[Escoordminutes] ES Div. Coordination Mtg. meeting-April

[Lew Serna]

Minutes for the ES Division Coordination Meeting held on Tuesday, April 
28, 2009, at 10:30 am, in the LL CB conference room. Attending were Lew 
Serna, Charley Chavez, Bob Broilo, Mel Peralta, Martin Lopez, Guy 
Stanzione, James Sullivan and Jon Thunborg.


BUDGET —Budgets are the same as last year. The budget report is due to 
come out soon. No news on stimulus money. Spare parts lists we might 
purchase with stimulus funds that will save us operations money later on 
has been submitted. We are likely to see $17K for Gearbox issues. This 
money has to cover oil, equipment and training.


VLBA -- MK (09/10/09-09/16/09), and KP (in progress) are scheduled for 
this fiscal year. A Mechanical Visit to Los Alamos will need to be made 
during the double maintenance days possibly in June. Eric has provided 
Mechanics with a task list for LA. We need to inform operations if a 
third day is required.

The Brewster and North Liberty foundations continue to degrade and will 
require urgent repairs in the near future at an approximate cost of $15K 
each. Foundation work has been placed on the funding wish list and is 
expected in FY2010. Work is preferred in the fall not in the winter 
since it requires much time to cure.

The warehouse has stocked remainder of Wheel assembly parts necessary to 
replace all remaining original wheel assemblies including a spare. Also 
need to measure pillow block bore dimension on pillow block that was 
brought back from St. Croix.

We will continue in FY2010 with Maintenance visits to HN, FD and BR.

Repair of the subreflector brought back from St. Croix is in progress. 
Tony has been transferred to track crew so another person has to be 
trained to repair. Working Tony on overtime may be another option.

MK dish panels that were damaged were replaced. The damaged panels will 
need to be repaired for spares.

A Servo Preload Modification has been designed by Paul Johnson (LA) and 
Eric Carlowe for swapping servo preload in order to load the opposite 
side of the servo gearbox gears. This should double the life of the 
gears in the gearbox. Outfitting of modification will begin at KP.

It is possible that passports will be required in future visits to St. 
Croix.

AZ BEARINGS – Four Bearings have been shipped to Rotek for repair. Only 
1 of the four bearings was refurbishable. A second bearing inner race 
will be touched up and the bearing will be reassembled. This will give 
us a usable emergency spare but should not be considered for a scheduled 
replacement and should be labeled “emergency spare only” as soon as it 
arrives. An acceptance trip to witness assembly of the second bearing 
has been made. A third new bearing is being fabricated. A visit to 
witness assembly and acceptance of the third bearing will be scheduled 
as soon as all specs are met. There is a 2 year minimum lead time for 
new and refurbished bearings from Rotek.

Older grease samples show that antennas 25, 10 and 20, are candidates 
for scheduled bearing changes. New grease samples of all VLA antennas 
have been taken. Antenna 25 has the worst sample and will be in line for 
replacement in 2010. This is an EVLA antenna. An estimated three weeks 
in the AAB are required before a bearing change can occur. Parts from 
the bearings removed from antennas are needed for measuring and fitting 
of new parts and should be stored until they are scheduled to be shipped 
for repair.

Antenna 5 will be brought into the AAB for a gearbox replacement. An 
estimated 1 month will be required to replace the AZ bearing and gearbox 
for antenna 5. Bolts for three antennas have been ordered this year and 
should arrive in time for Antenna 5 swap. Two bearings should arrive on 
Wednesday. The bearing with the touched up race will be labeled as 
“SPARE ONLY”. The second bearing will be used on Antenna 5. Bob Broilo 
will be the Bearing change supervisor and will coordinate with Guy on 
the Gearbox replacement.


PROJECTS:
CONTROL BUILDING STAIRWAYS— The Control Building Stairways are being 
replaced due to their rapid deterioration. The stairways will be 
replaced with an improved design conforming to ADA. The western stairway 
is complete. A new concrete landing will have to be poured at the base 
of the eastern stairway and the steps replaced. The eastern stairway 
barricaded to prevent its use. There is no urgency for this project 
since safety has declared that there is no need for this stairway as a 
means of emergency egress. Work on the eastern stairway will continue as 
the workload permits. No further progress.

ST Croix PAINT MAINTENANCE VISIT—It is Apparent that a follow up 
painting program should be initiated preferably in the fall. It is 
desirable to send a crew to St. Croix to continue painting areas where 
bleed through is evident. If this is not possible due to budgetary 
constraints, then perhaps the site techs could do the painting for 3 
weeks straight with hired help sometime in the fall. Jon will recommend 
that Site Techs do spot repairs until enough funds are available for a 
follow up painting program.

VLA ANTENNA FOUNDATION MOVEMENT— A problem with north arm antenna 
foundation movement needs to be addressed. It appears that the two 
rearward station pillars have been slowly separating over the years at 
CN6, BN3 and BN5 with BN5 being the worst. They have separated far 
enough in about 33 years that 1 bolt (one on a reward pad) can no longer 
be used to secure the antenna pad to the foundation pillar. Markers have 
been set for taking measurements to try and see which pillars are 
actually moving and at what rate. The plates from BN5 and CN6 have been 
removed for modification in the machine shop. No change has been 
observed between loaded and unloaded measurements however better; finer 
measurements need to be taken throughout the year. Modification of the 
CN6 plates and BN5 are complete and the plates are reinstalled. Martin 
reports that there is another foundation (CN7) that may need 
modification sometime soon.

If the pillars are moving apart it is felt that there may be no 
practical way of preventing the movement. It is believed that if this is 
the case it would be more desirable/practical to build an additional 
foundation next to the bad ones. Another option is that if the pillar 
movement is very slow it may be adequate to modify/redesign the mounting 
plates in order to make up and correct for the movement. In any case it 
would be desirable to get an outside structural firm to inspect and make 
a recommendation.


GENERATOR REPAIRS— Minor leaks were noticed at the engine rear seals and 
it is desirable to install a better fuel filtering system. A bearing on 
the generator unit also should be replacement as a PM. This work would 
cost around $15K and has been put on the funding wish list.

HOT WATER LOOP. A project is submitted to install a hot water loop using 
Correlator waste heat: The difference between the summer load and winter 
load is mostly due
to heating (at least 300kW). However, even during the coldest mornings 
the cooling tower is ventilating correlator waste heat into the 
atmosphere. We already use some of the heat in the Control Building, but 
by extending the hot water loop to other buildings, we may be able to 
reduce our power demand. The WIDAR correlator will have an even higher 
heat output to work with.

This project mainly consists of burying a hot water loop and using heat 
exchangers similar to what many complexes of buildings use. Payback on 
this project could be as quick as 1 year. Bob Broilo will investigate 
and provide further information. No progress..

125vdc GENERATOR SUPPLY MODIFICATION. A safety switch and other related 
wiring changes to the VLA Standby Generator Battery supply have been 
completed in order to make servicing the batteries a safer operation and 
without interruption of the battery supply to the generator system 
controls. New safety procedures and training will have to be provided to 
personnel who service the batteries.

VLA AZ GEARBOX’s (Antenna 5 etc..)--Antenna 5’s #2 gearbox experienced a 
catastrophic failure failed on Wednesday, April 15, 2009. Antenna 5 #1 
gearbox was ok. We have a complete spare gearbox to replace the bad one 
with. The bad gearbox is salvageable and will be repaired. Electricians, 
servo technicians, fiber optic technicians, and mechanics will conduct 
some preparatory work for the separation procedure in the field, with 
final preparations conducted in the AAB between May 12 and May 26.

VLA Az Gearboxes are due for oil changes. A plan to change around 10 
antennas per year is being formulated beginning with remaining 6 VLA 
antennas and then continuing with all EVLA antennas @ approx. 10/ year. 
Training and equipment will be required. Guy Stanzione will be in charge 
of preparing for the gearbox inspections, training, repairs and 
replacement on antenna 5. He will coordinate with Bob Broilo on Antenna 
5 activities.

VLA FRM—One VLA FRM focus ring gear was damaged last year. The spare FRM 
was cannibalized in order to repair the Antenna. A new ring will have to 
be ordered for repairing the cannibalized spare at a cost of $3K. FRM 
inspections will resume during the next antenna overhaul cycle to check 
for possible FRM overhaul tasks.

BALLAST DOORS-- New project is proposed to convert manual opening of 
ballast car doors to hydraulic controlled opening of the doors for 
dispensing ballast from the cars. Much dust is created and the operator 
is too close to the doors to be able to observe the dispensing properly. 
This Project will cost around $8K.

EVLA;
Civil— Correlator Room: The Air Conditioning system needs to be tied in 
to the CPCC for controlling of air handlers when desirable and during 
emergency shutdowns. ESD monitoring equipment will be installed on the 
door closest to Ops, to be used prior to entering the shielded 
Correlator room. For controlling traffic to the correlator, a special 
one way door will be installed at the end of the elevator hallway. It 
will be used for exiting the correlator area only. It will be capable of 
being propped open for passing equipment through if necessary.

Safety will schedule fire alarm testing with Operations and will 
coordinate that effort with the annual battery maintenance.

EVLA Antennas—The Antenna Group must complete mechanical overhauls to 23 
antennas to meet the retrofit schedule for EVLA design in FY2009. This 
goal is currently on schedule

A total of 20 S-band (2-4 GHz) feed horns will be fabricated in FY2009. 
S-band feeds are assembled so far. All rings have been cut for the 
S-band. Feeds 16 and 17 will be assembled for lamination on week of May 11.

The Ku-band (12-18 GHz) feed horns will also be fabricated in FY2009. 
This is on schedule.

A prototype insulating of the feed cone/vertex room is done in EVLA 
antenna 25 in an effort to improve temperature stability in the feed 
cone/vertex room. Bob will purchase a thermal imager to see where we are 
losing most of the heat in the feed cone.

In the event remaining VLA antennas are shut down after the 22nd EVLA 
antenna is complete it may be desirable to remove power and complete 
some of the outfitting tasks in the field for some groups.

Only one L-Band feed is marked “tested” it may be necessary to test more 
L-Band feeds soon.

SAFETY REPORT:
*ES Div. Accident’s year to date:*

SO 2009-006 Employee punctured hand with screwdriver (slipped). No 
lost/restricted workdays. Rec'd medication.

SO 2009-005- VLA Shuttle Bus was rear-ended by a car as it was stopped 
to make at turn into the ship/receiving area at the SOC building.

SO 2009-004 VLA site, employee was struck in the trunk/rib area by a 
Uniloader filled with railroad ties. Bruising in rib area. Not OSHA 
recordable. Employee did not seek treatment.

SO 2009-003 Employee was welding with another employee in the track crew 
welding area. Flash burns to eyes. OSHA recordable, lost time.

SO 2009-002 Vertex Room on Antenna 8, employee was injured when he 
struck his head on a bolt on the S-band feed cone. He was transported to 
Socorro Hospital ER. He received wound care and a tetanus shot and pain 
meds. No lost workdays.

*Site Safety Meeting:*The last meeting was held on March 26^th , 2009. 
There were 36 employees in attendees. The topic was Accident Reporting 
and Investigation. The training was conducted by Chuck Thompson.

*Next Site Safety Meeting:* The next site safety meeting will be on 
April 30 @ 3:00pm in the VLA Cafe. The topic for this meeting will be 
Hazard Communication.

*Inspection(s)/Audit(s): * Site building inspections are ongoing so far 
there have been 4 inspections conducted this year. Maintenance Building 
(21 violations), Generator Building (2 violations),Carpenter Shop (3 
violations), Water and Fire Pump Building and Lift Station (2violations).

1st Aid kit audits complete: Control building (1^st and 2^nd 
floors),Annex Building, Cafeteria

*Fire Brigade:* On Friday 17 April the VLA Fire Brigade with the help of 
Bob Basset, Datil New Mexico Fire Chief conducted an inspection and 
tested the 1.5, 2.5 and 3 inch fire hoses located on the VLA Fire Truck. 
All 1.5 and 3 inch passed the testing. Out of the 2.5 inch hoses that 
were tested, four (4) failed and have been taken out of service.

*Fuel Tanks: *Inspections are ongoing. The culverts that run under the 
tracks need to be cleaned out the rest of the way.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

ETK Training (Electronic Timekeeping) Electronic Timekeeping—— For 
/exempt/ staff members, we are requiring that you utilize /both/ the ETK 
system and the paper timesheets beginning with the current pay period 
April 21^st through May 20^th . All NRAO /non-exempt/ staff members are 
required to utilize /both/ the ETK system and paper timesheets for the 
pay period beginning April 25^th through May 8^th . /Supervisors/ will 
approve the paper timesheets as usual but will also approve all ETK 
entries at the end of the pay periods.

*Computer Security Briefing/Training—*Training for all hands in the 
Cafeteria on Thursday April 30, 2:00 PM . Door prizes and refreshments.

*PEP Training --- *PEP training will be offered for all employees 
receiving evaluations (those FT and PT employee working 500+hours/yr) 
covering the topics of *“Performance Management and FMLA”.* This 
training is being delivered by Joyce Oliner who provided PEP training 
for supervisors last May. In addition, Joyce will be providing 
employment law training for supervisors this spring, titled “*Hiring, 
Performance Management, and FMLA.” *The training session is scheduled on 
May 13, 2009 as follows: * *

VLA CAFETERIA

EMPLOYEE SESSION:

*/ 9:30 AM-10:30 AM/*

ES ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT

ENGINEERING (STANZIONE’S GROUP)

SITE AND WYE (CHAVEZ’S GROUP)

ARRAY AND CORRELATOR OPERATIONS( VLA BASED)

BUSINESS SERVICES (VLA BASED)

ELECTRONICS DIVISION (VLA BASED)

*/ 11:00 AM—12:00 PM/*

ANTENNA GROUP (GUTIERREZ’S GROUPS

ELECTRICAL /HVAC (BROILO’S GROUPS)

SAFETY (VLA BASED)

EPO

*/ 1:00 PM—3:00 PM/*

MANAGER/SUPERVISOR SESSION

* *

*2008 PERFORMANCE EVALUATION PROCESS *

*April 1 Employee self-appraisal process begins *– Supervisors begin 
soliciting information about employee work performance from other 
supervisors and coworkers. Supervisors will conduct brief individual or 
group meetings with employees to discuss the upcoming process and to 
distribute copies of the appropriate performance appraisal forms 
including a list of goals that were set last year. Exempt employees are 
required to complete a self-appraisal. Although non-exempt employees are 
not required to complete a self-appraisal, they should be given a copy 
of the non-exempt appraisal form and encouraged to complete it. Exempt 
employees begin completing the appraisal form by identifying any changes 
in their key responsibilities and reporting on their progress toward 
achieving the goals set last year. Any other significant accomplishments 
they may have had during the year should also be identified. Finally 
employees should identify goals for next year.

*May 1 Employee self-appraisals due – *Employees return their 
self-appraisal forms to their supervisors with the appropriate sections 
completed. Supervisors begin writing employee evaluations based on their 
observations, coworker feedback, and the self-appraisal completed by the 
employee. Supervisor reviews the draft goals for the coming year and 
modifies as appropriate.

*June 2 Appraisal Forms Completed *– Supervisor reviews completed 
performance appraisal forms with division head and receives approval. 
Supervisor begins scheduling and holding evaluation meetings with employees.

*June 30 Employee Meetings Concluded *– All evaluation meetings to be 
concluded and appraisal forms signed by the employee. Employees should 
be given sufficient time (at least 24 hours) to review and comment on 
the evaluation. Based on information provided by the employee, 
supervisors should make corrections and changes as appropriate.

*July 7 All Forms Delivered to HR *– All of the original completed and 
signed appraisal forms must be forwarded to the appropriate Human 
Resources Office. A copy of the signed appraisal should be provided to 
the employee