
			CINP Board Meeting Agenda

			      Sept 19, 2019
            13:00 Atl/12:00 East/11:00 MB/10:00 SK&AB/09:00 BC

Present: Garth Huber (GH), Michael Gericke (MG), Jeff Martin (JM), 
   Ritu Kanungo (RK), Gwen Grinyer (GG), Sangyong Jeon (SJ), Greg Hackman (GHa)
Absent: Iris Dillman (ID), Chris Ruiz (RC)

1. Approval of Agenda

  Approved by consent.

2. Approval of Minutes of Sept 4/19
   GH: including E-vote of June 14/19 on Webserver Maintenance Contract

  Moved: RK
  Seconded: GG

3. Discussion on NSERC MRS Grant Renewal (Garth and Greg)

  On Non-EDI part: None.

  EDI related issues:
  GHa: Juliette provided good feedback to the EDI section.  Also got feedback
  from Grace (UVic EDI officer).
  Budget will change a little. $5k to engage the EDI expert Grace, instead of
  $10k.  GHa will update the MRS application to reflect this.

  GH: Rephrased the EDI wordings following Juliette's comments.
  MG and others' inputs all included now.
  
  Need RGO's signatures. Email should be sent to the RGO at TRIUMF.
  EDI cost ($5k) included in the LRP cost of 108k.
  
  RK thanked GH and GHa for completing the application.
  
  Motion to approve the Grant proposal with the $5k change
  Moved: RK
  Seconded: MG

4. Further discussion on EDI strategy

  After some discussion, the following wording was moved:

  "Policy on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

  The CINP is committed to ensuring equitable access to its resources and
  promoting equity, diversity and inclusion in the nuclear physics community in
  Canada, recognizing that that this will contribute to more robust research
  and education outcomes."
  
  Moved: SJ
  Unanimously approved.
  GH will post this policy on the CINP website, under the Governance tab.

5. Executive Director Report (Garth)

   a) Update on Financial Statements from Shirley Reeve

  GH: Shirley prepared financial statements for the last 4 years.
  Some inconsistencies were found between Guelph's and Shirley's book keeping.
  Shirley has gone through all of the intervening years and got it sorted out.
  Overall balance looks more sensible now.
  GH will draft a letter to be submitted to the accounting firms after
  consulting with ID.
  We need to thank Shirley with a small gift.

  RK: What kind of inconsistencies?
  GH: Grand total of the assets were off. Shirley went through all 5 years
  carefully.

   b) Membership
      New Applications:
        159 - Yukiya Saito (Assoc)
        160 - Jacques Farine (Faculty)

  Motion to approve all
  Moved: JM
  Seconded: RK
   
   GH: Adam provided a list of TRIUMF graduate students and postdocs. GH will
   contact them for the membership.
   RK: Also follow up with their supervisors.

   c) Conference Support
        CCUWiP (last year we offered $500 in-kind support)

  GH: In-kind was travel scholarship for CINP students

  Motion: the same support for this year
  Moved: SJ
  Seconded: RK

   d) WNPPC Student Travel Awards
  GH: Propose 7 student travel assistantships at $600/each, as per
      preliminary budget last spring

  Motion to approve
  Moved: GG
  Seconded: MG
      
  JM volunteered for the selection committee and GH will speak with Juliette
   
   e) Response from NSERC to letter on SAP budget envelope increase
   
  GH: SAP did not receive the same rate of envelope increase compared to others.
  IPP and CINP sent letters.
      
      - letter from Emily Diepenveen, Aug 20 

  Only the project grant and the MRS grant envelopes increased. Individual DG
  envelope not increased.  Reason: SAP individual grants are larger than others
  already.  A formula was applied to increase disciplines except the SAP
  envelope.

      - letter from Danika Goosney, Sep 3

  Discussion: 
  RK: What was the main flag we raised?
  GH: We discussed this at the June board meeting.
  We asked: How was the increase decided? Where do we get the information?
  Other disciplines also complained about the lack of transparency.
  SAP individual grant is 95% theory DG. NSERC is treating this as a "low
  cost" research.
  In the LRP: >10% of the budget should be for theory.
  RK: NSERC eliminated the cost of research part (for general physics).
  GH: Other disciplines used cost of research. NSERC recognizes that the
  SAP-experiments are costly.
  RK: We need to pressure NSERC to give us more funding.
  We got 0 % increase while others got 30 - 40 % increase.
  GH: Funded fraction for SAP is higher than other disciplines. NSERC says we
  are in line with others.

  GH will work with Mike Roney (IPP Director) on a follow-up letter to NSERC,
  stressing the following points:
  - the pressure on the SAP envelope is still there
  - want transparency on how funding allocations are decided
  - want to incorporante SAPES into the broader reallocation scheme in a more
    formal manner
  - SAP-RTI funds are important
   
   f) Update on SAP-LRP discussions

  GH: Had several discussions with Emily Diepenveen and M. Roney. NSERC wants
  to reduce costs, as well as clerical support for the SAP-LRP.  CINP+IPP will
  be expected to take a larger role in next plan.
  We would like CFI to be ex-officio, rather than simply an observer. 
  Mike found a possible funding mechanism within CFI.  Mike and GH will draft a
  letter to CFI Vice-President.

6. News from TRIUMF

7. Approximate date of next meeting

  Timing depends on circumstances, such as the financial review and LRP plans.  
  If the timeline is short, probably November.  If the timeline is longer, then
  December.

8. Other Business

  None.

9. Adjourn


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E-vote conducted Nov 25 regarding financial review

Motion:

We will conduct a financial review:
for years FY 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19, 
by Colin Wirth CPA, of Dudley & Company LLP, Regina,
costing approximately $11000+tax.

Moved: Ritu
Seconded: Sangyong
In favor: Sangyong, Chris, Jeff, Michael and Ritu.
Abstention: Gwen
