Present: Stepan, Maurik, FX, Tim, Takashi, Raphael, John Please send comments/corrections/additions to the whole EC.

1. News
John reported that after meeting with Alan Stone Aug 12, Alan proposed funding that would cover equipment, infrastructure, and operations for FY14 according to our budget, but without contingency. SLAC and JLAB are awaiting Initial Financial Plans from DOE to authorize release of these monies, but it's due imminently. Equipment and infrastructure support is already at SLAC, and has only to be redirected.

2. Membership for Stuart Fegan (INFN Genova).
Fegan is a post-doc in Battaglieri's group. Battaglieri noted the contriubutions he'd make and asked the EC make Fegan a member. The EC voted unanimous approval.

3. Election of New HPS Members
Thirteen people have requested membership in HPS since the collaboration meeting. All but Ben Reese (SLAC EE) are affiliated with INFN. The attachment above lists all and includes statements from each. EC has already approved eight to stand in an HPS election. Those remaining need EC approval.

HPS Election.docx
EC PLEASE VOTE Y/N ON APPROVING THE FOLLOWING FOR AN HPS ELECTION (email to John, Stepan, and Maurik):
1. Daniela Calvo
2. Annalisa D'Angelo
3. Alessandra Filippi
4. Mikhail Osipenko
5. Alessandro Rizzo

Once approved, John will notify the collaboration of the upcoming election, and provide the background material.

In general discussion, Maurik questioned how large a commitment should be required from new members. Is 20% enough?
It was noted that the EC will also set the authorship policy for HPS publications, so there is another opportunity to define a minimal contribution. John noted some surprise from Battaglieri and Carpinelli from learning that individuals must petition to be admitted, as opposed to groups being admitted. Stepan offered that CLAS admits groups. If more groups would apply, should we modify the Bylaws? We decided to discuss this at a future Collaboration meeting, and consider such an amendment there.

4. HPS Thesis Policy
The Bylaws stipulate that advisors propose thesis topics to the EC for approval. The EC is expected to coordinate theses and suggest modified topics as necessary, as well as keep a list of thesis topics. John asked if he should soon urge advisors to propose thesis topics to the EC. Stepan suggested and we agreed that this be done only for Sho and Omar at this time; time should be given to new students to get the lay of the land, and consider with their advisors, what their topic should be. Maurik noted it would be useful if the EC presented guidance to Advisors on possible topics. We agreed that a pecking order exists (hence asking Sho and Omar to start the process); senior students who have already made significant contributions go first.

We discussed possible thesis topics. Stepan suggested we considered dividing up theses along the lines of the data sets acquired, 1.1, 2.2, and 6.6 GeV, maybe even breaking it up by when the data was taken. He thought each student should have a publication associated with his thesis, and agreed that assigning data sets might have to be last minute. Tim preferred specific subject areas for theses, e.g. bump hunt analysis, vertex search analysis. John weighed in with his preliminary list: bump hunt, vertex hunt, recoil electron analysis, muon analysis, Ecal aided tracking analysis, True Muonium search, pion analysis, higher energy running. Raphael noted that in Europe, students must finish in 3 years, and it is common for a student to choose a thesis topic on signing up with an experiment. Hardware theses are not excluded (the muon system, a pion trigger, etc.), but may not be best for those wishing to pursue academic careers.

We'll continue this discussion in the future, and work toward generating some guidance for advisors and future students.

5. Next meeting will be next Thursday, September 12.

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