SLUO Executive Committee Meeting

Minutes (version 2) from the SLUO Executive Board Interim Meeting 5 December 2003, 12:00 Noon.

Present from SLUO: Ray Cowan, Eduardo do Coute e Silva, Gregory Dubois-Felsmann (phone), Berrie Giebels (phone), Yury Kolomensky (phone), Olga Iakovleva, Eli Rosenberg (phone), Bruce Schumm, Gabriella Sciolla, Eric Torrence (phone), Amanda Weinstein.

Apologies:  Gautier Hamel de Monchenault, Krishna Kumar.

Visitors: None.

1. Washington Trip
      Gregory, chair of the Washington Trip Subcommittee, reminded us that the Washington trip will again be fully coordinated with the Fermilab UEC, and will take place during a mid-week period in March (the date has not yet been finalized). There will be a joint UEC/SLUO planning meeting, most likely Saturday January 31 at SLAC. This meeting will probably incorporate separate as well as joint meetings of the UEC and SLUO. It is also felt to be important to provide a tour and presentation of SLAC initiatives to the UEC when they are here, time permitting. Gregory will contact the UEC about their thoughts for the January 31 joint planning meeting, and then the full subcommittee will work on a tentative agenda for the meeting. It is also thought that there will be at least one phone meeting between SLUO and the UEC before the January 31 meeting.
    
2. Outreach
      Ray, chair of the Outreach Subcommittee, reported on the first public lecture planning meeting that the Subcommittee held on November 17. It is likely that the first lecture will be held in mid-February, with lectures approximately every two months thereafter. Lecture sponsorship will alternate between SLAC HEP and SSRL. The first lecture will likely be delivered by Neil Calder, and will be a general introduction to SLAC and the particle physics done here. Suggestions for the second and third HEP lectures were presentations on BaBar and the question of matter vs. antimatter, and on connections between particle physics and astrophysics.
      Discussion continued on the question of training for public presentation of particle physics. The Communication Department at Stanford will host a one-day workshop geared towards those intending to participate in the Washington trip.
      The SLUO EC also discussed the possibility of beginning a Toastmasters- inspired activity in which SLAC physicists would present trial talks amongst themselves that are geared towards the general public. It was thought that it might be most compelling to do this in the context of a list of organizations (high schools, seniors clubs our business roundtables) that would be interested in lay-level talks on SLAC research and HEP. This will be explored further by the Subcommittee.
    
3. Health Insurance Poll
      Eduardo presented a preliminary look at the results of the SLUO Health Insurance Poll, to which there were over 150 respondents, many of whom were faculty and senior researchers. There appears to be a good deal of useful data in the survey, but the EC was unwilling to draw any hard conclusions based on the analysis that had been done so far. The Users Welfare Subcommittee will continue to process the data, and results should be available for the next EC meeting in January.
    
4. Extended Shuttle Service
      Eduardo presented the results of a poll of current Marguerite riders conducted by the manager of the SLAC Guest House. This poll suggested substantial demand for extended service, particularly between seven and ten on weekday nights. Eduardo has gotten a commitment from the manager to allow the Guest House van (and driver) to act as a preliminary after- hours shuttle, primarily to allow students and staff who work late to get back to campus or to the CALTRAIN station (for liability reasons, the van is not permitted to stop a destinations off SLAC property). Eduardo proposed daily van trips at 7:30 starting next week, and then at 7:00 and 8:00 beginning in January. A number of questions were raised, including the most efficient route and drop-off points, the sign-up procedure, the size of the client pool, and how the program would be promoted. Because of this, it was decided to delay the program until January.
    
5. Adjournment
      The meeting adjourned at 1:45 pm.

So Attests,
Bruce Schumm
Secretary and Treasurer, SLUO Executive Committee