Radiological Sciences Laboratory (RSL) Retreat 2008

Dr. Fahrig's Group; Dr. Pelc's Group; and Dr. Spielman's Group.

Our retreat also featured keynote speaker Dr. Charles Taylor from the Department of BioEngineering. Other retreat events included a presentation by Drs. Napel and Plevritis regarding our new departmental section, ISIS (Information Sciences in Imaging at Stanford) as well as a workshop entitled "Life after School Ends" with Brian Hargreaves, PhD, assistant professor of radiology, and RSL alumni Kris Wedding, PhD, assistant professor of physics at Carleton College, and Alex de Crespigny, PhD, Head of Biomedical Physics at GSK's new Clinical Imaging Centre at Hammersmith Hospital in London and Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Clinical Neurology at Oxford.

In addition to Jeopardy!, a delicious BBQ dinner, volleyball, and karaoke, we had a photo hunt, which included three categories for photo submission. The winner of each category will have his or her winning photo hung on a wall in the Lucas Center. The three categories and the winning photos and their photographers were as follows:

Category #1. "Wow, You Took This at Asilomar?"
Is there anything besides trees, sand, and water in Asilomar?
Is there a special view from your room? Perhaps an antique in a corner that everyone overlooked?

Winning Photo for Category #1 by Stefan Skare, PhD

Category 2. "Anything but People."
Not a human soul in the photo; no exceptions!

Winning Photo for Category #2 by Aloma D'Souza, PhD

Category #3. "This Is Why I Come to the Retreat."
Maybe a photo showing bonding between colleagues, a photo of you swimming with dolphins, or saving a dear in mortal danger

Winning Photo for Category #3 by Sandy Napel, PhD

The retreat ended with our Town Hall Meeting. For a brief description of the issues discussed, please see Donna Cronister's summary below. Thanks to the following retreat committee members for a wonderful retreat: Priti Balchandani, PhD; David Clayton, PhD; Gary Glover, PhD; Andrew Holbrook, PhD; Christine Law, PhD; Sam Mazin, PhD; and Norbert Pelc, ScD. For the blog posting from last year's retreat, please access http://radiology.stanford.edu/blog/archives/2007/10/2007_rsl_postre_1.html. (For more retreat photos taken by Michelle Christierson and Aloma D'Souza, PhD, please see the very end of this article.)

TOWN HALL MEETING SUMMARY by Donna Cronister, administrative services manager and administrative director for the Lucas Service Center

"For those or you who did not receive an RSL mug, please let me know. Also, for those of you who have not received a sweatshirt (given out at the retreat last year and afterwards), please send me an email with your size. If you have already given me this information, please disregard this request.

Mark your calendars, our 2009 retreat dates are 9/16-9/17. I am hoping this earlier date will mean that there will be no overlap with the start of classes.

We have been working on some of the issues brought up at the Town Hall Meeting. A good percentage of the concerns centered around facility issues. A lively discussion ensued about basement-level refrigerators, in addition to other items sent to Andrew for discussion.

1. Refrigerators in basement. Two fold attack: one is to replace the older model with a new energy efficient model. This is in the works as we speak. The other is to do a major cleaning job to get us started towards a newer, gentler, less odoriferous environment. Anne has volunteered to clean the refrigerators. Thanks Anne. We should have drawn straws for this event, but we do appreciate your taking the initiative. More importantly, establish new guidelines as listed below (some may work--or not . . . but we can only try):

a. Label food with name/date in;

b. Do not keep massive quantities of food here. Because this is a shared resource, please do not bring a month's worth of food. Be mindful of others' storage needs;

c. More frequent cleanings. Perhaps, everyone's name (including our MIPS colleagues) should go in a hat and be drawn at two-week intervals, maybe at happy hour (one need not be present to win, or lose, depending on if you see the glass half empty or half full). Two people should be able to make short order of the task of discarding expired or offending science projects and a quick wipe down. We will keep cleaning supplies on hand to assist with this task.

d. Personal responsibility: as you put food in, eat it or remove it. You spill, you clean up! Pretty easy math!

2. Sub-level refrigerator. Fresh drinking water: The fridge at this level has an automatic water dispenser; however, the filter has not been changed. Gary has asked that our facilities folks do regular preventative maintenance, so this should become a non-issue. We can also site a water cooler in the sub-level. I don't know if we can plumb one in, but we could put a free standing unit and have water bottles delivered bi-weekly ($~30/month).

3. Bathrooms: I think a large problem with the basement-level restroom maintenance issue is the sheer volume of folks using this restroom. This floor now houses ~115 full-time people. In addition, the Learning Center brings another high volume; 2 resident conferences per day (~30 people) and now the clerkships are held here 6 hours per day (3 hours AM; 3 hours PM) drawing another 15-20 people per day to use the facilities. Gary is working on the battery operated faucet and low-flow toilet problems, but I don't know if anyone has a quick answer/remedy for general cleanliness. Privacy wall is still an issue.

4. Sticky residue on tables and chairs in the light well: Again, no quick fixes in sight. I am going to purchase some oilskin table cloths for the tables. These are easy to clean. We will keep cleaning supplies handy in the kitchen area. Realistically, we cannot expect the housekeeping staff to clean these daily, or, even if they did, that it would eradicate the problem. Possible solutions include more umbrella's to cover the items or an easy up to store the furniture when not used. Removable seat covers? Your ideas are welcome!!

5. Window washing. Both internal and external: Two times per year is not enough. Is there funding to have them done more often? During the swallow season, more University-level facilities' involvement/$$ to eradicate the bird droppings.

6. Second floor carpeting: Is cleaning enough? Probably not is the consensus. Cost is borne by the Department--not the University (I have lobbied for University funds to replace the carpeting and was shot down). We did have a quote awhile back in the neighborhood of $40K. Will need departmental buy-in for this expense. Source other vendors for more economical carpet installation?

7. Dedicated computer for the poster printer: Tom to look into this. Also, dedicated/shared space for the document scanner on the basement level. Same location as poster-printer computer? Same computer?

8. Go pass/transportation subsidies for graduate students: This issue was raised and discussed. Moriah, who trumpeted this issue with the Graduate Student Association, explained the University/Cal Trans/graduate student increased fee positions on this matter. The problem is certainly understood, but no resolution is clear at this point.

9. Graduate students sitting in postdoc space: Brian explained that this should be a non-issue, as graduate students should be asked to vacate said space if a postdoc needs a desk.

10. Elevator safety issue: This is a health and safety issue, which will be addressed immediately. In the future, please let John Mendoza (our facilities manager) know as soon as a problem such as this is encountered. If you cannot find John, please contact me, and I'll have the appropriate maintenance folks out to survey and fix the problem.

The admin. staff will be giving a presentation at an RSL meeting to be announced. We will cover a number of issues that were discussed at last year's Town Hall Meeting (please see http://radiology.stanford.edu/blog/archives/2007/10/2007_rsl_postre_1.html). If you have any administrative issues that you would like us to discuss, please drop me a line, and we will include (or attempt to include) them in our presentation.

I'm sure there were other things discussed, but these are those that stuck in my mind.

Thanks for a retreat well done!"