1. CXC Chandra Users' Committee Chandra Director’s Office Proposal Cycle 8 725 proposals *6.4 oversubscribed (based on time) GTO for review: due 3 rd April (for competed targets

2. CXC Chandra Users' Committee Time request and oversubscription

3. CXC Chandra Users' Committee Peer Review: Cycle 8 19-23 June 2006 12 Topical Panels, 20-21 June, 10.5 Msecs: 2 Normal Stars, WD, Planetary Systems and Misc 2 SN, SNR + Isolated NS 3 WD Binaries + CVs, BH and NS Binaries, Galaxies: Populations 2 Galaxies: Diffuse Emission, Clusters of Galaxies 3 AGN, Extragalactic Surveys Big Project Panel, 21-23 June, 6 Msecs: 12 panel chairs, 3-4 pundits Allocate time for LP and VLP projects

4. CXC Chandra Users' Committee Big Project Panel Schedule Wed 21 June, 7pm: ~ 1hour organisational meeting: Get hardcopies, discuss procedure for next day Time for chairs to organize summary of GO program Thurs 22 June, am: Triage meeting: summarize GO program and decide which proposals NOT to discuss Thurs am-pm: Reading time, chairs meetings as needed Thurs 4pm: Presentation and discussion of proposals Initial voting Frid am: Final discussion and voting

5. CXC Chandra Users' Committee Constrained Observations As in Cycle 7, the official limit is 15% of observations: Counting individual pointings Dividing long observations into orbit-sized chunks Counting TOO follow-ups Cycle 7, peer-review approved constrained observations were 22% of the total due to teething problems in the GUI code and the need to count some by hand. The CUC report has been updated to include this information.

6. CXC Chandra Users' Committee CUC recommendations: CDO Grant Award Periods: as implemented for Cycle 7, all awards will not be eligible for a 2 year period with a 1 year no-cost extension available on request Peer Review: Big Project Panel: an additional half day has been added to the schedule for the BPP to allow more reading and discussion time and reduce the stress level on all participants Peer Review: started inviting senior people in Dec 2005, have a larger percentage already. Are now in the final stages of inviting reviewers. CUC Presentations: posted on CUC website by Friday before meeting CUC Reports: We are now posting preliminary responses to the CUC report recommendations 4-8 weeks after the report is received. Budget Proposal Timeline: 14 Sept 2006, back 2 weeks from Cycle 7 (itself delayed by 2 weeks). We plan to send out letters first week of August.

7. CXC Chandra Users' Committee CUC Recommendations: non-CXC Level 3 Catalog: held a detailed scientific review 8,9 Fen 2006 at the CXC. Draft report is on line, Jonathan has presented the results and our responses. Calibration: description of detector regions over which calibration data are valid included in Larry’s presentation. Cross-Calibration:Herman’s presentation included a description of the current status of cross-calibration. Published on the website: space.mit.edu/ASC/calib/crosscal