Minutes of telecon of May 22, 2001 (1100 CDT)

Next telecon: June 19, 1100 CDT; 608-265-1000 #4112

Reminder:  June Meeting is June 28/29, 2001. 
ARRIVE EVENING OF JUNE 27 (WEDNESDAY);
LEAVE PM OF FRIDAY, JUNE 29. 


Present: Babler, Benjamin, Churchwell, Esquivel,
Kobulnicky, Meade, Watson, Whitney, Wolff, Wolfire

1.  Report of the SIRTF Science Users Committee:  Dan was not there so
Ed summarized what Dan told him.  
a) Regarding 3 minute overhead problem, SSC
is reluctant to change policy.  However, we might get 6 hour integration
times (currently 3 hr), and can probably do wider stripes.  If so, we
can probably come to within 10-15% of allocated time.  The downside is
more jagged edges and more difficulty with overlap.
b) IRS camera--shake test in June, probably won't hear until August.  If there
is degradation, there probably will be enough pressure to open it up,
and delay 6-8 mos.  There may be additional money budgeted for carryover.

2.  Report on SSC activities:  Tony is on vacation.  save it for
June meeting.

3.  Report on Assistant Scientist position:  Chip, John, Ed, and Barb
met and reviewed applications (9 total), divided into 3 groups, 
the top is a short list, and the bottom will be sent rejection letters.  
One candidate stood out head and shoulders above the rest, 
Remy Indebetouw, so it was decided a phone interview is not necessary 
at this stage and an offer will be made to Remy.  Ed will make an 
unofficial offer by email to be followed up by an official offer 
when paper work is filled out.  Remy has done theory, observation,
and was PI on a sounding rocket.  He is interested to get back into
star formation and seemed very enthusiastic about GLIMPSE.  

4.  June meeting:
a) Survey starting point.  In October 2002, l=40-70 may be location to
pick from.
b)  Survey science:  
 - Bob Benjamin suggests doing science with MSX.  Everyone
agrees it is a great idea.  Should talk to MSX, BU people about
collaborations.  some possible topics:  bubbles, cold cores.
Ed has a candidate list of about 2000 ultra-compact HII regions.
Bob spotted at least 200 bubbles in the MSX data.
We also need to pick out rare objects, special objects to start
with.  Bob suggests that we develop color-color plots to show
where different types of objects lie.  Chip did some of this for
the proposal, but it would be good to continue.
- papers:  Chip suggests EVERYONE COME TO THE MEETING WITH A TITLE
AND ABSTRACT FOR PAPERS THEY WANT TO WRITE, BOTH IN THE SHORT
AND LONG TERM.  Ed likes this and says to emphasize it in the minutes.
Ed also points out that a starting point is our original proposal where we
list a bunch of papers with authors.  Barb suggests developing an 
overall science plan, and assigning authorship from that.  Mike points
out that we need to establish guidelines for authorship, and in the pipeline
we need to think about tools for science, not just processing.
- ancillary data.  we should write observing proposals!  e.g., Keck
near-IR images of massive star forming regions.  
c)  Database management and d) Pipeline:
  planning to have a demo for the meeting
e) Survey Strategy
  needs fine tuning, still some gaps
f) IR toolshed
  Mark will give a demo
g) budget and h) personnel distribution
  We will want to revisit the issue of who will be most involved in pipeline
processing analysis and do we have enough resources for them.
h)  Report on SSC from Tony

5.  Other
AAS meeting, who will attend?  Bob Benjamin, Mark Wolfire, Ed Churchwell...

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