2025-10-01 - OpenCI Leadership Meeting Agenda & Summary

Decisions made during the meeting:

Agenda/Notes

1. Most Recent EC Meeting Debrief

   1. https://access-ci.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ACP/pages/1648853029

   2. Communication from NSF - the email is in the consent agenda section #9 - NSF is enforcing constraints on who has access to resources we allocate - prohibited organizations and peoples, etc.

   3. Shannon will follow up and make sure the RP ByLaws have been ratified and accepted if they have not already

   4. ACCESS-paloosa - EAB, RAC and ACCESS - will need a lot of planning - multiple meetings funded by different sources - will be tricky to find out how hotel will be covered

      1. when does each meeting occur and in what order

   5. John will be on plane during EC meeting next week

   6. UIUC March 14th - 22nd spring break

   7. We need to get the EC to reinforce use of the tools we have for allowing teams to provide tasks, progress, and communication around what they are doing

      1. need to start sharing planning earlier in the process - get aligned

      2. Dec quarterly - share ideas then so we are aware of priorities and priorities of other teams

2. Review Action Items
   ACO Member To Do Items
   OVERDUE

   Open

   

   UPCOMING

   Open

   

3. Select Spotlight Topic for Monday’s NSF meeting

   1. https://access-ci.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ACP/database/1644199966

   2. need more topics for discussions

   3. We do not know if we will be talking to them on Monday

   4. Do we need to talk to NSF about security training

      1. only applies to civil service staff and not APs at U of I - per John

         1. good idea for everyone on the team to take it

         2. determine who on the team is required to take it and announce

      2. UCSD sent out directives

         1. Dear Researcher,
            You are receiving this message as you have been the Principal Investigator or a key person on a funding submission to the National Science Foundation (NSF) over the past three years.
            Effective October 10, 2025, prior to proposal submission, all faculty and researchers listed as senior/key personnel on NSF proposals must certify that they have completed the research security training within the past 12 months. More information from NSF about their training requirement can be found in Important Notice No. 149.

         2. This NSF Research Security requirement can be met by completing “Research Security at the University of California“ via the UC Learning Center at https://go.ucsd.edu/42GPXGP.
            If you have any questions or require more information, please contact John R. Baumann, Ph.D., Assistant Vice Chancellor for Research Compliance and Integrity at jobaumann@ucsd.edu. Please contact UC Learning Center Support if you need any technical assistance.

4. What would ACO like Lisa to do in terms of a specific focus for the next Project Year - (10 min) - Lisa Kaczmarczyk

   1. Every year she does items in addition to providing observations upon attending meetings

   2. There were some ideas that were set aside for the final year (some were set aside because of lack of funding)

   3. Would like something useful and helpful to contribute to the ACO

   4. Ideas

      1. Ideal Scenario: attend Boulder ACCESS-paloosa - could have another in person conversation with PIs and get observations of interactions with staff - setting up for the potential of some kind of renewal

         1. lessons learned

         2. coordination and communication

         3. focus on a group/idea to help position for what comes next

      2. Boulder would be cost effective because everyone would be there

   5. not sure how NSF will proceed with ACCESS

      1. they are taking a dramatic change to management with NAIRR - moving to 1 PI and concentrating in 1 institution more like XSEDE

   6. John - Assess governance structure of ACCESS - the ACO in particular … contrast with XSEDE and TerraGrid

   7. Shannon - facilitation techniques for Effective Group Decision Making: https://access-ci.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ACP/pages/445120518

   8. Lisa - what do we feel we need in this last year - that should be the center point - where can she be helpful

   9. Think about this over the next week - do we have a message we want to convey to NSF via this focus

      1. how could current structure be improved from an ACO structure - pain points, friction, areas to change and then make some recommendations

   10. How would this help the ACO and stay in scope for the last year?

       1. Lessons learned we should report on during last year

       2. Put some things in place for last year to make us better - even in the last year

   11. Lisa has trainings for next 3 weeks - put her items up front

   12. Chuck - his participation in EC as ACO award PI - we need to be able to detail where governance model can suggest

   13. Amit and John - implement low hanging fruit

5. Updates

   1. @John Towns

      1. checking end date of the project vs how it displays on NSF website - Sharon is checking into it (per Monday meeting)

   2. @Chuck P

   3. @majumdar

      1. Evaluation - nothing new to report

   4. @Cindy Wong

      1. Dec QM - EC needs to decide what kind of meeting first - will make a decision as soon as they know the survey results

         1. Agenda Planning Committee: Cassian (Support), Laura (Allocations), Aaron (Metrics), Tom M. (Operations -TBC), Amit (ACO - TBC)

         2. Type of Meeting - Virtual? Dates?

         3. Ownership? Cindy temporarily stepped in while Lavanya was transitioning out

            1. This would be Shannon or Misha next

      2. EAB

         1. Sept 4 meeting

            1. meeting survey: only one response. Will send a final kind reminder and will include a note that these surveys are part of our ACO KPI to “Ensure EAB satisfaction with ACO support”

            2. waiting on EAB report from EAB chairs

            3. other 1 on 1s

         2. Plans for Dec 2025 meeting (2 hour virtual) - not sure of date yet - yes

            1. Sent a request for availability, which has no response as of today: https://www.when2meet.com/?32406275-1DAFO

      3. ACCESS-paloosa

         1. for EAB - would need to make sure they can have a quorum

         2. RAC is always virtual - not sure how in person would work - there is no travel support?

            1. Stephen has PSC funds to allow RAC to travel

         3. Talk to Leslie about including RPs

   5. @Dina Meek- absent

   6. @Kimberly Bruch

   7. @Misha Shah

   8. @Shannon Bradley

      1. Discuss Process for when to cancel NSF meeting during shutdown

         1. cancel on Monday Mornings - first thing 9am

      2. Confirm due date for NSF report - PEP says Oct 10, 2025

      3. Finance transaction audit complete - just a few things left

         1. Who is Hannah Naughton? comms team possibly during 1st year or 2 - is ok charge to Comms Activity Code

         2. I will need to make a change to the Activity Code for John and Chuck’s allocations

      4. Quarterly Report - template started

         1. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1O_GDvgyZrRW9JgQM-SDNxCv7OfcyDgvzYLrm7b2hLu8/edit?tab=t.0

      5. Need input on request from Allocations: https://access-ci.atlassian.net/browse/ATT-225

      6. Update from Chuck on EAB task suggestions

      7. List of tools complete - https://access-ci.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ACP/pages/854163470

      8. Database of Tools complete - https://access-ci.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ACP/database/1648656385

Next Meeting: Oct 8, 2025

Reference

ACO Vacation SchedulePreview