Summary of the Fifth IVS Directing Board meeting
Goddard Space Flight Center, February 16, 2001, 0900-1730

Attending: K. Kingham, A. Whitney, J. Campbell, A. Nothnagel,
H. Schuh, Y. Koyama, T. Kondo, W. Cannon, N. Capitaine, 
S. Matsuzaka, E. Himwich, A. Niell, C. Ma, N. Vandenberg, 
W. Schlueter

P. Tomasi was sick and was not able to attend.

1. Welcome

Wolfgang Schlueter welcomed Yasuhiro Koyama, Arthur Niell, and
Harald Schuh as newly elected members of the board.

2. Review

Chair's report (Wolfgang Schlueter)

A letter will be sent to USNO encouraging their continued support 
of IVS components. Letters were sent to various astronomical 
institutions giving IVS's endorsement of the VSI standard.

IVS is applying to FAGS (Federation of Astronomical and Geophysical
Data Analyis Services). Membership in FAGS will enhance the reputation 
of IVS because this is a high level organization. At the March FAGS 
meeting our application will be discussed.

Coordinating Center report (Nancy Vandenberg)

The Coordinating Center supported the Analysis Workshop by maintaining
the meeting web page and supporting the local committee for the
meeting. The Technical Operations Workshop was supported by a web-based
pre-registration polling form, the web registration and class selection 
form, and a draft class schedule. The Coordinating Center is working
with the Local Committee for the meeting at Haystack.

The reports for the 2000 Annual Report were received, reviewed,
edited, and a first draft prepared.

Analysis Coordinator report (Axel Nothnagel)

The Analysis Coordinator's web page has comparisons of the regular
products and a combined product. 

Comparisons done by Brian Luzum (USNO) showed the weighted mean of 
the four regular series. The combination really improves the series.

The board will review the combination procedures used by the Analysis 
Coordinator and approve the combination procedures, according to the 
ToR requirements. 

The combination product files are on the Analysis Coordinator's page 
but are not publically on the IVS Data Centers. The announcement of 
the official IVS product will be coordinated with the IERS and Rapid 
Service, since they are going to be using the IVS combined solutions,
and then the combination products will be put on the Data Centers. 

Wayne Cannon presented a memo about combined products and why they
are useful. The memo will be available on the Analysis Coordinator's
web page.

Network Coordinator report (Ed Himwich)

The performance data base has 75 sessions including 433 station days. 
A total of 45 days were lost during this period. A web page will
be set up for the Network Coordinator on which performance tables
will be posted.

Station configuration files are trickling in, 15 are available and
about 15 are missing. The files need to be maintained and updated
when things change at a station. All historical information should
be kept in the same file, similar to IGS procedures.

A site ties data base will be set up for VLBI stations. SINEX file
format will be used for the eccentricities. This information should
be coordinated with Zuheir Altamimi who maintains the tie information
for IERS.

Technology Coordinator report (Alan Whitney)

Goals during 2000 were to finish VSI-H, study VLBI data systems, and
set up a central documentation web page. The first two were accomplished.
Goals for 2001 are to complete VSI-S and to work on VLBI data systems.
There is much VSI activity in Japan, as described in the CRL Newsletters. 
CRL has offered to provide cables to any groups implementing a VSI 
instrumentation interface.

VSI-S should be finished by the end of this year. The VSI-H group
will review it first and then the review will be expanded to
software experts.

Working Group report (Ed Himwich for Brian Corey)

The error sources in attempting to measure the GPS satellite phase 
centers were presented. The conclusion was reached that the Working
Group chair should write a final report, and it will recommend that
we not proceed with any observations.

New information was recently obtained about the phase center
question. 1) Data was taken on the arrays before satellite launch
but it has not yet been reduced, and 2) Gerry Mader has a GPS
antenna on the roof at NOAA and is making measurements.

3. Affiliated Members

New applications for Affiliate Membership were received from the 
Geomatics Department at the University of New Brunswick in Canada 
and Westerbork Observatory in the Netherlands. The board approved 
the new afffiliate members.

4. IAG Meeting

The next IAG meeting is in Budapest September 2-8, 2001. Reports
from the services are due in May for publication in the Travaux.

5. Publications

Annual Report 2000

The Annual Report for 2000 is being prepared, and a draft version of the 
book was available for review. It was suggested that a more complete (and 
working) example of a LaTeX report would help report writers. Strong support 
was voiced for continuing publication of the books for Annual Reports and 
Proceedings.

IVS Flyer

The IVS flyer will be updated with the new board members names. The
the flyer should be available electronically so that institutions can 
print their own versions. Both letter and A4 versions should be available. 

6. Meetings

Analysis Workshop report (Axel Nothnagel)

There were reports from 20 Analysis Centers, only one did not
report. All the Data Centers reported. There were 45 attendees,
and lots of discussion. Thirteen Analysis Centers submitted
solutions to the first Pilot Project, resulting in 17 solutions
using a total of 7 analysis packages. The Pilot Project helped to
understand the different packages and gave a better idea of what is
available. More Analysis Centers can be encouraged to become part
of the regular combination. 

Two proposals resulting from the workshop were approved: 

1) Source names. IAU has 20 characters in official source names,
VLBI analysis packages need 8 characters. The IERS Product Center 
on the ICRS will maintain a corresponding list of B-IAU names and 
official names and will assign new ones. Response to getting assigned 
names should be rapid, common names should be suggestable by the 
original observer, and the list should be readily available via
the web. 

2) Station names. The IVS Coordinating Center will maintain a 
list of 8-character station names for use in scheduling,
correlation, and analysis packages. New names will be assigned
in close agreement with the owner of the station. The IVS CC
will request DOMES numbers and CDP numbers for the station and
maintain a corresponding list with web access.

CORE panel (Vandenberg)

A panel will hold a review of the CORE program tomorrow, Feb 16. 
The meeting was organized jointly by NASA and IVS. NASA Headquarters 
is considering additional funding to increase observations at its
stations and it wants to review the CORE program and receive
recommendations about the best way VLBI can contribute to space
geodetic programs. 

TOW (Himwich)

The TOW (Technical Operations Workshop) is next month at Haystack.
There are 65 participants, teachers, and organizers expected to
attend. Classes will be assigned based on expertise level and the 
priorities of the students. This is different from last time when 
students signed up for specific classes. 

GM2 (Koyama, Kondo, Matsuzaka)

The second General Meeting will be in Tsukuba, Japan in February 2002.
Directing Board meeting on Sunday, Feb 3, GM Mon-Wed Feb 4-6, and
Analysis Workshop Thu-Fri Feb 7-8. The Local Committee includes
S. Matsuazkz, S. Matsumura, Y. Fukuzaki, T. Kondo, Y. Koyama, and
F. Nakajima. The initial program committee includes the IVS Chair,
Coordinating Center Director, and three Coordinators. Additional
interested persons will be asked to join the committee when the call 
for ideas and suggestions is sent. Tetsuro Kondo distributed copies
of the draft logo for the meeting.

7. Discussion on the enlargement of the board

The board discussed the topic of the possibility of enlarging the 
number of IVS board members. It was felt that some constituencies were
not being represented on the board.

Wayne Cannon distributed a memo with his recommendation that the board 
should include representatives of the three recording system technology 
communities. Tetsuro Kondo said that it was very important for him to 
have been on the IVS board because of the VSI work; it would have been 
very difficult to make such progress in Japan otherwise. It was also noted 
that the board is not geographically balanced because there are no 
representatives from Russia or China, for example. Different things become 
important at different times, and the board feld it should have the 
flexibility to select the At Large members based on variable criteria. 
Additional flexibility would be obtained by having 2-year terms for the
At Large members.

On the other hand, all of the various constituencies of stations, 
technologies, and analysis systems are meant to be represented on the 
board by the activities of the three Coordinators.

The board voted to change the ToR to state that At large members are 
intended to balance representation from as many countries and institutions 
and IVS interests as possible. At large members will serve 2-year terms 
once renewable. The current at large members will serve 4-year terms 
according to the ToR in effect when they were elected.

Current IVS interests that have a high profile include VSI, analysis
products, and truly international representation. These will be considered 
when the board elects a third At Large member in the near future. The 
Coordinating Center will coordinate nominations for the new At Large board 
member, according to the ToR. 

8. Discussion on IVS products and related programs

At its previous meeting the board began a discussion of IVS having its own
observing programs. The Chair pointed out that we have products we must 
provide, but as we have no funds we must rely on our components to do the
work. As a service, we should be product-oriented and we should have 
observing programs aimed at product fulfillment under the flag of IVS.
IVS should take the initiative to set up its programs and ask the institutions 
to contribute.

The board members felt that institutions are waiting for the IVS leadership. 
Adjustments and modifications to existing programs may be small but the 
perception of new programs will be large, and we can move away from parochial 
programs. The IVS flag on programs might also enable institutions to find 
additional resources. 

The Chair felt that now is a good time to ask again for support of our 
observing programs. We have credibility due to the Annual Report publication. 
We should use the momentum we have created to develop our programs related 
to strong products.

The board decided to set up a Working Group whose charter is:

  As part of the IVS effort to provide the best products for the user
  community and to optimize the use of available global resources, the
  IVS Directing Board established a Working Group for Product Specification
  and Observing Programs. Members of the Working Group will be chosen
  from among experts in the field of geodetic/astrometric VLBI. The
  charter to the Working Group is:
 
   - Review the usefulness and appropriateness of the current
     definition of IVS products and suggest modifications.
   - Recommend guidelines for accuracy, timeliness, and redundancy
     of products.
   - Review the quality and appropriateness of existing observing
     programs with respect to the desired products.
   - Suggest a realistic set of observing programs which should
     result in achieving the desired products, taking into account
     existing agency programs.
   - Set goals for improvements in IVS products and suggest how
     these may possibly be achieved in the future.
   - Present a written report to the IVS Directing Board at its
     next meeting.

Harald Schuh agreed to be the chair of the Working Group. 

9. Miscellaneous

CRL Report (Kondo)

KSP was scheduled to terminate last year, Miura station was already
dismantled. The letters of support from many colleagues worked very
well. Koganei and Kashima remain, Gifu University go the Tateyama
antenna. CRL has a VLBI correlator doing 2 MHz sampling in real time using 
a 1 GHz Pentium-3 PC. 

Letter about Simeiz

Wolfgang Schlueter reported on a letter from Anton Zensus (MPI) requesting 
support from IVS for upgrading Simeiz to Mk4. A letter will be sent in 
response saying the IVS supports the upgrade but has no funds of its own, 
and mentioning other agencies that may be interested in supporting the project.

Timing issues

Ed Himwich raised Tom Clark's concern about inaccuracy of the time tag 
of observations because of station clock offsets from UTC. The harmonizing 
of reference clock offsets from UTC will be handled as a topic of the 
regular Mk4 correlator meetings.

Next meeting

The next IVS DB meeting was set for Sept. 9 in Barcelona after the 
European VLBI meeting.

Wolfgang Schlueter thanked Wayne Cannon and Tetsuro Kondo for 
their service on the IVS board since this was their last meeting