SSRLUO Executive Committee Meeting Minutes
Meeting Notes: Friday, December 14, 2007, 10-11:30 am
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Participants (via conference call):Katherine Kantardjieff, Chris Kim, Cathy Knotts, Richard Lee, Wayne Lukens, Karen McFarlane Holman, Art Nelson, Riti Sarangi, Jo Stöhr, Robert Szilagyi.
Robert Szilagyi, SSRLUOEC Chair, welcomed the participants and began the meeting. Notes follow.
Charter: Robert encouraged feedback on the draft charter which was circulated by email before the meeting. It was suggested that the first paragraph be modified to include a comment that the 'SSRLUO shall advise the Director and Scientific Advisory Committee on matters of concern to users.' It was suggested that award descriptions be added to Section E. Awards. ACTION: Robert will revise the draft and resend it to the committee before it is posted on the website.
2008 User Survey: Jo Stöhr participated in the discussion, reiterated his appreciation for the advisory role served by the SSRLUOEC, and encouraged additional input into future strategic planning for SSRL. He plans to meet with the SSRLUOEC in early 2008 to further discuss long-term future plans and opportunities to better serve the synchrotron user committee. Jo challenged the SSRLUOEC to think about ways to inform/engage more of the entire user community in these plans.
Specific changes to the draft survey which we plan to have ready for users to complete ~January 15-31, 2008 were discussed. These included inelastic x-ray scattering and advanced spectroscopy as well as X-ray microscopy beam lines 200-1500 ev and 1.5-15 KeV on the list of proposed scientific facilities/initiatives. The User Experience question on 'Availability of Lab Prep Space' will be changed to just 'Lab Prep Space' to encourage an overall satisfaction rating. For ratings less than satisfactory, users will be asked to provide additional comments. Several users requested that information on oversubscription and average rating or cut-off rating per beam line be made available to users.
ACTION: Robert will incorporate comments and circulate revise survey for the committee to review. Cathy Knotts will work with SLAC Info Media to develop a website to implement the survey (e.g, Surveymonkey).
2008 SSRL/LCLS Users' Meeting: The committee encourages LCLS/LUSI/PULSE to appoint a scientist to serve as a co-chair along with Wayne Lukens (LBNL/SSRLUOEC) and Riti Sarangi (SSRL) to help to plan the scientific program. Some people noted that the last ultrafast sessions on instrumentation and science were redundant, while others found this led to a better understanding. Wayne suggested that for next year, it may be advisable to plan parallel sessions on SSRL and LCLS accelerator and beam line developments. The 2008 survey will encourage users to provide feedback on the last users' conference and to suggest topics for workshops. Katherine Kantardjieff suggested that a crystallography workshop related to recent structure issues might be useful. ACTION: The committee was asked to talk to their colleagues and begin to suggest potential speakers, session topics, and workshop topics for the 2008 SSRL/LCLS Users' Conference.
Outreach/Activism: Robert reported that he sent out over two thousand emails to the SSRL user community to encourage user advocacy to favorably affect the DOE BES funding situation. He sent these out 20 at a time using the ssrluoec@gmail.com account to avoid being rejected as spam. Robert encourages SSRLUOEC suggestions on to further outreach/activism.
Next meeting Thursday, January 31st: Robert will be at SSRL to participate in a discussion as part of the DOE BES program review January 29-31, 2008. It was suggested that the SSRLUOEC convene again on January 31st to continue these discussions and begin to review results from the user survey. Please circulate your availability for a conference call on this date. ACTION: SSRLUOEC members to send email noting available times on January 31st for a conference call. As soon as a time is determined, Robert Szilagyi and Cathy Knotts will make arrangements for the next meeting.
