*************************** ** THE GEM MESSENGER ** *************************** Volume 18, Number 23 July 28, 2008 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steering Committee Meeting Report ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Robert Clauer GEM Steering Committee Meeting, 2008 Summer Workshop, June 27, 2008 Attendance: Jimmy Raeder, Bob Clauer, Hideaki Kawano, Chris Russell, Mark Moldwin, Frank Toffoletto, Brian Fraser, Therese Moretto, Katherine Garcia, Michael Hesse, Eric Donovan, Mike Liemohn, Michael Wiltberger, David Sibeck, Stan Sazykin, Howard Singer, Simon Shepherd, Maria Spasojevic, Jeff Hughes, Jerry Goldstein, Kile Baker, Chuck Goodrich 1. 2009 Summer Workshop Planning a. Potential sites in Snowmass, Columbia river, Annapolis, Santa Fe b. CEDAR 2009 June 27 - July 3 in Sante Fe c. GEM 2009 will meet June 21 - 26. These dates are available at Snowmass. d. Snowmass is our first choice. We will try to negotiate a 2-year deal. (June 20 - 25, 2010). Terry Onsager will visit Snowmass to see first hand the changes since construction and report back to Clauer. e. Santa Fe is second choice - need to look at the El Dorado hotel and La Fonda hotel. f. We prefer that GEM meet alone 2009 and 2010. Perhaps CEDAR can book in Boulder adjacent to GEM in 2010. 2. 2008 December Mini-Workshop - we need to explore with AGU early regarding meeting rooms. We may be better off negotiating independently. We will look at alternative hotels for meeting rooms. 3. We will explore meeting jointly with CEDAR in 2011. 4. Ramona Kessel rotates off the SC following the meeting. The SC thanks Ramona for her service. Candidates were discussed and Jimmy will make an appointment accordingly. (Note: Nick Omidi has accepted to replace Ramona. - JR) 5. Do we need agency reports at the workshop? a. 5-minute reports are still desirable, we prefer not to have them on Monday morning. 6. Should we change the summer workshop to have SHINE?style morning wrapups of the previous day sessions instead of the Friday wrap-up? a. EXCELLENT IDEA. - will be implemented in the 2009 workshop - given in the spirit of the 'sessions today descriptions.' b. Jimmy will provide a template format for wrap?ups - Statement of Goals and Progress report with request to all group leaders to follow the format. 7. Should we implement a GEM Post-Doc plenary talk? No decision made. 8. Poster Sessions (should identify Student Posters - maybe indicate expected graduation date.) Continue the poster session from 5:00 - 7:00. Posters should be left up longer if possible. a. Are there other ways to mix faculty and students? Poster sessions seemed to be the best method. Maybe we should identify or segregate student posters. 9. We should consider having the steering committee meeting during an evening mid-week. 10. Agency Reports: a. SHINE - Chris Russell reported that there was general satisfaction with the joint meeting but some regret that the organization of the meeting had not been coordinated better. b. GEM Communications - Chris Russell reported that he hopes to issue the GEMStone newsletter earlier this year and requests that all focus group leaders submit reports for the newsletter to him as soon as possible. UCLA has set up a Wiki that can be used by the focus groups and general GEM information. Peter Chi will assist. This is the final year of their support for GEM communications at UCLA. The effort will be re-competed. Chris will not propose but it is likely that Peter Chi at UCLA will submit a proposal. Others are encouraged to also compete. c. NSF - Basic information about NSF budgets has been posted on the UCLA GEM Web site. Kile reported on upcoming funding opportunities, including Cyber?enabled Discovery and Innovation (CDI), Petascale Applications, Career, and the GK12 program. Michael Wiltberger indicated that NCAR computer time is available and he can assist with information regarding the application process and available facilities. The NSF Small Satellite competition received 29 proposals that are under review. d. NASA - Chuck Goodrich encouraged people to submit proposals to upcoming opportunities. e. CCMC - Michael Hesse reported that CCMC is accumulating more models. Runs on request are being filled on average of 2 per day. The CCMC encourages people to use their facilities and to provide feedback. f. NOAA - Howard Singer reported that the next Space Weather Workshop will be held Apr. 27 - May 1. SWPC has a new emphasis on putting out tools and prediction services. Feedback and ideas for Space Weather Workshop are encouraged. g. CEDAR - Simon Shepherd reported on the CEDAR workshop sessions and discussions. A new thrust is to look at coupled system science so there is increased interest to meet jointly with GEM. New GEM liaison will be Mike Ruohoniemi. CEDAR will meet next year in Santa Fe June 27 - July 3. In 2010, they could meet in Boulder during the week adjacent to GEM if GEM were held in Snowmass. h. Australia - Brian Fraser reported on funding issues in Australia. The new Australian government may be more favorable to science. Two SuperDARN radars are operating and a third has been proposed. The Western Pacific meeting will be held in July. i. Canada - Eric Donovan reported on the availability of ground data for Themis related studies. He will supply information to be posted on GEM Wiki. j. Japan - A written report was submitted and will be available on the GEM website (http://www.ssc.igpp.ucla.edu/gem/pdf/Kawano_report_2008Jun27.pdf), primarily concerning the timely accessibility of Geotail data. k. DASI - Mark Moldwin reported on the 'distributed array of small instruments' effort. There was a DASI workshop at GEM last year. Other events have overtaken DASI and efforts seems to have stalled. There need to be more coordinated discussions between GEM, CEDAR, and NSF. l. GEM Student Report - Katherine Garcia reported on the student sessions that were held jointly with Shine. They would have liked to have lists of participating students updated more often so that they could contact students in the program planning prior to the meeting. Information did not seem to get back to all students. We need to be more pro-active in contacting students and providing information about their arrangements and lists of participating students to student leaders for their planning purposes. The incoming student representative will be Drew Turner (Colorado University). m. Kile Baker reviewed the problems for ground based space science in England. At the present time funding for most ground based facilities have been zeroed out. People are fighting this. n. Increased costs of air fares may impact the number of students that can be supported for future meetings. We may need to negotiate partial support with advisors in order to maintain support for about 60 students. We were able to support about 42 students and fortunately Rice had residual funds that supported another 18 students. Meeting Adjouned. +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |To subscribe GEM Messengers, send an e-mail to | | with the following command in the body of your e-mail message: | | subscribe gem | |To remove yourself from the mailing list, the command is: | | unsubscribe gem | | | |To broadcast a message to the GEM community, please contact Peter Chi at | | | |Please use plain text as the format of your submission. | | | |Workshop Information: http://www.cpe.vt.edu/gem/index.html | |GEM Wiki Page: http://aten.igpp.ucla.edu/gemwiki | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+