Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 18:03:09 -0600 From jb@ncsa.uiuc.edu Tue Mar 25 19:05:36 1997 To: csteams@newton.ncsa.uiuc.edu, atteams@newton.ncsa.uiuc.edu, eotpaci@newton.ncsa.uiuc.edu, rp@newton.ncsa.uiuc.edu Subject: almost there... Dear Partner. We're down to the final days. The NSB meets on Thursday to review the PACI recommendations and will make its decision shortly after a 3-5 pm closed session. We are hopeful to hear the results by 5:45 pm eastern time. We will immediately send the results to you via email. We are following NSF's lead on the press announcement. NSF is preparing a press release which the NCSA home page will link to. We will keep you advised. If the recommendations are upheld by the Board on Thursday, we will then be able to begin budget negotiations with the NSF. Hopefully, we will have a good handle on the budget details by the end of April. Also, we will be scheduling another "all hands" meeting in mid-May. Will have dates on this meeting for you later this week. This has been a long process and we appreciate your patience. Stay tuned. Jim Bottum jim-I wonder if it wouldnt be good to send a watered down version of the message I sent out to the PACIEX this morning out to the all-hands? They may feel left out at not being mentioned in the backgrounder, so we need to set their expectations that NSF will now be able to begin negotiations and hopefully by the end of april we will have a better idea as to the total budget and who the full range of partners are. Dont want to scare them, so basically send a feel good message with a little of the nsf timetable in it. OK? You can run a draft by me first if you want.