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Users Group: Board of Directors Minutes

Minutes of the meeting on March 7, 2003

BOD Members Present:
Douglas Higinbotham
Sebastian Kuhn
David Lawrence
Pete Markowitz
Curtis Meyer
Alan Nathan (Chair)
Paul Stoler (Chair Elect)
Maurizio Ungaro
Sabine Jeschonnek
Mark Pitt
Clara Perdue

Jefferson Lab Representatives Present:
Dennis Skopik
Christoph Leemann
Andrew Hutton
Swapan Chattopadhyay
Rolf Ent
Javier Gomes (For Kees de Jager)
Volker Burkert

0900-0945 Reports from C. Leemann

We are positioned to begin 6.0GeV running in FY05.

Budget issues

We now have a budget for FY03. The final numbers are not known yet but should be very close to $79M. The budget request for FY04 adds 3.9% over FY03 (inflation is ~3.5%). For FY05, there are plans ranging from FY04-5% to FY04+2%. JLab will request FY04+10%. As SNS trails off, overhead must be picked up by Nuclear Physics. This is on the order of $1.3M.

If 12GeV CD0 is approved, JLab may increase FY05 budget by $3M. Addition to CEBAF center will be done over next three years (completed by FY05). The FEL continues the ongoing Navy program. The FEL has funding for FY04 from the Air Force. The FEL also has funding (from various sources) of $6M for FY04 and $8M for FY05. FEL is now competeing for money from BES (Basic Energy Sciences) which has a $1B budget.

Chief Scientist search

An offer has been made to a prominent European theortician, who has promised an answer by the end of March. If the answer is negative, JLab will re-start search for Chief Scientist, but may hire a Theory Group Leader separately.

Reorganization of lab management

The JLab management reorganization has been implmented. It was reviewed well. The New CFO, Mary Ewing formerly of Los Alamos, will begin at the end of March. The new CFO will be primarily responsible for tracking expenditures, doing financial analysis for possible budget scenarios, and looking for "loose cash"

Status of 12 GeV

Office of Science should make 20 year plan public in a matter of weeks (not months). All projects were graded on two separate categories: 1. Scientific Merit and 2. Readiness. The JLab 12GeV upgrade got the highest possible grades in both areas. RHEA and GRETA also got the highest possible grades. All information will be passed to Ray Orbach on Mar. 10th. It was also mentioned that JLab at 25 GeV got a 1 in scientific merit and a 3 in readiness and that e-RHIC got a 1 in scientific merit and a 2 in readiness.

0945-1030 Report from accelerator division and operations

A. Hutton (operations)

Reasearch Hours: 2355 hrs.
Beam Studies: 249 hrs.
Setup/Tuning:214 hrs.
Failures/Unscheduled shutdown: 363 hrs.
Scheduled Maintanence: 399 hrs.

Availability: 87.1% (Goal 85%)
Avaliability for Physics: 64.4% (Goal=70.4%)

They are developing a model to predict the availability dependant upon running halls.
1-Hall running -> 85% availability
2-Halls running -> 80% availability
3-Halls running -> 75% availability

Major capability development(G0 and Happex-II) reduces availability by about 10% for first three months.

A central chiller is being installed to replace the aging A/C systems currently in use.

Backup power is being planned for vital systems to make quicker recovery from power outages and lightning strikes.

Plan to test 6.0 GeV in April 2004. JLab has purchsed a new Tiger Laser (499MHz) which should improve current capability for high polarization. It is due May 2003. G0 had a successful engineering run. They are preparing for HyperNuclear in FY04.

S. Chattopadhyay (accelerator division)

Arne Freyberger who moved over from Physics division last fall has already made valuable contributions. Polarized source is now augmented by a backup laser system. Jack Ludwig has been appointed as Steve Suhrings new deputy (Steve is recovering from an auto accident). There are plans to hire an additional accelerator physicist. Andrew Hutton has been promoted to Deputy Associate Director for Accelerator Division. Some accelerator physicsits from CASA and RF Institute are serving as Program Deputies for weeks of operation in the control room. The accelerator division would like to see more physicists acting as Program Deputies.

A Tiger team has been formed to develop a computer model of the injector through Faraday Cup 1 with a due date of July 1,2003. Leader: Kazimi.

SL21 Cryomodule project is installed and is being commissioned. The NL11 Cryomodule is a prototype of the type which would be used for 12GeV. It will be ready by the end of July FY04. Combined, the SL21 and NL11 will allow CEBAF to reach about 6.3GeV with the same trip rate as current 5.7GeV running. Running higher energy beam at higher current must be governed by the 800kW legal limit due to environmental considerations.

Klystrons tubes are getting harder to come by. Only two companies are left that still make them.

1030-1100 PAC consideration of 12 GeV and the pCDR (P. Stoler)

The top reccomendations are for the GlueX and GPD programs. The pi+ form factor and primakoff programs were much lower in priority than placed by the previous 12GeV PAC.

The committee began a discussion of orthogonalization of the experiments, but little progress was made.

1100-1130 PAC and scheduling issues, including proposed revision to PAC guidelines (S. Kuhn)

Physics division proposed a change in how days available for PAC allocation are computed.

Current Method:
If Hall_backlog > target : 2/3(time/6 mos) + Jeopardy/2
If Hall_backlog < target : (time/6 mos) + Jeopardy

Proposed Method:
If Hall_backlog > target : 2/3(time/6 mos) + Jeopardy
If Hall_backlog < target : (time/6 mos) + Jeopardy + days_below_target/2

The UGBOD voted to recommend the proposed method.

Larry Cardman asked the BOD for advise on "deferred experiments." In the current PAC guidelines, experiments can be deferred for two classes of reasons: (1) a very good experiment that the PAC would like to approve but which is deferred for lack of allocated beamtime; and (2) an experiment that the PAC thought had good physics but for which there were significant questions about either experimental or theoretical issues. We were asked to consider two alternate proposals:

  1. Deferred experiments only include "category (1)"; experiments falling into category (2) are rejected.
  2. Formally subdivide the deferred category into "deferral with regret" for category (1) and "deferral" for category 2.

The BOD was hopelessly deadlocked between proposals A and B. This result was reported to Larry Cardman.

There was considerable discussion over the issue of whether having PAC members as spokespersons on experiments being considered by the PAC presents the appearance of a conflict. Currently, PAC members in such situations are required to exclude themselves from any PAC discussions directly related to their experiment. The discussion focused on whether such members should be required to exclude themselves from that particular PAC meeting altogether in order to avoid any appearance of a conflict. Three board members had served on PACs at JLab and reported that in their experience, the PAC chairs had made the integrity of the process the top priority. The consensus of the board was that having PAC members remove themselves altogether was unneccessary. The board also considered this an important issue that should continue to be visited from time to time.

1130-1200 New DOE requirements for foreign visitors (K. Caccetta)

JLab will soon be subject to new requirements regarding foreign badge holders at the lab. All foreignors must now provide JLab with information (including visa's) to be entered into a new, national D.O.E. database. Lists were provided of the 7 "terrorist sponsoring" states, and about 25 "sensitive" states. The process is much more intense for states on these lists.

Persons designated as "visitors" do not need to go through as intense of a processes. A "visitor" is on site less than 30 days/year.

It costs the lab about $1.5K/day when we are at "code orange". This money must come out of the existing JLab budget.

1200-1300 Miscellaneous items to discuss over lunch

Issues regarding proposal submission:

Planning for annual meeting (Stoler)

Planning of the annual Users Meeting to be held June 11-13, 2003 is well underway. More publicity is needed. A link will be put on the JLab home page to the meeting's main page.

There was a discussion over whether and how to publish proceedings fom the meeting. A number of possibilities were discussed. The consensus was that we wanted a collection of review articles about 20 pages each in length. One for each of the main topics covered in the meeting. The venue for publication has not yet been decided. Paul will explore several possibilites.

SURA Thesis prize (Nathan)

Three member panels made of UGBOD members will review 2 to 3 theses each. A list of three will be presented to the final panel of judges composed of Alan Nathan, Paul Stoler, and John Domingo.

The first round of revies will be completed by April 22nd and the second by May 13th.

Election of new members (Nathan)

A three person committee has been formed of former UGBOD members to suggest replacements for the three outgoing UGBOD members. The committee is made up of H. Gao, D. Mack, and M. Jones, all recently-passed BOD members.

1300-1400 Area reports
Computing (C. Meyer)

The search for a head of scientifc computing to fill Ian Birds old position is still underway. There are currently 5 applicants being considered (though they may add 2 more). Interviews will occur over the month and a decsion should be made by April.

The JLab wireless network has moved to an encrypted connection. Cards must now support 128-bit encryption.

There was a brief discussion about recent changes in CC operations (such as encrypted wireless) with insufficient or no supporting documentation on the web.

Graduate student issues (Lawrence)

Report sent by Bob Welsh:

I regret I am unable to attend this Friday's BOD meeting. Here is a brief report from the Student Affairs office as suggested by Alan. Just let me know if you have questions.

Since the last BOD meeting, progress has been made on a recreational facility for JLab students. Room 60 in trailer city with about 400 square feet of space has been dedicated to use as a student gathering place. The management has agreed to the purchase of a ping pong table and a table soccer table. Both have arrived and are in the process of assembly and installation.

Two PC's have also been donated and an ethernet line will permit students to log on while in that room. A TV may also be installed but with a VCR/DVD and not with antenna or cable hookup (which is available in the Residence Facility Great Room).

The Residence Facility has also agreed to donate several items of furniture in good condition for this room. Additional improvements to the room may occur when student opinions are offered.

The sand volleyball court, built with SURA funding, gets frequent use in good weather. We continue to look for ways to expand the opportunities for students at the lab.

The students will soon hold an election to replace the cadre of original officers who took office about one year ago.

Monthly pizza lunch seminars continue to be held. Encouragement by advisors to their advisees to offer to give such a talk will be most helpful.

Summer courses in detectors, computing and data simulation and analysis will be organized again this summer. Volunteers or suggestions are always welcome.

In the past year, I have met individually with every graduate student. Such meetings will take place with each newly arriving student.

Getting an in-state tution exception for JLab Grad students:

David and Maurizio went to Richmond to meet with Fred Quayle of the Higher Education Subcommitee of the Virginia State Senate. He suggested they meet with the State Council of Higher Education of Virginia. David called SCHEV and spoke with Lee Andes, the Finanical Aid Manager. He said we'll need to find a patron in the state legislature.

David met with Christoph to discuss how best to proceed. He said we should develop some estimates on the costs and number of students involved.

David has scheduled a meeting with Bob Welsh do discuss making these estimates.

Quality of Life (M. Pitt)

Full results of residence facility survey are now in. Actions resulting from this are:

It was discussed whether we should commission another survey. The consensus was that we should not at this time.

Running experiments (D. Higinbotham)

Hall-A

Hall-B

Hall-C

Accelerator

Space issues (P. Markowitz)

Video streaming (S. Jeschonnek)

We now have 2 rooms at JLab equipped to do video conferencing L207 and A110. Anyone can join from their PC using their own camera. One that was recommended and will work with the system costs about $420.

There is still a slight manpower problem with video taping JLab conferences.

There is at least one broken link on the videoconferencing web page. SPIRES now has a recorded talks area where acrhives of recorded talks can be accessed. This includes a pointer to JLab's webpage. An announcment will be sent to the users once the links on JLab's page are fixed.

1400-1500 Hall reports (de Jager, Burkert, Ent)
Hall-A (Gomez)

The first septum magnet is in the hall, but has not yet been powered. It will be cooled down next week (March 10th). The second septum sill be delivered in May.

Hall-B (Burkert)

5 years of Physics data taking complete including 19 major CLAS production runs. Hall-B will have more than 17 PhD theses by the end of 2003. Publications:

2 new proposals approved by PAC 23 with A and A- ratings. 4 Letters of intent were presented with the PAC inviting proposals from 2.

Hall is currently developing the following:

The biggest problem is the drift chanbers. e1e was stopped 3 weeks early to enact repairs.

Hall-C (Ent)

7 years of running.
4.6 years in queue. 1.3 PAC days on 2003 schedule.
52 PhD subjects, 37 PhDs awarded.

G0 installation was completed late summer 2002 and they now have 100 hours of "dress rehersal" data. Some problems were uncovered, but the test run, overall, was a success.

No formal Hall-C users group exists. The current Hall-C users decided against forming such a group, but a Hall-C steering committee is being formed.

Executive Session

A list of three names was generated which will be passed to Larry Cardman as our suggestions for PAC chair.

Doug provided information, given below, on how to view web pages that are within the JLab firewall using the browser on your local machine:

First need make a secure connection to the JLab using ssh or putty. Then change the settings in your browser as follows:

In Linux:
ssh -L 8080:proxy-http.acc.jlab.org USERNAME@jlab.org and in Mozilla or Netscape set the proxies to manual http proxy:localhost and port:8080

In Windows:
Using an up-to-date version of putty, set the forwarding to localhost port 8080 and remote machine proxy-http.acc.jlab.org. Then set the proxy to manual in Mozilla/Netscape.

Full directions available at http://devweb.acc.jlab.org/controls_web/ssh_tunnel/.