Spokespeople’s Update

Julian Borrill & John Carlstrom

Welcomes & Thanks

• 334 registered attendees
• 210 team (collaboration + project) members: 75% of the entire membership!
• 124 non-members: see application form in the “TEAM” menu at https://cmb-s4.org
• Please take the many opportunities to welcome them!
• 5 other experiments on #spring2021 slack channel (ACT, B/K, PB/SA, SPT, SO)
• DOE and NSF representatives
• Agency funding presentations on Tuesday (DOE) & Wednesday (NSF)
• Many thanks to
• The Scientific & Local Organizing Committees
• The Junior Scientist Advancement and Education & Public Outreach Committees
• Multiple special events every day this week!
• All of the attendees in inconvenient time-zones
• All of the session conveners and speakers
• All of the session chairs, note-takers*, chat-monitors*, and tech-wranglers

*volunteers still needed - loc@cmb-s4.org or #spring2021

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Since The Last Meeting ...

• The project has been developing its organizational structure and securing its funding.
• See Gil Gilchriese’s talk today
• The project and collaboration have been defining the Preliminary Baseline Design for the next round of agency reviews.
• See John Carlstrom’s talk today and the plenary/parallel/report-back themes all week
• The collaboration has been preparing for the upcoming elections.
• See the Election & Voting Commission session on Wednesday
• The external collaboration committee has finally been convened.
• The collaboration and project online services have been revamped.

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A Growing Collaboration

17 countries

- Chile

- India

- South Africa

21 US States

99 Institutions

289 Members

- 260 Collaboration

- 79 Project

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Spokespeople Election

• For most of the last 3 years the spokespeople were effectively deputy project directors to Jim Yeck.
• With the advent of the lead lab and the standing-up of a full project office the spokespeople will revert to the role described in the bylaws:
• Leading the scientific collaboration, responsible for its day-to-day management
• Serving as the primary interface of the collaboration with the project, agencies, institutions, scientific organizations & media
• Appointing various committee chairs/conveners/members (with appropriate consultation & approval)
• With this transition, and the project scientist roles we have taken on, it is time for new collaboration leadership. We will offer our successors all of our support.

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External Collaboration Committee

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• Chair: Lloyd Knox
• Vice-Chairs: Rachel Bean & Simone Ferraro
• Fireslide on Tuesday.
• Parallel session on Friday.

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Online Services

• The advent of the lead lab also provided the opportunity and resources to revamp and integrate all of our online services.
• Many thanks to the University of Chicago for years of hosting/managing, especially Valeri Galtsev, Tom Crawford, and John Carlstrom.
• Key features:
• Common to collaboration and project
• Full membership database
• Single sign-on
• Group-based access controls
• Automated membership management (onboarding, updating, etc)
• Members, if you haven’t already, please:
• Connect to Indico to activate your account there
• Add your GitHub username to your membership record

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Town Hall

• Before the close-out on Friday we will have an open “Town Hall” session.
• If you have something you would like addressed, you can:
• Raise it in person during the Town Hall
• Post it to the slack channel: #spring2021
• Please tag @Spokespeople
• Email it to the spokespeople: spokespeople@cmb-s4.org
• Add it to the Town Hall Questions/Comments google doc linked on Indico
• Set up to allow anonymous entries, if you prefer (open a private/incognito browser session first)

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Publication & Speakers Committee Update

Abby Crites

University of Toronto & Dunlap Institute

Speakers Bureau and Publications Board

• Speakers Bureau:
• Adam Anderson
• François Bouchet
• Eric Linder
• Johanna Nagy

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• Publications Board:
• Carlo Baccigalupi
• Clarence Chang
• Francis-Yan Cyr-Racine
• Martina Gerbino
• Patty Ho
• Kirit Karkare
• Bruce Partridge
• Nathan Whitehorn

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Speakers Bureau

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Our jobs (quoted from the bylaws section 9.6):

• Solicit invitations to conferences and identify good venues for contributed talks.

• Actively solicit speakers for invitations to notable conferences with no volunteer speakers.

• Promptly respond to requests for speakers from conference organizers and act as a point-of-contact for people who want some CMB-S4 speaker but do not have specific ideas.

• Serve as a clearinghouse for talk invitations forwarded from any member.

• Curate a library of standard plots and slides for speakers to use in talks.

• Maintain records of all presentation given in the name of the Collaboration and a library of past CMB-S4 talks.

• Address overlap from multiple requests to give talks on the same subject at the same conference, ideally by suggesting focus changes to make them on different topics.

Speakers Bureau

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See the meetings of interest page: https://cmb-s4.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/XC/pages/406159479/Meetings+Of+Interest

Speakers Bureau

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You (members of CMB-S4 can also add conferences to the “meetings of interest” page and contact us if you would like to give a talk about CMB-S4!

Publications Board

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Our jobs:

• Create a template for proposed project submission (see the publications page)
• Oversee the collaboration review and submission process for publications
• Help with proposed updates to the bylaws around publication and authorship

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Current Issues:

• Collaborating with membership committee to determine procedure for transitioning out of the collaboration
• Soliciting proposed projects

Membership Committee Update

mc@cmb-s4.org

John Ruhl

Case Western Reserve University

MC Overview

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Members:

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Jamie Bock

Aurelien Fraisse

Christian Reichardt

John Ruhl

Maria Salatino**

Sarah Shandera

Ben Westbrook

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** Membership applications czar

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Our Jobs:

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• Process and review applications for membership (or change in membership status), then make recommendations to the GB.�
• Formulate, process, and review annual activity reports.�
• Review membership policies, make recommendations to GB for changes in those.

MC - Applications and Changes in Status

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• New system for applications and changes in status - web form!
• for new senior independent postdoc members
• for postdocs transitioning to "permanent" (Senior) positions
• not for students/postdocs working with a Senior member… those an email from the Senior member to mc@cmb-s4.org, with answers to first 4 questions on the form.

MC - Activity Reports

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A form for annual activity reports will be sent out soon.

• Advisees fill out their own. (Senior members may want to discuss responses with advisees first.)

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Transitions from "provisional" to "regular" member status.

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• Members enter as "provisional" unless they already have a long, strong history of engagement with the collaboration.
• Provisional status is meant to be temporary, "typically a year".
• Provisional members can apply for a change to regular status at any time; annual activity reports are a convenient time/mechanism.

MC - Current Issues

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• Transitions out of the collaboration
• Example: Postdocs leaving academia or field
• Issue: authorship rights. Bylaws only give automatic authorship rights to current members and legacy members. People who leave the collaboration immediately lose authorship rights, unless they are given "legacy member" status. We may need to create another category. This issue has been raised with the Publications Board and will be discussed

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• Transitions from Postdoc -> Senior
• Issue: voting rights lapse if "Provisional Senior".

Governing Board Update

Lindsey Bleem

Argonne & KICP

Overview

1. Role of the Governing Board
2. Membership and How to Reach Us
3. Current Activities
4. Join Us

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1. Role of the Governing Board

- Oversight of the overall progress, status and functioning of the Collaboration.

- Oversight of the Spokespersons and their activities.

- Approval and revision of Collaboration Bylaws

- Formal acceptance of new Collaboration Members, and resolution of membership conflicts/issues

- Organization of elections for Spokespersons, GB Members, and other elected Collaboration officials

- Removal of any Collaboration Member from an elected or appointed leadership role in the event of major failings of professional conduct, or gross insufficiency of performance.

- Approval of additional long-standing subcommittees.

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See Bylaws Sec. 3

2. Membership and How to Reach Us

Kam Arnold

Brad Benson* (deputy chair)

Lindsey Bleem* (chair)

Jamie Bock

Tom Crawford*

Jeff Filippini

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Raphael Flauger

Martina Gerbino

Nils Halverson

John Kovac*

Akito Kusaka

Charles Lawrence*

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Laura Newburgh

Mike Niemack*

Elena Pierpaoli

Suzanne Staggs*

Aritoki Suzuki*

Zhilei Xu* (postdoc rep)

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Feel free to reach out to individual members with your comments/concerns or to email the whole board at gb@cmb-s4.org.

* Term expiring

3. Current Activities

Meeting Agendas (published before each GB meeting)

https://cmb-s4.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/XC/pages/505675811/GB+Meeting+Agendas

Meeting Minutes (published after approval by Board, usually following subsequent meeting)

https://cmb-s4.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/XC/pages/505512013/GB+Meeting+Minutes

Page with Agenda/Minutes Prior to Feb 2021

https://cmb-s4.uchicago.edu/wiki/index.php/Governing_Board

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4. Join Us!

• Governing Board Event for Junior Members on Friday March 12
• Closed feedback session with junior members and the postdoc representative to the CMB-S4 governing board, Zhilei Xu.

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• Run for Governing Board
• The length of a term of service on the GB is two years for Senior Members and one year for the Postdoctoral Member. There is an election for the Postdoctoral Member every year and 10 Senior Member seats are open this year.
• Deadline for nominations for Governing Board - April 23
• https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdJYG9E3ILzXtGwxEXrlDYS4fsN_33M48sPLqKSXNbqbjhxNQ/viewform
• Governing Board election - May 10 - May 14

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Ombudspeople’s Report

Renée Hlozek, Greg Tucker

The Ombudspeople

• are independent, neutral, and confidential resources for CMB-S4 collaboration members to bring any CMB-S4 related concern.
• provide an alternate and informal channel of communication
• listen to people and offer information about CMB-S4 policies and procedures.
• help people who seek a confidential channel for discussing or addressing an issue of concern without fear of retribution.
• help to promote ethical conduct and values; to alleviate disruption caused by disputes; and to identify policies, practices, or issues where a systems change may be appropriate.
• provide a place for people to seek guidance on how to report actual or potential violations of CMB-S4 obligations, and, if they wish it, to do so anonymously.
• follow the International Ombudsman Associations Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice.

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Neutral Unaligned Impartial Confidential Independent Informal

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The Ombudspeople

• are designated neutral and remain unaligned and impartial.
• strive to promote procedural fairness in the content and administration of the collaboration’s practices and processes and policies.
• do not engage in any situation that could create a conflict of interest.
• will not answer questions about people with whom they may have spoken, or disclose an individual’s name or specific issue.
• do not keep permanent records of confidential communications. Permanent records kept by the Ombudspeople include only statistical information for analyzing and reporting trends and recommendations to the collaboration. All other records are regularly destroyed.
• are independent in structure, function and appearance to the highest degree possible within the organization.
• work informally and have no power to make, change, or set aside administrative decisions or CMB-S4 policy.
• The ombuds people provide a report to the S4 community on a yearly basis:

CMB-S4 Ombusdperson Report 2018-2020

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