SSRL USERS’ ORGANIZATION
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Meeting Notes - December 19, 2006
9 am Conference CallSSRLUO-EC
Contact List
Chris Kim, SSRLUOEC Chair, welcomed the meeting participants and began the
meeting. Notes and action items (in bold) follow.
Jo Stöhr attended the first part of the meeting to acknowledge the very
positive feedback from user advocacy activities, such as the recent SNUG
meetings in DC.
NUFO Update: Chris Kim (Chapman University) gave an update on activities of
the National User Facility Organization (NUFO). The most pressing issue raised
was the continuing resolution, which if continued through 2007 would be
problematic for all user facilities because the budget would be much less than
that anticipated (significant increases were expected in line with the
President's budget). The APS sent an email alerting users about the devastating
impact a prolonged continuing resolution would have on that facility as well as
other facilities and science in general. ACTION: Chris Kim draft a letter
encouraging user advocacy to support science overall (and specifically the DOE
Office of Science budget) through letters and visits to congressional
representatives during January and February; will also try to coordinate visits
to local congressional offices.
SNUG Update: Joy Andrews (Cal State East Bay) discussed activities related to
joint Synchrotron and Neutron Users Group (SNUG) user advocacy. SNUG
representatives visited Washington in October. It was suggested that SNUG
representatives follow up in early January with contacts made at those
meetings. Joy also mentioned that there would be a conference call on January
9th to ensure that advocacy messages being communicated are consistent and
coordinated with the DOE. Potential plans to coordinate something in
conjunction with the February MRS meeting in San Francisco in March are being
discussed.
SSRL 2007 User Survey: Chris Kim drafted and circulated a survey to encourage
feedback from users to be used as part of SSRL visioning and strategic planning
activities. The survey was modified with input from the SSRLUOEC with plans to
develop in to a web based survey tool in early January so that user input can
be collected and shared with the SSRL Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) when
they meet at SSRL in February. ACTION: Chris Kim to update draft survey and to
coordinate user comments.
SSRL34: Robert Szilagyi and Hiro Ogasawara will co-chair the next annual
meeting of the SSRL Users' Organization to be held on October 1-3, 2007.
ACTION: Users are asked to contact the co-chairs with suggestions for session
topics, speakers and workshops. Robert and Hiro will begin to draft a program
for SSRL34 in the next few months.
Undergraduate Research Opportunities: Chris Kim and Karen McFarland Holman
(Willamette University) discussed activities to encourage and support new
users, especially undergraduate students. The NSLS Faculty Student Research
Program was discussed as one potential model to provide assistance to new users
(this would likely require funds for travel grants, per diem reimbursement).
Robert Szilagyi suggested the possibility of coordinating an extra day of beam
time specifically for undergraduate training. To determine who would be
interested in this option, a question about the use of beam time to support new
user training or undergraduate research could be added to the proposal and to
the beam time request. Another suggestion was to piggyback undergraduate
students to work with experienced scientists, the benefit to new users would be
valuable experience and to incorporating new researchers may make the beam time
experiments more interesting to principal investigators who might not otherwise
have much interaction with students. ACTION: This will be discussed again at
future meetings.
Next SSRLUOEC Meeting on February 15th: Several SSRLUOEC members will be at
SSRL for the SAC meeting on February 15th (am), so we plan to arrange a meeting
of the SSRLUOEC in the afternoon (tentatively scheduled 1:30-4 pm). ACTION:
Please share agenda items with Chris Kim or Cathy Knotts. Details on time and
location to be circulated shortly.
Cathy Knotts
SSRL Liaison to SSRL Users' Organization Executive Committee
Last Updated:
12 APR 2007
Content Owner:
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Knotts
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