The Operations Excellence Council provides a senior management forum focused on delivering leading-edge science, and developing a strong commitment to, and culture around, research and operational excellence throughout the laboratory. The council supports timely, transparent and effective decision-making on operational programs. It communicates customer feedback, needs and priorities, and reviews lab performance targets and metrics.

Safety Share

Deputy Chief Operations Officer Mike Dunn and Pete Spizzirri, deputy director for Security, Travel and Emergency (STE), complimented the Grounds crew on an outstanding job keeping up with the snowfall. Pete added that the option to telecommute was a smart decision. George Srajer, deputy associate laboratory director, Photon Sciences, was pleased to hear Grounds and Custodial crews were staying overnight at the Guest House in order to support snow removal over the weekend.

Revisions of SEC-160

STE Training Coordinator Joe Thompson presented the SEC 160 Update, which entails a new proactive approach to active shooter response training. ALICE, which stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Evacuate, was created after the Columbine shootings. This training helps people decide which the best course of action to use in a shooter situation. Schools, police departments, businesses and other organizations use this training. Argonne currently has five trained ALICE instructors. The Operations Excellence Council provided concurrence to proceed with ALICE implementation.

Honorarium Process

Mark Langguth (LEG), senior attorney-intellectual property, provided an update on revisions to the policy for non-Argonne travel expense and honorarium fees. These include clarification on:

• Travel expense requirements separate from honorarium fee requirements
• Categories not eligible for honorarium fees, while identifying method of travel expense reimbursement for those categories
• Tax-ID only required for honorarium fee

Legal will continue to meet with the Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCF) and will work with Communications and Public Affairs (CPA) to form a communication plan.

ACTION: Business and Information Services (BIS) and Legal will create two separate forms for travel reimbursement and honorarium fees.

Hazardous Risk Registry

Karen Hellman, interim senior director for Infrastructure Services, discussed two hazardous projects in the Nuclear and Waste Management division: the repair of the Radioactive Waste Storage Facility polar crane bridge brake and packaging of UF6 Cylinders in Building 350.

Roundtable

Computational Sciences Division (CPS) Director and Argonne Distinguished Fellow Paul Messina retired Jan. 31, 2019. Effective Feb. 1, 2019, Salman Habib was appointed to the position of CPS director. Salman will also continue to hold responsibility as interim deputy division director for the High Energy Physics division.

Business Transformation Manager Michael Rabbitt (BIS) reminded everyone that lab business systems would be unavailable on Sunday, Jan. 27, due to BIS performing system updates to address recent business application performance issues.

Per Experimental Operations and Facilities Division Director Dan Carlson, revisions of the Accelerator Safety Envelope for Building 211 Linear Accelerator were submitted.

Kim Sawyer, deputy laboratory director for operations/chief operations officer, provided an update on financial management:

• OCF and BIS met with West Monroe Partners and will return on Feb. 4; a detailed plan, milestones and reviews will be set in place
• Items to be addressed: U.S. Department of Energy reporting, internal reporting, communication and access to information
• Denise Price, director, performance management assurance, and the Audit and Oversight division will help work on various issues
• Training opportunities will be provided to understand the system
• CPA will ensure an effective communication plan is created

Future Meeting Topics

Requests included:

• Handling personally identifying information (PII)
• Work change management
• Foreign visits and assignments