Date: Mon, 02 Oct 1995 21:27:32 -0500 (EST)
From: SAULSON@SUHEP.PHY.SYR.EDU
Subject: LIGO Research Community

   I am writing to invite you to join a new organization, called the
LIGO Research Community, or LRC. It has two goals: 1) to facilitate
communication between the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave
Observatory Project (LIGO) and the community of people interested in the
field of gravitational wave detection, and 2) to serve as an advocacy
group for the study of gravitational waves.
   Membership in the LIGO Research Community is open to all persons
interested in these goals. We expect this to include
1) experimental physicists and engineers working in any branch of
gravitational wave detection, or who have an interest in the technology,
2) theoretical physicists, numerical relativists, and astronomers
interested in astrophysical sources of gravitational waves or in what
they may reveal about the universe, 3) students interested in these
areas, and 4) anyone else. Membership is open to people from all
countries, without regard to affiliation (or lack thereof) with any
gravitational wave project.
   The organization has the acronym "LIGO" in its name because we
expect it to serve as a kind of users' group for the LIGO Project. But
LIGO needs advice from the widest possible community of actual and
potential "users" of all kinds. In addition, we hope that the LIGO
Research Community will play an important role in promoting and fostering
the study of gravitational waves.
   The first work toward creating the LRC was carried out by the LIGO
Project, culminating in a series of discussions at the January 1995 Aspen
Winter Conference on Gravitational Waves and Their Detection. A communique
and draft charter were circulated after that meeting for comments. Final
work on organizing the LIGO Research Community was performed by the
LIGO Pre-Program Advisory Committee, which met on September 8 and 9, 1995.

   Joining the LIGO Research Community is simple -- just send a message
to lrc@ligo.caltech.edu, indicating your interest. Or, if you prefer,
send regular paper mail to LIGO Research Community, c/o LIGO Project,
Mail Code 51-33, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena,
CA 91125, USA.
   When you join, you should also vote for members of the Executive
Committee of the LIGO Research Community. This is the governing body of
the LRC. For details on its role, and on other aspects of the functioning
of the LRC, please see the LIGO Research Community Charter, in the
LaTeX file attached to the end of this message.
   The Executive Committee will have seven members. A slate of nine
nominees, broadly representative of the gravitational wave community, has
been prepared by LIGO's Pre-Program Advisory Committee. The nominees for
seats on the LRC Executive Committee are:
	Bruce Allen, Wisconsin-Milwaukee
	Joan Centrella, Drexel
	L. Sam Finn, Northwestern
	Eric Gustafson, Stanford
	William Hamilton, LSU
	C. Nary Man, LAL Orsay
	David Shoemaker, MIT
	Robin T. Stebbins, JILA
	Henry Ward, Glasgow.
Please cast your votes by giving the seven names from this list whom you
would most like to have serve on the Executive Committee. Include your
votes in your message to lrc@ligo.caltech.edu.
   In order for your vote to count, please send it before Friday,
November 3. The seven who receive the most votes will be named to the
Executive Committee. For further details, please refer to the LRC Charter,
especially to Section 6.
   Each year there will be at least one general membership meeting of the
LIGO Research Community. The first such meeting will be held in Aspen,
Colorado, as part of the Aspen Winter Conference on Gravitational Wave
Sources and their Detection, January 15-20, 1996. For more information on
this meeting, please contact Syd Meshkov at syd@theory.caltech.edu.
   I hope you will want to join the LIGO Research Community, and that
you will cast your ballot soon. If you have any questions, please contact
me at saulson@suhep.phy.syr.edu.
   Please share this message with anyone else who may be interested in
joining the LIGO Research Community. This message will also be posted on
the World Wide Web, via a link from the LIGO Home Page, at the location
http://ligo.caltech.edu.

Sincerely yours,
Peter Saulson
Chair, LIGO Pre-Program Advisory Committee
for the Committee:
Sam Finn, Adalberto Giazotto, John Hall, William Hamilton,
 Charles Prescott, and Albrecht Ruediger