NAASC Organizational Meeting: Wednesday Nov 05, 1-2:30pm ET (1800-1930UT), CV-ER209/TUC-N525/Soc280(SO-conf2)

Meeting Information

• Call date: 2008-11-05 (Wednesday)
• Call time 13:00 ET or 18:00 UT
• Duration: 1.5 hr
• Non toll-free number: 434-244-6834
• USA toll-free Number: 866-675-5385
• Outside USA Number: +1 517-444-6916
• Passcode: 8445333#
• Leader: Hibbard

Attendees

• CV: JH, CL, AW, CB, HL, BK, JS, AR, RI, TH, AE
• Soc: SM, BG
• GB:
• ATF:
• Canada: (unavailable today)
• Tuc: DE

Action Items from past meetings (RED=OPEN)

• ACTION: convert alma simulation webpage to use CiteULike
  • WHO: Rob Reid
  • Due: when he can
  • DONE: 11/5/08
  • Notes: http://www.cv.nrao.edu/naasc/alma_simulations.shtml
• ACTION: submit 2008Q3 quarterly report
  • WHO: JH
  • DUE: 10/20
  • DONE: 10/24
• ACTION: write eNews article on NAASC workshop
  • WHO: Remy
  • DUE: 10/3
  • DONE: 10/3
  • NOTES: http://www.nrao.edu/news/newsletters/enews/enews_1_5/enews_1_5.shtml#almaworkshop
• ACTION: get pdfs of talks posted to workshop webpage
  • WHO: JH
  • DUE: 10/6
  • DONE: 10/6 (with some stragglers)
  • NOTES: http://www.cv.nrao.edu/php/meetings/massive08/program.shtml
• ACTION: post "lessons learned" to workshop wiki
  • WHO: JH
  • DUE: 10/6
  • DONE: 10/1
  • NOTES: https://wiki.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/MassiveLessonsLearned

Action Items from this meeting:

Agenda

• NAASC News (Hibbard)
  • Rob put together new page for alma simulations that uses CiteULike, so people can tag their own papers. Will make much easier to maintain. People felt this was a very good first start, but it does need some refinement (looks redundant). AI: Remy should update almasimmos wiki after his demo is done.
  • Any news on our advertised positions? 3 applications for CASA job. UVa position was cancelled. No other news
  • New JAO ALMA Observatory Webpage. AI on JS to add/replace links to http://www.cv.nrao.edu/naasc/ and http://www.alma.nrao.edu/. Remove the latter if JAO page contains all this material.
  • JH traveled to Chile for "Emergency Budget Summit" Oct 15-18. Will meet with NSF tomorrow to go over FY09 budget.
  • JH updated main NAASC wiki page, especially ALMAFunctionalAssignments2009. Many new assignees. Possible model is to make a "one-stop" wiki for each area that includes table of relevant contacts from construction, JAO, ARCs; relevant documentation; meeting/mailing list info, test plans and past test results. See e.g. NaascArchive. If you need any help finding this information, consult with me and I'll work it with you.
  • Helpdesk document turned over from JH to AE Oct 15. Need updated for distribution to ARCs by Nov 27. Should send around internally before that.
  • Preliminary ASAC report: no specific Development action for FY09. Would have to coordinate with JAO if we want this funded in FY10. Antenna contract expires June 09. Final report due 1/28/09
  • Visit by J. Pearson Oct 29-30. See Main Event
  • M. Thornley & J. Gallimore will spend their sabbatical at the NAASC Jul09-Jun10. They will work on scientific verification of CASA, and perhaps documentation.
  • Effort to write SOW with UMd to write pathlength for Carma data into CASA
  • ALMA Milestones: meeting called by Ade last Thursday. I'll discuss what this means for us. What milestones can we say in public? Carol will talk to Thijs about this at Board meeting in Nov and let us know.

• Project News (Wootten)
  • Taiwan has joined the project
  • Status Report
    • Construction progress Status Report from ASAC meeting.
  • Commissioning and Science Verification (new versions not received for September).
    • IPS Pictorial View
      • (new) View
    • Current Operations Schedule
    • Current Science IPT Schedule
    • Production Deliverables
    • First deliverables dates
  • ALMA Biweekly Calendar

• ANASAC
  • Final report on charges from f2f meeting was sent by Baker. See attached.
  • Since there is a new chair (Weinberger), she may need reminding of bimonthly telecon (next is sometime this month). She is visiting tomorrow. Will meet with Carol to set meeting dates, etc.
  • ANASAC wiki needs updating; webpage too. AI on CL?

• Main Event:
  • Molecular Spectral Line effort - Pearson visit. What is next step? Crystal related that ESO is willing to host workshop; NAASC would need to pay to send NA investigators. We will discuss at special meeting on Friday at 2pm
  • New meetings, concentrating on work to be done. Carol will discuss. Every other week, using imcal timeslot (2nd & 4th Tuesday at 4pm in CV209). 1st meeting: Nov 25.
  • Our local webpages: will discuss this at future meeting. JH will collate relevant comments from various committee reports
  • Next NAASC science workshop/meeting - where and when? Aaron reported - too expensive at bus school, so will do Omni. Possible dates are June 21-25 (preferred), May 31-June 4, July 19-23. SB&AGN is too broad of a topic. Will iterate with SOC
  • We have to develop a plan for ALMA preparatory schools/tutorials
    • Crystal is heading to Chile in Jan to give the JAO a CASA tutorial
    • A more open CASA tutorial should occur after the CASA Advisory Group is appointed (Spring?)
    • Canadians may still be planning school/tutorials in '09 in Calgary
    • This is a topic for a future working meeting. JH will collate relevant comments from various committee reports

• Reports from Working Groups
  • Pipeline
  • CASA
    • Patch 3 is 1 mo late. Needed ~3days of effort from everyone. Got none. Crystal did all the work again. This has to change
  • ObsTool
  • Casapy simulator
    • Remy is working on canned demo for Jan AAS.
  • ALMA Archive
    • CL, DH, JH meet to review status. Goal is to have implementation plan by Jan 09.
    • New attempt at "one-stop" wiki at NaascArchive
  • Calibration Group (JeffMangum): Calibration
  • Imaging Group (AlWootten):
    • ALMA Science IPT wiki page
  • Splatalogue.
    • Tony sent out progress against "Focus Group" recommendations on 10/23. Have contracted with programmer to do display. Tony working on getting other material in. See last months agenda for priorities (or attach Tony's email to Supplemental material?)
  • Webpages (Aaron Evans):
    • Fred wants NAASC to pioneer science user outreach.
  • EPO (Stoke)
    • Making good progress on coordinated NRAO/NA ALMA/NRAO Chile EPO plan.
    • NRAO eNews: Should have something on larger NAASC when we are all here. Will wait until we have a better website up and running
    • NAASC at January AAS in Long Beach:
      • Stand-alone demo of alma simulator, Splatalogue, Casa Viewer - No, do not use viewer demo.
      • NRAO Town Hall on Wed before the banquet. John S. wants NAASC scientist at booth ~2hr periods each day to answer questions.
      • NAASC participants: CL, CB, AR, AP, JdF, AE. TH, AW. Maybe Brenda Matthews, Doug Johnstone. Sounds like enough people.
      • Good place to do interviews for jobs - Carol will take charge of that.
  • NAASC Workshops (Aaron Evans)
    • Thinking about N~150 in the June09 timeframe.
  • Upcoming Science Meetings: (Wootten)
    • One of the special sessions for the 5-7 Jan 2009 URSI commission J meeting in Boulder, Colorado will be on "ALMA Technology, Science and Status". See attachment.
    • Other Meetings of interest listed at http://www.cv.nrao.edu/naasc/alma_meetings.php (is this kept updated?)

• Supplemental Material
  • 2009URSI.pdf: Abstract Book
  • YPlusMar08writeupb.pdf: Holdaway Extended Configuration, 1 April version