NGVLA SAC Telecon Present: Alberto Bolatto, Andrea Isella, Eric Murphy, James Di Francesco, Joseph Lazio, Brenda Matthews i) Science Book Update - invitations to write chapters sent, some pushback on December 22 date - some people have not replied, may need to approach others if the first invitees don't agree to help - will ping people next week, after American Thanksgiving - need to emphasize that it doesn't have to be "perfect" for the date, just a rough draft or even a skeleton is OK for now ii) High-Z Figure for KSG document - need Dominik's input for this discussion - need a high-Z figure for the Key Science Goals document, a simulation of high-Z galaxies run through the CASA simulator. Carilli has produced some- thing. Problem is that it's not clear it is believable. Interferometers only see contrast against (warmer) CMB at higher redshifts. - Alberto shows simulation of CO 1-0 (ngVLA), 2-1 (ngVLA), and 4-3 (ALMA), hard to believe extended info of CO 1-0 unless done correctly. Desika Narayanan has been asked to adjust the code and work out a new calculation with CMB effects. In the meantime, we will publish M51 redshifted figure by Carilli in Memo 13 instead - need to get this out on astro-ph soon since we are very late doing it iii) June Meeting update - chasing people down for talks as well as chapters and posters may lead to some overload - NRAO has signed a contract with downtown Hilton Hotel in Portland - SOC subgroup led by Brenda has been very silent, leading to frustration - Kaitlin Kratter had turned us down for a plenary session talk, Andrea is the next person we will approach, Ted Bergin is interested and is trying to get his schedule and funding worked out for 2018. Parallel session invited talks is another issue, and a strawman schedule is being put together. Thanksgiving week means that we will defer discussion until next week. - Alex Pope has said yes, Rob Kennicutt has declined, Michael Cramer has tent- atively said yes, others have said no. Probably SOC Chairs should talk next week. - Caitlin has circulated a couple of votes for some speakers. - We already have lost some people to an AGN meeting in Paris that same week! iv) AAS Meeting Special Session update - do we need to do something to prepare for that? - Brenda is putting together a talk - Date of Special Session is Thursday, January 11, and NRAO Town Hall will be that night v) SAC-wide Telecon - want to organize a telecon with the whole Science Advisory Committee, to keep them informed and let them know what is expected of them in the upcoming year - what is the expectation of committment for this involvement? Reviewing in- coming chapters of the Science Book? - also need to get them to "spread the word" using the Science Talk Bureau of slides, etc. - SAC is most effective for brainstorming, their role is to answer "what do we do next?" - Telecon should be the first full week of December, in two weeks. Will send an e-mail now to inform everyone of what's going on. - maybe set up some quarterly SAC-wide meetings in 2018 onward to keep everyone apprised of what's going on - also will broach the idea of having a F2F meeting in 2018, maybe attached to the June meeting, or maybe somewhere else. Right after the June meeting may be best since everyone's head will be focused on ngVLA at that time. - Andrea and I will put together an agenda, next week we will be at Anneila's meeting in Pasadena and Andrea will include ngVLA in his presentation. Joe may be able to join into a coffee break ngVLA SAC meeting. vi) AOB? - Anyone need anything from Eric? Except for maybe a few million dollars, no. - Good to have an update of the technical progress during the SAC-wide telecon - NSF is having a delta review just before the call. - General Dynamics estimate for antenna reference design came in a bit high, working to bring it down. Casting a wider net may be a good move, not sure why we are not doing that now but there is a political element involved? - NRC is our saving grace. No longer a single-dish composite but a paneled design. NRC is planning to have a technical meeting sometime in the new year as well (August?)