to Betsy at beise@physics.umd.edu or any of the other nominating committee members.
The board discussed the Symons subcommittee presentations and the report. It was generally perceived that the users had an important role in this process.
The board had a long and free ranging discussion of the termination of the ongoing run of experiment E93-026. We were later joined by H. Grunder and L. Cardman. The discussion touched on a large number of issues. The experiment ended well before the data taking was complete because the laboratory had serious safety concerns. It was made clear during our discussions that the laboratory expects to run the experiment in the future and the experiment remains on the books. We recognize that safety issues are of utmost importance for the laboratory and user community and without all of us doing our part, research cannot proceed.
Unfortunately, some of the facts and perceptions were distorted in the recent coverage by the print media. Such widely distributed and, by their nature, brief reports often destructively interfere with efforts to resolve any underlying problems. We strongly encourage all users to continue to take up issues directly with the laboratory management or Users Group board.
Open Session:
Hermann Grunder presented his views on the current and projected budget situation. As the new schedule makes painfully clear the 1999 budget was not sufficient to operate at the level the lab had hoped. In February, we will learn if the Symons subcommittee and other efforts to address the FY2000 budget have borne fruit. All four recent reviews of the laboratory, including the 1999 Science and Technology Review, the 1999 Review of Laboratory Management, the 1999 Review of Laboratory Administration and the Symons subcommittee review came out well.
A committee was formed headed by C. Glashausser with D. Day and W. Boeglin, to organize the 1999 users workshop for this summer. We expect this to be a 2 day workshop, including 1 day of parallel miniworkshops similar to the format in 1997. Suggestions for topics for the miniworkshops are welcomed. The committee will circulate a proposal for the workshop with sessions and organizers by the end of January 1999.
The board would like to get more feedback from the users about the performance of the laboratory in conducting experiments. We want comments from the spokespersons or the run coordinator for Hall B at the end of each running period associated with their experiments. Since the lab also would find this information useful, D. Geesaman will work with L. Cardman to come up with a form to be sent to each spokesman. Larry had already supported this idea.
The board would like to see a central electronic repository for JLAB preprints and a data base to collect tabulations of JLAB results. H. Crannell will look into this further and suggest a course of action.
It is planned to have Safety training as an agenda item at the next board meeting. Appropriate training is crucial for the safe execution of experiments. We are interested to hear comments from the users about this issue. One user concern is the cost (in time and dollars) of additional travel required to attend the required classes. The laboratory has promised in the past to streamline the procedures or make classes available more often, but little seems to have changed in the past two years.
The next meeting of the Board is tentatively scheduled for 12 March 1999 subject to the availability of JLAB personnel.