Users Committee Report (Mon Nov 13)

Science
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Rubin Observatory Users Committee

Report from 2023B meeting (13 Nov 2023)

As in previous reports, we congratulate the Rubin Team on their continued efforts and success with engaging the user community. Overall, the team is very responsive to the users and is very motivated to continue to improve the systems that support the user experience.

Findings:

  1. The UC is generally quite happy with the responses from the Rubin team to the findings in the report from our 2023A meeting. We understand that Rubin must prioritize its effort. Although we accept that Community.lsst.org is and will continue to be the primary communication mechanism, we still feel that Slack is a valuable communication channel that already has significant community buy-in. It is worth keeping in mind as an option.

  2. The UC has a number requests regarding its meetings:

  • The meeting dates should be established well in advance. To facilitate more participation, one of the meetings could be scheduled during the window when the difference between European time and US Pacific time is only 8 hours.

  • We suggest asking users, not just Project members, to speak / present at the meetings.

  • The consensus is that the 2024 UC meetings should be two hours long with a 30 minute dedicated “listening session” during which the UC hears from users. The listening sessions could be in separate meetings.

  • The initial 2 year term for UC members is up. We suggest that some of the members be asked to serve another year or two, to allow for continuity.

  1. The UC discussed ways to increase interaction with the Rubin user community. We opted to directly and individually email a subset of the DP0 delegates to request their input and feedback. We have received a number of responses, will collate and condense them, and communicate the results to the Rubin team.
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#2

Rubin Operations’ Response to the UC 2023B Report

Thank you to the Rubin Users Committee for the 23B report.

Slack

The primary channel for open global communications and user support between Rubin Observatory and the broad science community is and will be the Rubin Community Forum (Community.lsst.org), as it is the most appropriate tool for user support. Slack will continue to be used for synchronous teamwork and as temporary virtual chat spaces during workshops, as it is the most appropriate tool for real-time conversation. Slack is not being considered as a tool for user support.

UC Meetings in 2024

The following have been chosen for 2024 and will be advertised:

  • Mon May 6 2024: 8am-10am Seattle, 5pm-7pm Paris
  • Mon Oct 28 2024: 8am-10am Seattle, 4pm-6pm Paris

These meetings will be 2 hours long and will start with a dedicated “listening session”, which will be advertised as the time for scientists and students to come and ask questions or demonstrate work done with the RSP. The CST will help by advertising this time, and reaching out to a few specific users to invite them to present.

UC Membership in 2024

The Science Advisory Committee (SAC) will be in touch soon with requests for about half of the UC members to stay on for an additional year, for continuity. The SAC will also help guide the process for the UC, which is “responsible for selecting one of their own to serve as Chair after the initial Chair’s term ends” (RDO-051).

UC’s Email Initiative

We are looking forward to seeing the results of the UC’s initiative to reach out and engage directly with Rubin users via email.