The EPO Standing Committee met virtually on October 8, 14 and 19, 2021. The attendees for part or all of the meeting included: Committee Members: Kathy Ellins (chair), Tadesse Alemu, Wesley Brown, Alex Nikulin, Jascha Polet, Mike Brudzinski, Debi Kilb
IRIS Board of Directors liaison: Jackie Caplan-Auerbach
IRIS staff: John Taber, Wendy Bohon, Perle Dorr, Tammy Bravo, Michael Hubenthal, Danielle Sumy and Mladen Dordevic, Bob Woodward
UNAVCO staff: Donna Charlevoix
The meeting, which was held as separate sessions over 3 days, began with a review of the minutes and action items from the previous meeting, followed by a discussion with IRIS President Bob Woodward about the 2-year delay in the combined facility re-competition, and the status of merger planning. He also discussed the Board guidance to the Standing Committees. This was followed by a presentation and discussion on EPO program highlights over the past 6 months and the staff priorities for the next 6 months, including planning for the 2022 SAGE/GAGE workshop, for which IRIS is the lead organizer. This was followed by an update on UNAVCO ECE activities and an overview of UNAVCO staffing. The first session concluded with a discussion of how IRIS EPO can work with seismologists to help expand typical K12 seismology education beyond the teaching of the S-P arrival time technique for earthquake location.
The first topic of the 2nd session was a discussion of the proposals submitted to the Simpson Fund RFP. Committee members offered pros and cons of the proposals and preliminary rankings were presented. Then there was a presentation and discussion about the draft plan for the science ambassador program which will replace the concluding IRIS/SSA Distinguished Lecture Series. This was followed by a presentation and discussion on the new Women in Geoscience video series. Then the recent SAGE/GAGE management review was discussed, along with the planned review of IRIS EPO/UNAVCO ECE in 2022. The final discussions of the 2nd session centered around various aspects of planning for merged facility governance, including planning joint meetings of the ECE and EPO advisory committees.
The 3rd session began with a presentation and discussion about the NSF SAGE Y4 EPO budget and priorities for spending of any Y3 carryover. This was followed by a formal ranking of the Simpson Fund proposals, along with recommended budget adjustments, to be sent to the IRIS Board for approval. Then there was a discussion of program priorities for the remainder of the original NSF SAGE II award, which was followed by an executive session. The final discussion of the meeting involved the creation of the slate of proposed new EPO Standing Committee members, to submit to the Board, to replace those members rotating off the committee.
