sPHENIX is a new detector at RHIC.

[Gunther M Roland <rolandg AT mit.edu>]

Friends,

Among many other interesting updates, this week's general meeting will 
feature two particularly important topics for discussion. To allow input from 
the as many collaborators as possible, we want to provide advance notice of 
these topics. 
1) sPHENIX support (or lack thereof) from the DOE-NP medium energy program
Several sPHENIX groups funded by the DOE-NP ME have been denied funding for 
sPHENIX participation. This obviously is a serious issue. We have spoken with 
the RHIC ALD, who in turn discussed with DOE-NP AD Tim Hallman. We'll report 
on these discussions, which unsurprisingly resulted in more homework for the 
collaboration and in particular the cold QCD enthusiasts.
2) Budget discussion at the Director's Review
As discussed on several occasions, the latest projections show a cost for the 
baseline detector outside of the $29M-$35M range. For the August 2-4 
Director's Review, which will go ahead as planned, the project will need to 
present a plausible scenario within the allowed range (not to exceed the 
middle of the range at ~$32M). While we have not been asked to repeat last 
year's budget exercise, we need to provide one (or multiple) such scenario(s) 
addressing the current shortfall. We had a discussion between ALD, deputy 
ALD, sPHENIX project manager and co-spokespeople, which suggests that 
mutually agreeable scenarios exist. Finalizing the strategy for the review 
obviously requires careful consideration by the collaboration. 

Cheers,

Gunther and Dave