February 13, 2013

Teleconference

No resolutions were passed.

March 1, 2013

Face-to-face meeting

RESOLUTION 2013-01: The WIYN Board is pleased to formally recognize the contributions to WIYN made by Dean Gary Sandefur of the College of Letters & Science of the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW). Dean Sandefur has been a stalwart administrative Director of the UW delegation to the WIYN Board since 2004. His quiet strength and thoughtful questions have helped lead the Board to careful consideration of difficult questions and to implement successful solutions. His continuous support for astronomy at UW and at WIYN is greatly appreciated. His gentle, cheery disposition calms even the most tempestuous of meetings and will be missed.

The WIYN Board wishes Dean Sandefur all the best as he moves into retirement from his position as Dean at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and hopes that he continues to stay in touch with and enjoy the world of astronomy.

RESOLUTION 2013-02: The WIYN Board would like to thank Dr. Todd Boroson, the ODI Principal Investigator and Dr. Daniel Harbeck, the ODI Project Scientist, for a job well done in completing the engineering and commissioning of pODI on time and on budget. The Board looks forward to working with Dr. Harbeck further as ODI system scientist.

RESOLUTION 2013-03: The WIYN Board is pleased to formally recognize the contributions to WIYN made by Dr. David Silva of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO). Dr. Silva started out his illustrious career at WIYN as an able Project Manager from 1993-1996 during the construction and commissioning of the telescope. After spending a decade abroad working for ESO, he returned to the US and became the Director of NOAO in 2008. Silva joined the WIYN Board of Directors in 2010 as the administrative member from NOAO and worked hard to help develop ways for NOAO and WIYN to work together during some rather difficult times.

Silva's constructive and realistic, yet still kind-hearted, approach served as a check on sometimes more idealistic suggestions, which helped to ensure that the WIYN Board thoroughly considered the ramifications of its actions before proceeding down any given path.

The WIYN Board looks forward to continuing to work closely with Silva in his role as NOAO Director as WIYN moves forward into the future.

RESOLUTION 2013-04: The WIYN Board expresses its gratitude and appreciation to Dr. Patricia M. Knezek for her almost 12 years of dedication to the success of the WIYN Observatory. Knezek was hired in 2001 as Project Manager to support science-led instrumentation efforts, which culminated in a substantial upgrade of the Bench Spectrograph, as well as able assistance to the WIYN Director in managing operations of the Observatory. Knezek quickly became an essential member of the WIYN team and she was promoted to Deputy WIYN Director. In 2011, the Board appointed Knezek to become Director of WIYN.

Pat Knezek's leadership will be greatly missed. She has been a bulwark of strength through very tempestuous times and has kept the Observatory working efficiently and well throughout her time at WIYN. One of Knezek's many gifts is that she values and shows appreciation for the contributions of the WIYN team and all of the people she works with and WIYN depends on; it is clear that she cares deeply about WIYN.

The WIYN Board wishes Dr. Knezek all the best as she undertakes her new position as Deputy Division Director for the Division of Astronomical Sciences of the National Science Foundation.

RESOLUTION 2013-05: The WIYN Board changes the wording in section B.3.c of the WIYN Governance Policy as follows: "The members of the SSC shall select a chair from among the current committee members. The appointment is subject to the approval of the Board. The term of the SSC Chair is for one year, but renewal for multi-year appointments is encouraged to promote continuity. The committee will select a new chair or reappoint the previous chair at the Fall SSC meeting each year and the appointment will take effect after the Fall Board meeting."

RESOLUTION 2013-06: The WIYN Board authorizes the Board President and Treasurer to identify and hire an individual to serve as Interim Operations Director of WIYN Observatory. The original term of this appointment is not to exceed 12 months; with Board approval it could be extended for up to an additional 12 months. The specific tasks of the Interim Operations Director will be based on the job description presented to the Board in the WIYN Near-Term Management Plan, which will be refined further through consultation between the KPNO Director's office and the WIYN Board Officers.

RESOLUTION 2013-07: The WIYN Board authorizes the Board President and Treasurer to identify and hire an individual with the necessary background to serve as a consultant to the Board. The role of the consultant will be to (1) lay out staffing plans and budgets for a range of operations models defined by the Board and (2) work out a financial and administrative plan for how WIYN might be able to operate as an independent observatory. The Board authorizes the expenditure of no more than $80,000 for this position.

RESOLUTION 2013-08: The WIYN Board appreciates the generous offer of Michael Lesser to develop 12 wafers with the intent of improving the charge transfer efficiency of the OTAS that are used in pODI . If the "Lot 7" foundry run is successful and WIYN accepts the performance quality, WIYN authorizes contracts with ITL and STA for the production of 12 more wafers and processing of all 24 of the "Lot 7" wafers contingent on NOAO finding the full funding for the contracts, which is not to exceed $350K.

RESOLUTION 2013-09: The Board transfers the responsibilities of Principal Investigator of the One Degree Imager Portal Pipeline and Archive Project from Dr. Todd Boroson to Dr. Daniel Harbeck, the ODI Systems Scientist; effective Friday, March 1, 2013.

RESOLUTION 2013-10: The WIYN Board appreciates the fact that WIYN has not expended all the cash funds allocated to the WIYN Dome enclosure repair as detailed in RESOLUTION 2011-25. The Board authorizes the Director to expend up to $10,000 of the remaining funds to complete the Bench Room wall repair. Any remaining cash would be placed in the WIYN cash reserve once the Bench Room wall repair is complete.

April 24, 2013

Videoconference

RESOLUTION 2013-11: The WIYN Board authorizes work on an ODI focal plane upgrade (WBS 1-6 as presented in the ODI Upgrade Proposal version 4 from April 4, 2013), assuming that NOAO provides funding and in-kind labor as specified in this plan. WIYN will support this project with in-kind support for (1) an ODI System Scientist as PI of the upgrade and (2) an ODI Data Analyst.

September 26-27, 2013

Face-to-face Meeting

RESOLUTION 2013-12: The WIYN Board approves a FY14 operations budget of $2.461M as presented by the Interim Director in his budget spreadsheet “WIYN_FY14_proposed.xls”. The budget shall be funded by the partners via the following contributions: Wisconsin will contribute at its FY13 level (for a total payment of $686,183), Indiana will contribute at its FY13 level (for a total payment of $512,753) and Yale will contribute half of its FY13 level (for a total payment of $256,376.50). The balance will be made up by NOAO in a combination of in kind and cash per the partnership agreement.

RESOLUTION 2013-13: The WIYN Board is pleased to formally recognize the contributions to WIYN made by Dr. Tim O'Connor, who served as the administrative representative on the Board for Yale from February 2010 until O'Connor left his position as Associate Provost for Science and Technology at Yale University to become the Vice President for University Strategy and Science Operations and Chief of Staff at The Rockefeller University in June 2013.

O'Connor took his responsibility as administrative representative seriously and went above and beyond his duty as a Board member to actively work with WIYN and NOAO to better understand the extremely complicated finances of WIYN. His support for astronomy at Yale and for WIYN during his time on the Board is greatly appreciated.

The WIYN Board wishes O'Connor all the best in his new position and hopes that he continues to stay in touch with and enjoy the world of astronomy.

RESOLUTION 2013-14: The WIYN Board asks the WIYN Interim Director to move $200K of FY12 operations carryover funds into the WIYN reserve account with the expectation that when the books for FY13 are closed any difference between the $200K and the actual carryover from FY12 be put in or taken out of the reserve account to bring it into balance.

RESOLUTION 2013-15: The WIYN Board agrees that the allocation of telescope time to the WIYN partners during fiscal year 2014 will be in proportion to the funds paid by each partner for the operation of the telescope in FY14. Specifically, Yale University will be allocated 10.4% of the time, Indiana University 20.8% of the time, the University of Wisconsin 27.9% of the time, and NOAO 40.9% of the time. Since time allocations were made in semester 2013B based on the old percentages (Yale 17%, Indiana 17%, Wisconsin 26%, and NOAO 40%), modest adjustments to the night allocations in semester 2014A will be required. These adjustments are spelled out in a memo from Board President Salzer to Interim Director Hooper and the Executive Committee of the Board dated September YY, 2013. The Board recognizes that additional adjustments may occur to account for previous agreements between partners.

RESOLUTION 2013-16: The WIYN Board is pleased to formally recognize the contributions to WIYN made by Dr. Timothy Beers of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO). In his role as Director of Kitt Peak National Observatory, Beers joined the WIYN Board of Directors in 2010 as the administrative member from NOAO and worked hard to help develop imaginative ways for NOAO and WIYN to work together during some rather difficult times.

Beers' optimistic and creative outlook continuously gave hope to the WIYN partnership for the future of WIYN and Kitt Peak. The WIYN Board wishes Beers all the best as he pursues his research as a NOAO staff scientist.

Last modified: 03-Apr-2020 15:04:56 MST