Minutes of SHUG Executive Committee Meeting of February 25, 2004

Present members (10):

Paul Butler
Nancy Ross
Takeshi Egami
Kim Tait
Joanna Krueger
Paul Sokol
Lynn Walker
Angus Wilkinson
Christina Hoffman
John Turner
 

• Approval of minutes from Feb. 5 (if available)

  ANNOUNCEMENTS:          

• Congratulations to Angus Wilkinson, the SHUG vice-chair 2004  and to Christina Hoffman, the 2004 SHUG secretary, Thank you for updating the web pages!
  
  
• ACNS user's reception and meeting update [Paul Sokol]

A Tuesday evening reception is planned from 6 pm to 8 pm which will merge into a poster session. The hosted reception would have four focus areas for discussion occupying the four corners of the main hall. Food and refreshments would be available at the center of the hall. The focus areas we are planning are:1) Facilities – description of facilities and planned upgrades 2) Instruments – description of new and upgraded instruments 3) User Support – covering issues such as sample environment, data acquisition and analysis. 4) Administrative Issues – lobbying and user support for sources. The first three of these areas would be staffed by members of the participating sources while the final area would be staffed by members of the user groups. Space for posters for each of the participating facilities would be provided. The size limitations on the posters and the exact layout of the reception will be available in the near future.  Paul (Sokol) has written a letter to each of the facilities and user representatives inviting them to participate.  

• SNS and HFIR sub-group member selection (continued)

John Turner volunteered to serve on both the SNS and HFIR subgroup committees and to chair the HFIR sub-group. David Bowman will serve on the SNS sub-group.    OLD BUSINESS:

• SHUG By-law issues (re-election issues, term limits, annual meeting)

Paul Butler has started an email conversation and we all are encourage to continue in this conversation.

• Chair as ex-officio member of Sci Advisory Boards? SNS, HFIR, JINS

As chair of SHUG, I (or a designee) have been invited (by Ian Anderson) to participate, as an observer, at the Experimental Facilities Advisory Committee (EFAC) this April (14 – 16). I plan on representing the SHUG at this meeting.    NEW BUSINESS: At 2:50 pm, we will be joined by Al Ekkebus and Greg Smith, User Administration for SNS and HFIR, respectively Al and Greg joined us promptly at 2:50 pm. Questions that came up last time to ask Al and Greg include:

• The recent facilities managers meeting

Some of what they reported to us included discussion on various facilities fast access policies. Access requirements vary among the different facilities and that most facilities felt that a fast access policy, per se, would not be necessary if user is in direct contact with the beam scientist. IPNS does not have a policy but sets aside a certain number of days for fast access. LANSE has a fast access policy but it is new and hasn’t been used yet. Facility managers feel that the leaders of the various user groups might value meeting together, perhaps under the NSSA.  

• Any updates on the fast access implementation at HFIR

Greg reports that they are forming our document into a policy working with Brian to implement at the powder diffractometer as a first “test” case. One instrument scientist plus one committee member will review proposals and this can be done quickly by email. There will be a check box on the proposal form where the user can check off if they would like their proposal reviewed as a fast access status. To ensure accountability, the process needs to be transparent.  

• Ideas on how we can acquire access to the list of names and email addresses of those who voted in the recent SHUG elections (Also, what’s up the recent email request user interest web updates?)

Proposal by Al is that when users send in their proposals there would be a check box that would automatically be checked and have to be manually unchecked requesting that all proposal authors be added to the SHUG list. SHUG would then be given direct access to this list.

• Updates on the current schedule for instrument installations at HFIR and how best to make that schedule accessible and clear to the users

Currently three triple axis instruments, 4 more instruments will be available by the end of 2004: HB2 Residual Stress; WAND (diffuse scattering); Reflectometer and SNS test instrument. The powder diffractometer wil be up by early 2005 followed by the single crystal diffractometer. The cold source is scheduled to come up in 2005 and the two SANS lines will be up for testing in 2006. A triple axis will be added in 2006, fundamental physics late 2006 and cold triple and usans in 07/08. Next month will be the call for proposals for new rounds.  

• Information on the SNS and HFIR SACs- who is on them and how often do they meet? How well do you feel users’ interests are represented in the decision-making at these meetings? Etc.