[Newathena-cg-telecon] NewAthena Community Call

[Ciro Pinto]

Dear Silvia,

Thank you very much for the prompt and quick arrangements!

Keep in touch,
Ciro 

> On 12 Mar 2025, at 12:30, Athena Community Office <aco at ifca.unican.es> wrote:
> 
> Dear NAGC,
> 
> Thank you for your valuable suggestions and comments, which we have carefully considered. 
> 
> We have revised the introduction, reorganized the order in the application form, updated the FAQ (including today's comment from James), and added more details in the email: 
> https://nextcloud.ifca.es/index.php/s/95t5LFatgHoHE75 <https://nextcloud.ifca.es/index.php/s/95t5LFatgHoHE75>
> 
> We have decided to send this email to the entire current Athena community today to provide an extra working day for those who are hesitant to apply. Additionally, we will publish a news update on the community portal and distribute the announcement through the Spanish Astronomical Society. 
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Silvia.
> 
> ----- On 12 Mar, 2025, at 11:24, James Aird <James.Aird at ed.ac.uk <mailto:James.Aird at ed.ac.uk>> wrote:
> 
> Hi Thomas and NACG,
>  
> That’s some really useful feedback. On a related note, I’m a little worried about this in the FAQs:
> “How much time will be involved for an active membership on average?”
> One can estimate that those members contributing most actively to a WG should count with a ~5-10% time investment until the delivery of the Red Book (autumn 2026).
>  
> 10% of one’s time for people who are not somehow part of funded NewAthena activities is a *lot*. That’s half a day per week. I agree, someone actively contributing to the Redbook may start to approach such a level of contribution as that deadline approaches (or if they wish to lead an A&A paper), but I don’t think it’s a sensible expectation for a standard WG member and could certainly put people off. In fact, I think a 10% commitment for someone acting as a CHAIR may even be on the high side as to what people could be able to contribute, given it’s essentially a voluntary role.
>  
> I think we might expect ~monthly telecons of each WG at most, and attending those to provide input to science activities would be more than enough as a contribution for an “active” WG member in my mind. Even this may seem on the high side for a project still 12 years away (even if the important activity of mission adoption is coming up sooner). I feel the old Athena WGs/TPs maybe had telecons ~every 6 months at most, and there was perhaps an ~annual meeting (mainly for chairs) + maybe WG get-togethers within other conferences such as X-ray Universe on Athena science meetings themselves (so ~twice over a three year period).
>  
> If it looks like a commitment much higher than that then I think we’ll put people off. (I appreciate that is says “those members contributing most actively to a WG” but there are lots of words elsewhere about seeking active members).
>  
> Cheers,
>  
> James
>  
>  
>  
> From: Newathena-cg-telecon <newathena-cg-telecon-bounces at lists.mpe.mpg.de> on behalf of Thomas Dauser <thomas.dauser at fau.de>
> Date: Wednesday, 12 March 2025 at 07:25
> To: Newathena-cg-telecon <Newathena-cg-telecon at lists.mpe.mpg.de>
> Subject: [Newathena-cg-telecon] NewAthena Community Call
> 
> This email was sent to you by someone outside the University.
> You should only click on links or attachments if you are certain that the email is genuine and the content is safe.
> 
> Dear ACO, dear Matteo, dear all,
> 
> 
> after our discussion yesterday in the telecon on the NewAthena community
> call, I had a lengthy discussion today with a larger group of people at
> our institute (lots of them PhD students).
> 
> Their main message why they did not sign up, yet, was that the
> application "looked scary" to them. They want to support Athena and also
> help within their time they have available in the Working Groups.
> However, to basically all of them the call (so meaning mainly what is
> written on the form you have to fill out) sounded like they have to
> devote a significant fraction of time for the Working Group. And in
> order to be able to join any of the working groups they have to provide
> a strong motivation, otherwise they may even be rejected. The majority
> of the PhD students here who were in principle interested thought hard
> about the motivation (scared of being declined the membership) and then
> just gave up.
> 
> 
> Re-reading all of this myself I have to say I understand this. And I
> don't think this is what people should think when they try to sign up
> the the NASC.
> 
> A few possible suggestions that could help:
> 
> - Can we make the text of the call sound a bit more open and friendlier,
> to make it obvious that we care for everyone to sign up and that this is
> not a competing call (except for the chairs). If you can still change
> the text of the application form, I would add more advertising thoughts
> at the beginning. What we want is to get people who think they can
> contribute to a science working group. And not make is sound that this
> is a strict and competing selection process. Linking the FAQ right at
> the beginning would also help, because most people here were not aware
> it exists, as they only clicked on the link for the form (and it
> explains a lot of things nicely).
> 
> - Name clearly what you expect as written "motivation" and that (only)
> under certain circumstances the NASST reserves its right to reject an
> application. I think this scared off most people I talked to who did not
> sign up.
> 
> - If still possible change the order to the sign up. First make the box
> a "I want to be part of the NewAthena Community", then secondly the sign
> up for an active member of a working group, and only lastly as a chair.
> 
> 
> I hope these thoughts and feedback help writing the next reminder email
> and possibly update the form such that more people sign up.
> 
> Thanks everyone for putting so much effort into this.
> 
> 
> Cheers,
> Thomas
> 
> 
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