LONG RANGE PLAN 2010 NEWS


The LRP2010 has been launched; you can find the LRP Panel membership,
Terms of Reference, and other documentation, on the website at

        http://www.casca.ca/lrp2010

The Long Range Plan is a community-driven exercise, and the outcome
will depend a great deal on the innovative views that *you* express.
In addition to contacting the committee directly, there are several
ways in which you can express your views, and influence the direction
of the LRP discussion.


1. Open Call for White Papers

We have invited a number of Canadian astronomers to lead the
authorship of reports and science white papers on specific
topics (see

        http://www.casca.ca/lrp2010/documents.php

for the complete list of titles and lead authors). Now we are issuing
an *open call* to members of the Canadian astronomical community to
submit white papers on topics of their own choice that they feel are
relevant to the next decade of Canadian astronomy, and important
for the LRPP to be made aware of.  These white papers can be on
virtually any topic that is not covered by the invited papers -
science, instruments, telescopes, education, outreach, etc. You can
find ground rules for these white papers at the above link; please
take special note of the following:

    - As noted above, please check the list of invited white papers
      before starting your own. If your topic, or a related one, is
      listed among the invited papers, feel free to contact the lead
      author to express your views, or participate in document
      preparation.

    - We strongly encourage you to involve others in your white
      paper, in the interests of balance and breadth.

    - deadline for receipt **February 15th**; send to
      pritchet@uvic.ca. This is a hard deadline.

    - maximum length 3 pp of text typeset in emulateapj.sty
      format (roughly 3500 words), plus any number of figures,
      tables, references, etc

    - white papers will be posted online. Confidential comments
      should be sent separately.


2. LRP2010 Blog

The LRP2010 blog is now up and running; it's linked to the website
above. You can post comments to existing blog articles; if you want
to submit a (short) article for others to comment on, contact
pritchet@uvic.ca to receive author privileges (which will enable
your article to be "published").


3. Town Hall Meetings

Town Hall meetings will be scheduled in March in Montreal, Toronto,
Calgary, and Victoria. Stay tuned!


4. Timeline

We are aiming to have a final report printed by the end of 2010.  This
means that we are on a very tight timeline! We plan to have written
reports and white papers completed by mid February (see above), Town
Hall Meetings in March, a discussion of options and preliminary
recommendations at the CASCA AGM in late May (St Mary's U), and a
draft report ready by September.


If you have any questions or comments about the LRP2010 process,
please don't hesitate to contact the LRP Panel ("Contact the
Panel" link on the web page), or the Chair, directly.

Chris Pritchet
LRP2010 Chair
pritchet@uvic.ca