Look for a summary of the report in the next Newsletter. Decreasing and constant dollar level funding, uncorrected for inflation, continues to eat away at the quality of the observatory. Capabilities, observer support and the ability to start new initiatives are slowly eroding. The outlook for funding in the near future does not promise better times ahead soon. In this climate one wants to preserve the ongoing program as well as possible.
New initiatives are, however, the only way to do well in the long run.
Although the first step in developing this plan will occur inside NSO, it is our intention to define it jointly with the solar community. It will examine the role of the current capabilities of NSO, the need for their upgrades, as well as define the case for future initiatives such as the IR program, the McMath upgrade, LEST, the Large Reflecting Coronagraph, RISE, and the adaptive optics program. Its definition is almost complete. The seven branch heads will form a management team with me as chairman.