Communication Issues - Brant Johnson, BNL

1. Communication Issues - Brant Johnson, BNL • Part I: General Issues of User Communication • User Questions and Concerns • Partners in Communication (internal and external) • Methods of Communication (push, pull, and respond) Part II: My Brief History as a User and User Rep. Part III: A Specific Example (RHIC & AGS) • Reorganizing a Users’ Executive Committee • Startup and Evolution of a Users’ Center

2. Part I: User Questions and Concerns As a user, how do I understand: • What is expected of me. (regulations, procedures, dos and don’ts) • What has changed. (regulations, procedures, dos and don’ts) • Who can help me. (site access, lodging, remote computing, etc.). • To whom to report problems and suggestions. • How to convey the importance of my work.

3. Partners in Communication: • User Administrators (the “go to” people who are there to help me). • User Organization or Executive Committee (elected and appointed liaisons). • Experimental Research Team (a few, formal group, or large collaboration). • Facility Administration (scheduling and operational issues). • Laboratory Administration (environment, safety, security, and health). • Stakeholders in Washington (must know rules of engagement).

4. PUSHing information to users: • web pages (news, information, announcements, changes) • e-mail (to individuals, distribution lists, or list servers) • face-to-face (open forums and other meetings) • telephone, paper mail, FAX, telegraph, pony exp. (rarely or never used)

5. PULLing information from users: • e-mail (sending out requests for feedback or surveys) • web pages (comment boxes, interactive forms for surveys • face-to-face (walk-ins, open forums, and other meetings) • telephone, paper mail, FAX, telegraph, pony exp. (rarely or never used)

6. RESPONDing to user concerns: • e-mail (receive concern, investigate, reply, follow-up) • telephone (real time answers or follow-up later) • face-to-face (walk-ins, open forums, and other meetings) • web pages (updates and acknowledgements) • paper mail, FAX, telegraph, pony express (rarely or never used)

7. Part II: My brief history as a user A local user (atomic, plasma, beam physics): 1971-1975 EN tandem at Univ. of Texas at Austin 1975-1984 dual MP tandems at BNL 1984-1992 National Synch. Light Source at BNL A visiting user (atomic and plasma physics): 1977 EN Tandem at Oak Ridge Natl. Lab Super HILAC, Lawrence Berkeley Natl. Lab Triumf Cyclotron, Vancouver, Canada Max Planck Inst. tandem,Heidelberg,Germany 1984 GSI, Darmstadt, Germany A local user (nuclear and particle physics): 1992-pres. RHIC and AGS at BNL

8. Part II: My brief history as a User Rep. 1989-1992 Representative, Special Interest Group on AMO Science to NSLS UEC. 1991-1992 Chair, NSLS Subcommittee on Beam Line Operation & Safety Awareness 1992-pres. Principal Liaison (now Official Host) for 500 users on PHENIX Experiment at RHIC. 2001-2004 Elected Member, RHIC & AGS Users’ Executive Committee (UEC) 2004-2005 Chair-Elect, RHIC & AGS UEC 2005-2006 Chair, RHIC & AGS UEC 2006-2007 Past-Chair, RHIC & AGS UEC 2007-2010 Elected Member, RHIC & AGS UEC

9. UEC Chairs in the Era of RHIC Succession of Chairs for 3 year terms unchanged Jim Thomas, LBNL Chair 1999-2001 Rich Seto, UCR Chair 2001-3, Past Chair 2003-4 Vicki Greene, Vanderbilt Chair-Elect 2002-3, Chair 2003-4,Past Chair 2004-5 Gary Westfall , MSU Chair-Elect 2003-4,Chair 2004-5,Past Chair 2005-6 Brant Johnson, BNL Chair-Elect 2004-5,Chair 2005-6,Past Chair 2006-7 John Hill, ISU Chair-Elect 2005-6, Chair 2006-7, Past Chair 2007-8

10. Users’ Group Ex-Officio Members BNL employees holding the following positions are registered as Ex-Officio members of the Users’ Group: Director of Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) BNL Deputy Director for Science and Technology Associate Director for Nuclear and Particle Physics Chair of the Collider-Accelerator Department Chair of the Physics Department Accelerator Division Head Experimental Support Facilities Head Director of Users’ Center (and GUV Center).

11. 2. Discussion on working groups • Vision: • Reorganize previous UEC Committees into four • Working Groups to cover broad areas of UEC concern. • Carry out the “work” of the UEC through active • engagement of 6-10 members “working” together in • each Working Group. • 3. Charge each UEC Member to concentrate their efforts as a Convenor of one Working Group or as a member of only one or two Working Groups (except Ex-Officio). • 4. The Working portion (10:00 to 11:15) of each monthly UEC meeting shall be devoted to reports from each Working group on outcomes of previous ACTIONS, status of current ACTION ITEMS, and initiation of new ACTION ITEMS.

12. UEC Working Groups (UWG) • Brookhaven Site Access • Physical Access (Visa, Guest Appointment, Gate Access) • Computer Access (Cybersecurity, Scientific Computing) • Safety, Training, Scientific Computing and data transfer issues • Funding and Political Action • Funding: Facility Operations, Research, and User Support. • Political Action: Interactions with DOE, OSTP, OMB, Congress • Meetings and Open Forums • Annual Users’ Meeting and semi-annual Users’ Group Meetings • Quarterly Open Forums and Monthly UEC Meetings. • Quality of Life • Housing and Transportation; Recreation and Socialization • Site Enhancements (better lighting, foot paths, maintenance) • Agenda input for Open Forums at BNL and User Group Meetings • Liaisons to Association for Students And Postdocs (ASAP)

13. Ex-Officio Conveners of Working Groups Brookhaven Site Access Director of Users’ Center (user administrator) Funding and Political Action UEC Chair Meetings and Open Forums UEC Chair-Elect Quality of Life UEC Past-Chair

14. Major Concerns of RHIC User Community • FUNDING for Research (groups and nations) • FUNDING for RHIC and Detector Operations • FUNDING for RHIC and Detector Upgrades • FUNDING for long-term future (RHIC II, e-RHIC) • 2. Visa Issues and Approval for BNL Site Access: • Of 1030 RHIC Users, only 319 are U.S., • while 711 (69%) are non-U.S. • Currently 230 RHIC “sensitive” country users: • Russia (113), China (62), India (43), Israel (4), • Taiwan (4), Pakistan (2), Georgia (1), and Ukraine (1). • 3. Safety, Training, and Quality of Life at BNL. • Staying abreast of changing rules and regulations. • e.g., Homeland Security Presidential Directive, HSPD-12

15. 3. List servers and web pages List servers: The Users’ Center has developed and maintains several list servers to communicate with the general user community and specific subsets (e.g., RHIC-AGS, NSRL, ATF, tandem, UEC members).