[IGSMAIL-1916] 9th Governing Board Meeting in Boston (May 28)

[G.]

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IGS Electronic Mail      Fri Jun  5  8:22:10 PDT 1998      Message Number 1916
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Author: G. Beutler
Subject: 9th Governing Board Meeting in Boston (May 28)

Dear Colleagues

The 9th IGS Governing Board Meeting took place on Thursday, May 28, 1998 in
the Westin Copley Place Hotel in Boston. It was a one-day meeting where
many administrative aspects had to be settled and important decisions
concerning the future directions and structure of the IGS were taken.

A large portion of the meeting was devoted to the action items and
recommendations emerging from the 1997 IGS Retreat (see also IGS Mail No.
1896 of 17 February 1998 and Proceedings of the 1998 IGS Analysis
Workshop) and to the definition of rules how to set up IGS Working Groups
and Pilot Projects. Actually the entire morning session (10 a.m. to 1 p.m.)
was devoted to these topics.

Creation of the ionosphere working group, reorganization of the IGS Central
Bureau, report of the IGS Infrastructure Committee and planning of the 1998
IGS Network workshop were the highlights of the afternoon session (2 p.m.
- 6 p.m.). Let me try to comment the essential events briefly.

1997 IGS Retreat: Action Items
------------------------------
The action items and recommendations of the 1997 IGS Retreat may be put
into three categories:

(a) Items already addressed at the Darmstadt Workshop,
(b) items requiring changes in the Terms of Reference, and
(c) "Normal" Action Items to be decided at the GB Meeting

In this report we will mainly address items of type (b) and (c). The
Governing Board decided to "collect" all items of type (b), to hand them
over to Prof. Ivan I. Mueller who will then come up with a new draft
version for the Terms of Reference by October. The Board will then
formally approve the new Terms by an e-mail vote (according to the
presently valid ToR a 2/3 majority is required for that). In view of the
amount of work to be done in 1998 the Board decided to meet twice till the
end of 1998:  Once in Munich (attached to the 1998 IGGOS Meeting in Munich
(5-9 October, 1998), once in San Francisco (attached to the AGU Fall
Meeting, 6-10 December 1998). It is expected that the new Terms will be
accepted before the Governing Board Meeting in December 1998. Below, I
will mark the action items requiring changes in the terms with "*". For
reference I include below the action item numbers and the recommendation
numbers of Prof. I.I. Mueller's document "Recommendations and Action
Items, IGS Governing Board Retreat" (Proceedings of the Darmstadt Analysis
Center Workshop).

First of all the Board unanimously decided to change the name (NOT) the
acronym of our Service: IGS in future will stand for "International GPS
Service" and NO LONGER for "International GPS Service for Geodynamics"
(A1*). The Board took this decision in view of the increasing importance
of topics related to atmospheric research, time transfer and others which
are being addressed using the IGS and its network and which are becoming
increasingly important in future.

As one may conclude from my short overview of the 1998 Darmstadt Workshop
(IGS Message No. 1896) and from the Proceedings of this Workshop all
technical recommendations and action items of the 1997 IGS Retreat were
properly addressed by the Darmstadt Workshop. The reader is referred to the
Proceedings of the Darmstadt Workshop.

An important group of recommendations and action items dealt with the IGS
network. Concern was raised that the IGS network might no longer be the
"best possible" permanent network from the "Standards" point of view
(documentation, equipment, communication, etc.), if it is not continuously
monitored and upgraded. The IGS Infrastructure Committee and the Central
Bureau were asked (A5.1, A.3) to come up with a concrete proposal in this
context. The reports delivered by the Committee have addressed this issue
(more information below).

The GB was asked to consider the appointment an IGS network manager (A5.2).
This item was taken up by the Central Bureau and is essentially considered
"done" by the Governing Board!

A5.4 of Ivan Mueller's report asked for the organization of a network
workshop.  Again, one may conclude from the short notice below that this
action item was taken up.

The Analysis Coordinator was asked to come up with a new definition for
Analysis Centers and Associate Analysis Centers (A7*). The document was
prepared and approved by the Board. It will be made available (together
with other documents, see complete list below) in a special directory of
the CB Information System.

The Board was asked (R8, A8.1*, 8.2*) to clarify the concept of working
groups and to come up with proposals for new working groups. The document

IGS POLICY FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT of IGS PROJECTS and WORKING GROUPS

was prepared by the Chairman and Dr. John Dow as an answer to these
requests. It is partially included below under the corresponding agenda
item, the full document will be made available through the CBIS, as well.

A group of recommendations (R9-R12) and action items (A9-A11*) dealt
with the Central Bureau and its Functions. The Central Bureau Report below
and extensive discussions between Governing Board Members and the host
organization of the Central Bureau were considered as the preliminary
answer to these items. The process is ongoing, more information is provided
below.

The Board was asked to appoint a sub-committee to review the current
nomination/appointment procedures for GB membership. This committee was
set up (A12*). It is chaired (nomen est omen) by the chairman of the
Governing Board. The recommendations have to be available by October for
the preparation of the new Terms of Reference.

The last recommendation (R14) of the retreat was to form a committee to
prepare IGS Long Range Plans. This issue will be an agenda item for the
next Governing Board Meeting to take place in October 1998.

The Board and the chairman expressed their gratitude to Ivan I. Mueller for
devoting so much time and energy to the compilation of recommendations and
action items of the 1997 Retreat. Thanks to this effort the 1997 Retreat is
producing a deep impact on the development of the IGS.

As a matter of fact, the 1997 Retreat was considered so successful, that
recommendation A13*, asking for a regular performance review of all major
IGS components was adopted by the Board.

IGS Pilot Projects and Working Groups
-------------------------------------
The document

IGS POLICY FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT of IGS PROJECTS and WORKING GROUPS

was adopted as a "by-law" of the IGS. It will be referred to in the new
Terms of Reference. Some of the essential points of the document are:

- An IGS Working Group works on a particular topic related to the IGS
components. An IGS Pilot Project aims at the development of one or more
particular IGS product(s) using data from the IGS network.

- Working groups and projects are operating autonomously under the
leadership of the chairperson.

- The IGS Governing Board regularly organizes special meetings, where IGS
projects and working groups are reviewed. Such meetings may be special
sessions at IGS Workshops.

- IGS Working Groups and IGS Pilot Projects are set up by the IGS Governing
Board at one of its regular meetings. At such "constitutional meeting" the
IGS Governing Board
 - approves the draft Working Group Charter
 - appoints the chair of the Working Group or Project for
   two years.

- Proposals to terminate, to essentially change the Charter, to
(re-)appoint chairpersons are made at these meetings. These proposals are
presented to IGS Governing Board the at its next regular Meeting.

Obviously, the Board wants to have in future clear responsibilities
whenever setting up new working groups or projects. It also expressed the
wish that existing working groups will observe in future the same rules.
The chairman was asked to contact existing groups.

Creation of IGS Ionosphere Working Group
----------------------------------------
At the Darmstadt meeting the consensus was reached that an IGS Ionosphere
Working Group should be created.  It was thus clear that the above rules
for the creation of working groups (although not yet official) should be
used for this process.  This was why the chairman and John Dow prepared a
"strawman" for a charter for the ionosphere working group, which was then
torn into pieces and rebuilt by the "ad hoc IGS ionosphere group" with
Joachim Feltens from ESA and Stefan Schaer from CODE as moderators of the
discussion.

The following two documents could be presented to and were approved by the
Board at its 9th meeting:

- Terms of Reference for the IGS Ionosphere Working Group
- IGS Mail informing the IGS Community

The latter document will be sent out by IGS mail immediately after this
message. The former document will be made available in full length through
the CB Information System.

It is my pleasure to announce that Dr. Joachim Feltens from ESOC in
Darmstadt was appointed Chairman of this Working Group for a time period of
two years (more precisely till the end of 1999).

The Board wishes Joachim Feltens and the "IGS Ionosphere Crew" good luck
and many free electrons (hopefully only in the upper atmosphere) for the
years to come!

Central Bureau Report
---------------------
At the IGS Business Meeting in Darmstadt (February 1998) it was decided
that the Annual Report for 1997 will be published in two parts, where Part
1 will contain the top level information (CB report, IGS Analysis Center
Coordinator report, report about current projects, etc.), Part 2 will
contain Analysis Center reports, station reports, etc.

Ruth Neilan informed the Board that Ivan Mueller agreed to act as Editor
for the two Parts of the 1997 IGS Annual Reports and that the Part 1 is
almost complete.  Although one report is still missing -- shame on the
anonymous GB member -- chances are excellent that Part 1 of the Annual
Report will be available early in July.  Preparations for the second volume
are in full progress right now. AUTHORS, PLEASE OBSERVE THE MANUSCRIPT
DEADLINE: June 30, 1998! This procedure of publishing the Annual Report in
two Volumes is based on the assumption (and only makes sense), if the
second Volume is avaliable not much later than the first one.

The key issue in Ruth Neilan's presentation was related to the ongoing
process of restructuring of the IGS Central Bureau at JPL. She stated
that the position of the Director of the Central Bureau will be at least a
70% position (as opposed to about 30% now). Moreover the Director will
hire a full time deputy including within the job position the
responsibility of IGS Network Management/Coordinator. This supporting
workforce and staff will enable the CB to fulfill responsibilities of acting
as the "Executive Arm" of the Governing Board. Including secretarial and
administrative support the "new" Central Bureau will comprise a total
workforce of about 4.5 persons.

These plans were approved by the Governing Board which expects that the
necessary changes/improvements will be realizes in the near future. The
planned changes are considered as a satisfactory answer to recommendations
R9-R11 and A10*.

Analysis Coordinator Report
---------------------------
Many developments could only very briefly be mentioned by the Analysis
Coordinator. Let me only indicate that the Board was deeply impressed by
the ability of the Analysis Centers, their Coordinator and the IERS to
switch to the new IGS Realization of ITRF96 already on March 1, 1998. That
the change significantly improved the IGS EOP Series (in particular the
IGS Rapid Series) may, e.g., be concluded from Jim Ray's IGS Mail Message
No. 1853. Jan Kouba could also tell the Board that most of the changes
agreed upon at the Darmstadt meeting and scheduled for implementation for
June 30, 1998 are "under control" and will most likely be implemented by
this date.

Jan Kouba also presented a document with proposed changes in the section
Analysis Centers for the new Terms of Reference. This new text refers to a
document called "Charter for IGS Analysis Centers and Associate Analysis
Centers". This document was also adopted by the board. The documents
specifies minimum requirements concerning the products and their quality
for Analysis Centers and Associate Analysis Centers. It also outlines the
procedures how to reach the status of an IGS Analysis Center or an IGS
Associate Analysis Center. The full text of the mentioned document will be
made available through the CB Information System.

Report of the Infrastructure Committee
--------------------------------------
Two documents were prepared by the IGS Infrastructure Committee, namely

- Joining the IGS Network
- Standards for IGS Stations and Operational Centers

The titles of both documents were slightly modified by the Board to make
them less ambiguous (there remains still a fair number of unresolved
ambiguities in IGS activities, in particular in processing -- a joke for
insiders only).

Apart from that the Board fully endorsed and formally adopted the two
documents. It acknowledged the amount of work invested by Dr. Werner
Gurtner to prepare these documents. It was also recognized that the
preparation of the document asked for a full cooperation of the Central
Bureau and the Infrastructure Committee. The documents will be made
available (after some fine-tuning) through the CBIS. The Chairman
thanked the IGS Infrastructure Committee for its work and asked it to
continue along the same lines.

1998 IGS Network Workshop
-------------------------
A Draft Agenda for the "1998 IGS Network Workshop" scheduled for November
2-5, 1998 was presented at the Governing Board Meeting. The Governing
Board fully approved the idea of the workshop. The draft agenda will be
"fine-tuned" in cooperation of the Central Bureau and the Infrastructure
Committee. The Governing Board views this workshop as a great occasion for
addressing important technical issues as, e.g., brought up by the
infrastructure committee, but also as a bridge to bring network and data
transfer experts on one side together with analysis experts and the user
community on the other side. New requirements emerging from GPS/LEO
applications will be an important issue at the workshop, as well.

The chairman also hopes that the "densification" issue, where the IGS
Network Standards seem to play a decisive role, will benefit from the
this workshop.

The chairman thanked Carey Noll for agreeing to host this second and last)
IGS Workshop in 1998 in the the name of the entire Board. The Board is
convinced that that the program committee will come up with a very
attractive program for this first week of November.

CLOSING REMARKS
---------------
The 9th Governing Board Meeting was closed by the Chairman thanking Ruth
Neilan, Director of the Central Bureau, the colleagues from the
Governing Board, and the IGS Community who helped preparing the meeting.
The documentation Ruth handed out was essential to get through the entire
agenda. Many colleagues invested a considerable amount of time for this
ninth Governing Board Meeting. This may, e.g., be concluded from the list
of documents that were available at the meeting, and that will be made
available to the entire IGS Community soon through CBIS:

I.I. Mueller: "Recommendations and Action Items of the 1997 IGS Governing
               Board Retreat"
G. Beutler and J. Dow:"IGS Policy for the Establishment of IGS Projects
               and Working Groups"
J. Feltens and St. Schaer: "Terms of Reference for the Ionosphere Working
               Group"
Infrastructure Committee: "Joining the IGS Network"
                          "IGS Network and Operational Center Standards"
J. Kouba: "Charter for IGS Analysis Centers and Associate Analysis Centers"


[Mailed From: GERHARD BEUTLER <BEUTLER at aiub.unibe.ch>]