Following UEC members’ participation in the 2016 triennial review, and motivated by their interactions with the review team, the UEC engaged CNMS management in a process to more clearly prioritize the roles and activities of the UEC in order to provide greater value to CNMS, its user community, and BES. A number of appropriate roles were discussed, defined, and prioritized during the course of 2016-2018, and particularly at the on-site annual user meetings (typically in August of each year). The UEC continues to follow a list of Tier 1 (highest priority) and Tier 2 roles. Roles are:
Highest priorities, Tier I
- Identify issues for users at CNMS and make recommendations for improvement. Includes reviewing User Satisfaction Survey, Suggestion Box, and conducting other surveys at discretion of UEC and involving non-users as much as possible.
- Contribute to planning for CNMS future by advising on strategic plan updates (annually), including capital equipment planning, which is a key part of the strategic plan.
- Make annual Town Hall meeting into a more effective forum for user feedback, for example by publishing an engaging agenda before the meeting to encourage users to bring ideas and want to attend; show it’s important and results in action; consider controversial topics that may boost interest.
Additional responsibilities, Tier II
- Organize technical program for CNMS User Meeting so that it is truly the Users’ meeting
- Identify content of most interest to users, including UEC activities that should be reported.
- Recommend proposal reviewers and evaluate the proposal process and results, including success rates and demographics – to recommend improvements, assure fairness, and identify underrepresented populations of users.
- Arrange UEC elections, particularly through recruiting a diverse pool of candidates to represent all user constituencies and ensuring election is open and fair.
- Represent facility at annual SSURF meeting.