A Message from Stanislaus Wong
information from the Users' Executive Committee
December 11, 2013
Stanislaus Wong
Dear Fellow Users,
On behalf of the CFN Users’ Executive Committee (UEC), welcome to a new cycle. As the recently elected Chair for this upcoming year, I would like to take this opportunity to re-emphasize the commitment of the UEC to helping address your scientific and logistical needs at CFN.
We believe that as users, it is worth becoming more in tune with CFN’s policies and evolving processes (e.g. website and security) and being more engaged with the UEC in general by joining it and contributing to its efforts. We remind all users that CFN holds weekly coffee/tea socials each Wednesday at 3:00 PM and that members of the UEC are normally present to meet and greet new and continuing users. The CFN UEC is also initiating a Distinguished User seminar series as part of the CFN colloquia series during this upcoming academic year with more details to follow.
We are holding UEC elections for the positions of vice-chair and secretary, and we have openings available as well for interested postdocs. You do not have to be physically present in order to participate, as we run many of our meetings by teleconference. Please feel free to self-nominate to become part of the UEC. We are always encouraging new potential members and fresh perspectives.
So, why is the UEC important to you? Why should you care or want to be involved? There are a number of items we have been working on since our last update.
CFN underwent a successful DOE Operations Review from September 17-19. Science highlight talks from select users were presented along with a poster session. There was also a closed-door lunch with users, including the UEC, at noon on Wednesday, September 18, to address our collective issues. In preparation for this visit, the UEC met with CFN Director Emilio Mendez in late August.
Based on that discussion, we continue to seek your input on the following matters:
- Concerns about staff, training, and technical help. What does CFN need to improve upon in order to become a more efficient and effective operation? In other words, what is CFN doing right and what could it do better for you? All comments will be anonymously compiled and passed on.
- Concerns about CFN and/or CFN UEC website. What would make the presentation of information clearer? What changes would you like to see?
- The CFN would like to acquire new instrumentation on a continual basis and CFN Director Mendez has agreed that the UEC will now be able to provide formal input into the decision-making process. What additional instruments, upgrades, and/or technique capabilities would be useful to have at CFN? The point is to benefit as many users as possible.
- The UEC would like to start holding its own independent user meetings, separate from those of the NSLS users, perhaps as early as 2015, in order to be more reflective of the particular needs and requirements of CFN users. What meeting format would you prefer? What types of hands-on workshops and/or equipment demos would appeal to you?
- The UEC would like to highlight user research more prominently in the electronic CFN Newsletter (e.g. through the use of video highlights). We are looking forward to feedback as to how to do this, as well as from potential volunteers who would like to showcase their interesting research.
We look forward to hearing from you on these issues and hope a number of you can join us in our efforts. We expect to hold a Town Hall meeting as well before the end of the calendar year in order to gauge user concerns as well as to address many of the issues brought up here.
With best wishes,
Stanislaus S. Wong
2013-14 CFN UEC Chair
2013-4507 | INT/EXT | Newsroom
