SSRLUO Executive Committee Meeting Minutes
Meeting Notes: October 19, 2001
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Agenda
2:00 OPEN SESSION (Open to All SSRL Users) Welcome/Introduction of Newly Elected SSRLUO-EC Members (Paul Foster)
Impact of SPEAR3 Upgrade and Shutdown on SSRL Users (Keith Hodgson/Tom Rabedeau) 3:30 CLOSED SESSION (SSRLUO-EC Only) Selection of SSRLUO-EC Vice Chair for 2002 (Corwin Booth)
OPEN SESSION
Welcome Remarks At the conclusion of the 28th Annual SSRL Users' Meeting at 2:00 pm, Paul Foster, SSRLUO-EC Chair, called the meeting to order. Paul began by thanking the co-chairs, Corwin Booth and Ana Gonzalez, who organized a great users' meeting. Paul wished Corwin good luck as he takes over as SSRLUO-EC Chair. He thanked the users who agreed to be nominated for the SSRLUO-EC: Nicholas Pingitore, Chris Garcia, Dave Stout, Uwe Bergmann, Lichung Ming, Erik Nelson, Brian Stephenson, Jane DeWitt, and Ben Bostick. Paul also thanked the retiring SSRLUO-EC members: Paul Alivisators, Pat Allen, Bruce Clemens, Marilyn Olmstead, and Bob Scott. Election results were announced: Nicholas Pingitore, Univ. Texas El Paso - Environmental/Geosciences
Dave Stout, Scripps Research Institute - Macromolecular Crystallograph
Uwe Bergmann, LBNL - Materials/Chemistry
Erik Nelson, LLNL - Materials/Chemistry
Jane DeWitt, Cal State University - Structural Molecular Biology
Ben Bostick, Stanford University - Graduate Student Member, Environmental/Geosciences Paul suggested the following changes to future meetings: Announce meeting schedule in advance; there was agreement to have 3 regular meetings each year, roughly in February, June, and October (in conjunction with the annual users' meeting).
Have open session at the beginning of each meeting for all interested users; it was suggested that the first 10 minutes be allotted for users' to state any issue they want to address. At the conclusion of the open session, the "walk-in" issues could be prioritized, discussed by the users present, deferred by the EC until more information is available, or referred to the appropriate SSRL staff or management.) Paul reiterated the EC's desire to work with SSRL administration to accommodate user research needs during the SPEAR3 shutdown and to address user-specific needs during this period and introduced Keith Hodgson who lead a discussion on this topic. Impact of SPEAR3 Plans on SSRL Users Keith Hodgson began by stating that he thought the open session format was a good idea as it should encourage more users to attend and provide a forum to address users issues as they arise.
As a follow up to many discussions held over the last few years, Keith repeated the plan for the SSRL facility to be shutdown for SPEAR3 (SP3) upgrade beginning in April 2003. If plans proceed as anticipated, SP3 will be completed and brought up in November 2003; it may take approximately 1-1/2 to 2 months for commissioning and fine tuning before SP3 will be ready to accommodate users (probably in late December 2003 or January 2004 for most beam lines).
SSRL may be able to provide a broad spectrum of selected, specific arrangements to assist users during the shutdown (e.g., work with other light sources to accommodate SSRL users; loan equipment to other facilities to meet specific needs, send staff to other facilities to help set up or allow faster changeovers between users, etc.)
Keith has started to talk to the Directors of the other SR facilities and believes that the community will work with us to try to make accommodations for users as has been done in the past.
Keith asked for users' input, and specifically recommended that the users organization form a small group of users representing the various fields/techniques which comprise the SSRL user community to solicit general user input and recommend proposed actions that SSRL could take to help users from these fields.
Corwin Booth recommended extending the proposal period during the shutdown, which Keith thought was reasonable pending approval of the PRP.
Dave Stout asked whether it would helpful to extend operating hours to make maximum use of the beam lines before the shutdown, specifically during Thanksgiving and Christmas. Keith agreed that the goal of delivering as much beam as possible was a good idea, but he and many of the attendees noted that the shutdowns were both equipment and staff driven, after running for a straight 8-9 months, both needed some down time to remain in optimal condition. Keith did state that he was open to suggestions from users, such as proposals for changes to the standard run schedule.
John Bargar noted that students, who have a limited time frame to complete work and thesis, may be at particular risk during the shutdown and suggested that information material be prepared to help users plan for the downtime.
Keith mentioned that due to budget constraints, SSRL would not be able to upgrade all beam lines immediately to be SP3 compatible, and that current plans may be adjusted depending on funding. He also mentioned that the DOE had requested a plan of how SSRL planned to deal with these issues by mid December. SP3 Upgrade Schedule As a continuation of his presentation during the users' meeting, Tom Rabedeau provided an upgrade schedule (copies of slides appended herewith and available at: http://www-ssrl.slac.stanford.edu/users/ssrluo/sp3_bld.ppt ). The plan (resources permitting) is to have all front ends 500mA capable on SP3 start up (Fall, 2003); all ID beam lines 500 mA capable in 2004, except BL4; and all bend beam lines 500 mA capable by 2004 (recognizing that all beam lines may not be operating ideally at this point). This schedule could be accelerated if additional funding becomes available.
Given the budget, BL4 is the last BL scheduled to be brought up and is not scheduled to be completed until the third quarter of FY 2005 (when other factors such as the optics and LN plumbing are also scheduled to be ready). SSRL is looking into other arrangements to accommodate BL4-1, 4-2 and 4-3 users in the interim. Options may be available on BL3, BL8. There could be a large impact on the biological SAS user community as that capability does not exist at other light sources and in this scenario would not be available at SSRL until Q3 2005. An option could be to temporarily move that capability to BL6-2. This would require changing the hutch structure, and although not providing as much access, could provide similar capabilities as BL4-2. CLOSED SESSION
Attendees: Paul Foster, Corwin Booth, Cathy Knotts (SSRL Liaison), John Peters, Nick Pingitore, Dave Stout Paul asked the committee to work together to respond to Keith's call for input. ACTION: Paul requested that members of the EC submit a list of all the specific scientific disciplines and techniques represented by SSRL users so that the EC could determine which user groups are most likely impacted by the shutdown, begin to work on a proposal, and proceed to form a small group to work with SSRL management to address these issues.
Corwin Booth asked if there were any nominations for the next Vice Chair. No nominations were received during the meeting. ACTION: Cathy Knotts agreed to send a note to the EC requesting that they send nominations for Vice Chair by the following week. (Uwe Bergmann was subsequently nominated and agreed to serve as the next Vice Chair).
Potential dates for the next meeting in late February/early March 2002 were discussed. ACTION: Cathy Knotts will contact EC members to narrow down a date and will announce this information to users when available. Paul suggested that at the next meeting, the EC should discuss plans of how best to represent the users to Congress and others who could impact budget allocations.
The
meeting adjourned at approximately 3:15 pm.
