2026-01-07 - 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/1863024641

   2. NSF announced a reorg and a change in review processes on Dec 15 - lessen admin overheads - NSF staff doesn’t know what this means yet - they have moved to theme areas and there is a lot of confusion about how this impacts leadership

   3. They are working toward a 75% reduction in force

   4. We were given spending authority thru the end of the award last month

      1. John would not be surprised if we have been forward funded by now - and we can spend it

   5. Our award end date has been corrected in NSF system

2. Review Action Items
   ACO Member To Do Items

   1. Open

      

       

3. Select Spotlight Topic for Monday’s NSF meeting

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

      1. John will ask Sharon if they want a deeper discussion with the EC about the Priorities

   2. Topic Picked:

      1. Defer to begin again next year - Jan 12, 2026

      2. Talk about Lisa’s involvement at Feb Meeting - frame it as please provide feedback in advance
         
         

4. Financials - as of the end of November

   1. Assume 2 more quarterly meetings in PY 5 and forecast those

   2. Need a forecast from Lisa for the Feb meeting (this is an additional cost) - she is not sure what she will be doing yet
      
      

      Open

      

5. Updates

   1. @John Towns

      1. already discussed

   2. @Chuck P

      1. already discussed

   3. @majumdar

      1. Eval Standing committee - Dave Hart has left

      2. Amit is leading sending out the surveys

      3. Will copy ACO on what has been sent out

   4. @Cindy Wong

      1. External Advisory Board

         1. https://access-ci.atlassian.net/wiki/x/AYCKbw

            1. Travel instructions sent to EAB

            2. Need to re-confirm who is attending from each Service Team

            3. Need to determine agenda topics from EAB & EC - Chuck to drive

         2. Service Teams 1-1 (closed meetings)

            1. Metrics: Friday, Jan 8.; Operations: Tuesday, Jan. 13

            2. Next will be ACO and RP, will aim for post QM

               1. For ACO, include Lisa K in scheduling, and give Lisa 10 mins with EAB alone

         3. Vivian HuangFu (SDSU) - requested to end membership after one-year term

            1. Chuck is taking action to resolve this - see: https://access-ci.atlassian.net/browse/ATT-231

         4. Is there an update on EAB COI status as a member? https://access-ci.atlassian.net/browse/ATT-229

            1. marked as resolved - see the task entry

      2. Researcher Advisory Committee - scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 12

      3. Feb QM: Agenda Planning Committee - looking for new members from Support and Allocation

      4. Evaluation

         1. Staff Survey: drafted and tested by Eval SC

            1. Staff listing - will work with Shannon to ensure this is up-to-date

         2. RP & Community survey: to draft

   5. @Dina Meek

      1. Inside ACCESS went out yesterday

      2. ACCESS Advance should go out tomorrow

      3. Facilitated meeting between Tom Furlani and Joel Adams to create some simple videos around XDMoD

      4. Dina to present to EC Jan 13, 2026on both the Communications and Web standing committees' activities

      5. Sent 3 stories to NSF Comms to promote

   6. @Kimberly Bruch

      1. She had 4 Xpanse stories - she combined them into 1 story

      2. Was thinking we could do this with other RPs as well - this might make more appealing stories

      3. Dina likes it - wants to talk

   7. @Misha Shah

      1. no updates

   8. @Shannon Bradley

      1. Quarterly Report

      2. Financial Report

      3. Monthly Reminders

      4. Planning Feb Meeting - working with Cindy and Misha to prep to plan the planning Agenda

   9. @Lisa -

      1. We need to design what she will be working on for the Quarterly Meeting in February

         1. We had two suggestions - one we liked and a fall back

            1. Lisa will make a blurb to present next week

         2. Need to take it to the EC next week

         3. Possibly also attend the morning agenda with the EAB?

            1. would like no more than an hour to get feedback

            2. They are prepared for 9 to 5 that day

         4. Leave a gap between the EAB and the EC

Discussion

ACO PY5 Goals and how they align to ACCESS Project Wide Goals - we need to add ours in this common deck: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1GaZUsTTNd3tFdEvEFFGqakaEsyaLW5t6/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=117449711423520058174&rtpof=true&sd=true

We should be able to feed the below information to an AI as a prompt and have it create data in the 4 buckets for the shared presentation - John will do by the EOD Friday

https://access-ci.atlassian.net/browse/ATT-234

Background

• PY5 ACCESS Wide Goals

  1. Improve the user experience (e.g., better user guidance, personalization of the user experience, and better insights through usage analysis, …)

  2. Increase the value delivered to the ACCESS-Allocated Resource Providers (e.g., easier integration processes, simpler and more effective tools, …)

  3. Solidify the programmatic foundation for transitioning to successor awards (e.g., modernizing tools, updating documentation and policies, and improving cross-program operational alignment, capturing lessons learned, …)

  4. Better capture and articulate ACCESS scientific impact (e.g., through publications data, new captured metrics, new analysis of existing data captured, …)
     
     

• ACO

 ACO Connecting to ACCESS Wide Goals

• Continue to improve upon governance structures and processes

  • Refine Standing Committee and Working Groups procedures

  • Improve communication channels between EC & SCs/WGs

• Leverage advisory bodies (EAB, RAC) 

  • Ensure robust communication and integration of feedback from advisory bodies

  • Track and address active EAB and RAC recommendations with the EC

• Engage the community

  • Assessing researcher satisfaction; Enhance survey response rates 

  • Tracking community-building and engagement events across the program

  • Enhance engagement, improve visibility, and ensure strategic communication efforts

• Transition planning and project close-out

  • Transition plan for tools, processes, capabilities that might be transferred to subsequent awardee(s)

  • Prepare for project close out and final reporting

Next Meeting: Jan 14, 2026

Reference

ACO Vacation SchedulePreview