UCN Charter

I. Charge

The Users Committee for NSF NOIRLab (UCN) is established to provide advice to the NOIRLab Director on how to enhance the user’s experience across all of the relevant NOIRLab operations (telescopes, data archives, software, science platforms, and other tools). The Committee will identify areas of improvement for the users, and provide specific recommendations. They will base their work on their experience, the input from individual NOIRLab users and advisory groups, and the feedback from the community at large through the appropriate channels. The advisory is science-driven and community-inclusive. NOIRLab will inform the Committee on operations as required.

II. Membership

The UCN consists of ~8 Members plus the Committee Chair, all appointed by the NOIRLab Director. The Membership is composed of a diverse mix of experts with a good balance of experience in the diverse NOIRLab programs. The term of service is 2 years, with a possible 3rd year extension at the discretion of the NOIRLab Director to ensure continuity in the membership. The UCN Chair and Members are recognized scientists with a demonstrated interest in the NOIRLab community of telescopes and data archive users. The UCN Membership is public and will be listed on our public website.

III. Meetings and reports

The UCN shall meet in person once a year, for approximately 2 days, typically in the early northern Fall to accommodate input from the Users Committees from individual NOIRLab programs. The meetings will usually be held at NOIRLab Headquarters in Tucson. The Convener, a NOIRLab astronomer acting on behalf of the Director will act as Vice Chair for the Committee. The Committee will be supported by NOIRLab staff as needed.

The Chair, with input from the Members and Vice Chair will finalize the agenda in advance of the meeting. Agenda items may include updates from the Users Committees and Advisory Groups at NOIRLab, community input in the appropriate format, news on NOIRLab operations, new modes, and special topics as needed. Attention will be given to issues concerning the usage of telescopes and data archives from multiple NOIRLab programs, and common user issues across programs.

The Chair, with feedback from the Committee, will draft a meeting report in a reasonable time frame after the meeting.  Equally, the NOIRLab Leadership will respond in a suitable time frame with actions and plans. Both the report and the NOIRLab response shall be public.

NOIRLab will endeavor to publish an extract of the UCN deliberations and resolutions via articles in the dedicated newsletters, such as the ‘Mirror’, and through the appropriate social channels.