First meeting, May 6, 2002

Perserverance Hall, LBNL

Recorded by T. Hallman

The opening discussion focused on the nature of the Advisory Board, and the fact that it is advisory to the Spokesperson. The suggestion was made and accepted that sessions would be open to the collaboration membership, with the understanding that if sensitive issues arose, the Board could at any time move to go into executive (closed) session. Discussions known a priori to be in this category would be noted as such on the agenda. It was further discussed that for this initial meeting the agenda had been put together jointly by the Spokesperson and the Council Chair. That would also be the case for future meetings, but the Advisory Board members would also be solicited for agenda items before each meeting.

A report was given by Bill Christie concerning ongoing repairs to the SVT hardware by David Lynn, Bill Leonhardt, et al. Helen Caines presented the status of the software and analysis effort for the SVT. The conclusions were that the ongoing hardware repairs appeared to be in hand in terms of readying the SVT for operation in the coming run. The software effort was noted to also have made great strides, and it was stated that the manpower situation was looking somewhat brighter with the addition of Richard Witt from BERN/Yale. It was stated that more effort on software/analysis/calibration was needed, and that the Spokesperson should encourage groups whose physics interests are tied to the SVT to become involved in this software effort. It is hoped that the SVT will become a standard component of the DAQ and production chains for the coming run.

The continuing difficult situation with the productivity and environment in E-By-E was discussed. There was discussion concerning the impression from the status talk at the Analysis Meeting that the paper in preparation on non-statistical fluctuations in mean pt would not follow the recommendations of the committee chaired by Mike Lisa. It was commented that although the talk went beyond the discussion of the status of the paper, and one could get this impression, the writing team was in fact working to address various concerns about possible systematics, which was one of the main recommendations of the report. It was commented that when the text is ready, it will be returned to the Lisa Committee prior to going into GPC to verify that it reflects the conclusions of the committee's report. It was noted that the Lisa report is taken to represent the consensus view of the Collaboration and will be used as the blueprint to get this paper out. With regard to the future, the question of how to improve the general environment in E-By-E was discussed. No firm conclusion was reached, although it was discussed that because the difficulty appeared to be irreconcilable, and revolved around the dynamic between several individuals, some separatation of the principals might be necessary. This was noted not to be a complete solution, but one which would perhaps provide a better environment locally within the physics working groups, allowing young people in particular to work productively in a colleagial atmosphere.

A brief status report was given on a planned MRPC TOF proposal by Geary Eppley. The plan is to submit a proposal in May for consideration at the next Collaboration meeting, in anticipation of consideration by the BNL PAC next August.

A brief status report on the ongoing shutdown activities was given by Bill Christie. It was stated that at present, there was no need for the Advisory Board to give guidance on prioritization of the ongoing or planned activities, although it could happen later in the year that this would become necessary.