NRAO/GBO update - Dec 14th
The North American NRAO/GBO instruments/support systems are online and performing nominally. In Chile, ALMA continues restart activities; power was restored to the high site this week.
Over the past two weeks both GBO and NRAO underwent annual Program Plan Reviews, where NSF brings in committees to review our status and plans for the coming (fiscal) year. In both cases, the panels were very complimentary about our progress in 2020, and our goals for next year. The committees were right - our overall progress this year against the plan reviewed in December 2019 was excellent, and we were fortunate to continue most planned observing and developments this past year. Congratulations to both Observatories and everyone who contributed to the plans and the reviews.
There was excellent news in the past week about the approval of vaccines for COVID, and the first efforts to distribute them. Our workplace practices all remain in place for the time being (and likely will through at least summer, I would guess), but we have begun thinking about how we will incorporate vaccination status into our plans. Nothing much changes until 75%+ of the population is vaccinated. I strongly encourage you to maintain the same discipline we’ve showed through most of this year - avoiding travel and large social events, maintaining physical distances in public, wearing a mask and frequent hand washing. We’ve come too far now to relax and catch the disease near the end of this journey, noting that infection rates remain quite high in parts of the country. Less than 1% of NRAO/GBO employees caught COVID this year, let’s keep safe for the next six months too.
Workplace: our “quiet month” has begun, where we’re keeping facility access activities to a minimum, and trying to keep groups of people separated in the buildings to reduce the risks of transmission in the workplace. Please talk with your supervisor to understand the plans for your group/division/dept… work bubbles and pods are being observed where they makes sense. Timecards are due in by late Wednesday this week, allowing our fiscal team to process your salary payments before the holiday break – thanks for getting on to them.
If you need COVID information or support, please contact your supervisor, Dept Head, ESS or me. The website containing all our info is: https://info.nrao.edu/covid-19. Thanks as usual to our Safety and Computing teams for keeping us safe and online. The holiday break is coming up, please take extra care in your personal activities.
Tony Beasley
