JCMT Board Report

The Board met on 22-23 May at the HIA in Victoria under the
chairmanship of Professor Ernie Seaquist.  This was the last meeting for
Dr Morton (HIA), Professor van Dishoeck (Leiden).

Sale of Rooms
After a protracted negotiating process the Director JCMT had
successfully negotiated the sale of spare JCMT rooms at Hale Pohaku with
the revenue from these directly benefiting the JCMT Development Fund.

Smithsonian Array (SMA)
Progress with the SMA had been disappointingly slow but the Board and
Director were fully prepared to take the collaboration with the JCMT
forward as soon as the SMA's schedule allowed.  It was expected that a
Memorandum Of Understanding would be signed with the SMA by the autumn.


Return to 16 hour-2 shift operation
The Board was pleased to hear the Director report that it has been
possible to return to 16 hour, 2 shift operations.

Operations model
The Board was keen to ensure that the recommendations of the recent
review were taken forward, particularly in the area of concentrating
operations resources towards scientific output.  It discussed ways in
which this might be achieved and asked the Director to bring forward a
paper to its next meeting which explored the options for operations,
considering the costs and benefits to science of each option.

The guiding principle of this paper would be that support for
operations should be based on maximising the JCMT's ability to deliver
high quality science within its likely financial envelope.  To a first
approximation, any resources released by changes in the operational
model could be assumed to be available for redeployment by the JCMT.

The assessment would include a full assessment of the use of the JCMT
for part of its time as an element of the SMA, including costs and
schedule.

The assessment would include a comparison with operational models
adopted by other mm-wave facilities, where appropriate information could
be readily obtained and would address the possible impact of any change
on the composition and scientific breadth of the JCMT user community.

The paper would address the optimum instrumentation suite for the JCMT
taking account of those instruments currently available and planned

The Board noted that the adoption of alternative modes of operation had
the potential to release some effort into the programme, which might
then be used for other high priority projects.  It agreed that a scheme
for reorganising observing support, between the Telescope Support
Specialists and Support Astronomers, should be taken forward by the JCMT
management as a trial. This scheme would help guarantee the continuation
of 16-hour, 2 shift operation over the next six months.  The JCMT
Advisory Panel would be asked to co-ordinate community comment on the
trial.

New Developments
The Board reconfirmed its enthusiastic support for the development of
SCUBA-2 and Champ-D and looked forward to requests to approve these
developments at its next meeting.  However, it was aware that the
resources to support them were not yet available within the JCMT
Development Fund.

Instrument reliability
The JCMT Advisory Panel had highlighted concerns regarding the
reliability of the present suite of heterodyne receivers.  The Board
asked the Director to take these into account in his analysis of
possible support models and the future instrumentation suite.

ITAC
To improve communication with the community, the Board agreed that the
local ITAC member should be invited to Board meetings in the spring, to
present an enhanced ITAC report.