NERSC Users Group (NUG) Charter

1. Purpose

The National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) Users Group (NUG) is the users group for the NERSC facility at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. NERSC is developed and maintained under the auspices of the Office of Science, U. S. Department of Energy (DOE).

The purpose of NUG is to provide advice and feedback to NERSC on the current state and future delivery of NERSC resources and services. NUG is to promote the effective use of the high performance computing facilities at NERSC by sharing information about experiences in using the facility, suggesting new research and technology directions in scientific computing, and voicing user concerns. NUG also serves as a collecting body to determine the computational accomplishments and needs of the DOE Office of Science community. NUG should communicate this information within its membership, to NERSC, and the appropriate DOE program managers. To these ends NUG will maintain communications through appropriate means, such as regular meetings, electronic mailing lists, shared databases, and webpages.

2. Membership

All principal investigators with a reviewed resource allocation at NERSC, and all active users associated with such research accounts, are members of NUG. Participation in the activities of NUG is open to all NERSC users. NERSC will provide staff and administrative resources to facilitate the meetings and other business of the NERSC Users Group.

3. Chair and Executive Board

The Chair of NUG and an Executive Board will represent the NERSC User Group. The members of this Executive Board will be elected by the NERSC User Group members in elections administered by NERSC. The Chair and the Vice-Chair will be elected by the members of the Executive Board from among its ranks. All terms are for a duration of three years. The three year terms are for three consecutive calendar years. There are no term limits.

The organizational body for NUG is its Executive Board (NUGEX). It consists of twenty-one user representatives (including chair and vice-chair) who are each to maintain awareness of and represent the interests of their user community. Each of the six divisions of the Office of Science (BER, BES, HEP, NP, OASCR, and OFES) will have three representatives on NUGEX. Three additional members of NUGEX will represent the user community at large.

The Chair of the NERSC User Group also serves as a member of the NERSC Policy Board. He/she will represent the NERSC user perspective on this board. The NERSC User Group will make nominations to the NERSC Director for membership for the NERSC Program Advisory Committee. It is expected that a number of members of the NUGEX will be appointed to the NERSC Program Advisory Committee.

The Chair of NUG is responsible for convening NUGEX at regular intervals, and assures that NUG can carry out its mission effectively. The Vice Chair will take on the Chair's responsibilities, whenever the Chair is not available.

4. Task Forces and Working Groups

When appropriate, the Executive Board of the NERSC User Group will appoint task forces and working groups to address specific issues related to NERSC services. The NUGEX will name the subcommittee membership, the responsible lead of the subcommittee, and its charge. Such subcommittees should be formed from the appropriate experts and interested parties. The membership may include persons outside NUG. Such subcommittees should regularly report back to NUG at its general meetings.

4.1 Green Book

NUGEX will appoint from among its ranks a task force responsible for the development and writing of the NERSC Green Book. The Green Book is a user requirement document, which will be written in regular intervals. It will detail the hardware, software, infrastructure, and training needs of the NERSC User community, and will help NERSC and the DOE Office of Science in the planning process for the NERSC facility.

4.2 Meetings

NUGEX will appoint from among its members a meetings working group. The meetings working group is responsible for planning and hosting NUG meetings. NUG meetings will be held as a minimum once a year, and more frequently, if developments at NERSC (e.g. transition to a new platform) require. The meetings working group will select the venue and establish in cooperation with NERSC the program for the NUG meetings.

4.3 Training

NUGEX will establish a user training working group. The responsibility of this working group is (in collaboration with NERSC) to organize training events such as "users helping users" (UHU). This group will also communicate user needs in the area of training back to NERSC.

4.4 Elections

The nominating subcommittee will be responsible for the preparation of the elections for NUG Chair, Vice-chair, and Executive Board. Whenever vacancies exist, the nominating subcommittee will recruit candidates for NUGEX elections, establish ballots, and work with NERSC staff in holding the elections. Elections are staggered so that each year approximately one representative of each of the divisions of the Office of Science and one at large representatives will be elected.