1. Follow-up of previous meeting and
matters arising
- PSMB 24.06.2002 : a slight clarification concerning invitations
to PSMB meetings. As mentioned last week a copy is now also sent for information
to the Deputies, who should then attend the meeting if their Group or
Project Leader is absent.
- Restructuring of Design Offices in the Technical Sector : J.P.
Delahaye presented the new structure of the EST-DEM Group which is being
restructured and will incorporate the design offices of PS, ST and EP.
Members of PS participated in the discussions and the new structure was
considered acceptable on condition that a local antenna remained in PS;
working methods, similar to the PS ones, were adopted for other services
in the DEM group. The reorganization will take effect on 1.9.2002, when
M. D'Auria will join EST-DEM as Section Leader of the Design Office and
also as deputy to the new Group Leader, E. van der Bij. B. Allardyce mentioned
that the transitory budget code used at present for debiting the cost
of work carried out by M. D'Auria's service will disappear and be replaced
by an EST code. The cost will then be debited to the various group codes,
after signature by the Group Leader, as at present.
- Earned Value Management : P. Bonnal presented the Earned Value
Management approach in SL at their Group Leaders' meeting last week and
has been invited to give his presentation at next week's PSMB.
- Lead ion run : J.P. Riunaud attended a meeting last Tuesday concerning
the feasibility of the lead ion run foreseen at the end of the year. The
pixel chips required for NA 60 cannot be supplied before mid-2003, therefore,
the NA 60 high-energy lead ion run has been cancelled. In the MTP (medium-term
plan), it was foreseen to stop running heavy ions end 2003 and it is not
possible to extend the running time in 2004 since operation staff will
be needed to carry out LHC magnetic measurements. Therefore in 2002 ,
the SPS will stop two weeks earlier and more MD time will be available.
Two more weeks could be made available for an Indium run in 2003, but
probably no lead ion run. R. Bailey is preparing new schedules for 2002
and 2003
and further discussions are taking place this week and a decision will
then be taken by the Director-General. Once a decision has been made,
the request from the LHC vacuum team to extend Linac 3 operation for vacuum
tests, will be studied.
- Machine development 3.7.2002 : a large part of the MD time will
be devoted to interventions on the machine, mainly on the figure-of-eight
loop and a water leak on the Booster or TT2, plus some other minor repairs.
- 20 MHz cavity : R. Garoby reported signs of weakness on the 20
MHz prototype cavity, which is heavily used for providing LHC beam to
the SPS and stressed the importance to finish the two new 20/13 MHz systems.
3. Distribution of resources for the various activities in 2003 according
to new MTP
B.W. Allardyce presented the current situation as regards the 2002 budget
with a breakdown between recurrent and non-recurrent commitments, where
the spending situation is satisfactory at the present time. Group Leaders
were asked to inform the DPO of work which has suffered most because of
the budget cuts, in order to see if some extra funds could be transferred
to these activities. Following a review by Finance Division of all PPA's
to be used at CERN as from January 2003, he then presented the new PPA's
(Programme, Project, Activity Codes) for PS Division, as well as a comparison
between the old and new PPA's.
B. Allardyce showed the divisional budget resources and J. Boillot the
manpower resources for 2003 according to the Medium-Term Plan which was
presented to Council at the end of June and approved for 2003 (the rest
to be submitted again in September). Many changes will have to be made to
the workplan because of the modified programme and resources, with an especially
dramatic effect on R&D where manpower will have to be reduced and transferred
to LHC activities. Each Group Leader, in collaboration with the Project
Leaders, should convert the mid-2002 PPA situation for his group to the
new system, and make an educated guess for 2003, taking into account the
statements in the MTP, but without taking into account the merging of PS
and SL. This information should be sent to J. Boillot, who will summarize
the situation for the division.
4. Report on the LHCC Workshop held on 28.6.2002
An LHCC (LHC Committee, a forum where LHC experiment spokesmen are putting
forward their requirements to the LHC management) Ions Workshop took place
on 28.6.2002 and the division was represented by M. Chanel and K. Schindl.
M. Chanel presented a summary
of the main requests of the experiments (performance limits and programme)
to the machines. The conclusions will be presented to the LHC Project Leader
at the LHC Committee. It is also proposed to hold a workshop in September
to study the machine aspects in detail.
5. Report on the CERN Management Board
J.P. Delahaye gave a rapid résumé of the CERN Management
Board which took place on Monday morning (1.7.2002):
- Staff Association : two new vice-presidents have been appointed
- M. Goossens/IT and M. Vitasse/SL.
- Council Meeting : the DG reviewed the outcome of the Council
Meeting and the measures to be taken to implement the recommendations
of the ERC (to be presented in September) and a new CERN manpower plan
to be proposed to Council by the end of this year at the latest. A new
"Morges" meeting will be held in October to study the manpower
plan and to identify skills needed for the LHC construction era and the
first years of operation, up to about 2008.
- Austerity measures : the Programme Controller, K.H. Kissler,
recommended the review of signature rights in order to implement austerity
measures and a special routing for "sensitive" equipment such
as computers and peripherals, cameras, furniture, telephones, etc.
- Mail service: following complaints from all Division Leaders,
the DG and Directors agreed to revert to the old system of mail distribution,
except for the "out" box.
- Promotion exercise : the results of the 2002 promotion exercise
were given. Results for PS Division will be published in the forthcoming
edition of "PS Information".
B. Allardyce will be retiring from CERN shortly and at the end of the
meeting, J.P. Delahaye, on behalf of the whole division, thanked him
for his many years devoted to CERN and in particular as DPO of PS.
