Toolik User Forum, June 29, 2016.

Donie Bret-Harte, Brett Biebuyck and Mike Abels represented the Toolik Management Team

Attending: Seth Beaudreault, Jeremy May, Randy Fulweber, Faye Ethridge, Darrel Deck, Jeb Timm, Chad Diesinger, Mayra Melendez, Emma Boone, Christie Haupert, Traci Ruthkowski, Trina McCandless, Jason Stuckey

Notes by Donie Bret-Harte

Relatively few users attended this forum, perhaps because it occurred not long after the previous one.

The suggestion box was opened to start the forum. 

1)      The kitchen staff has been fabulous; the original homemade meals and treats are awesome (one person at the forum chimed in that the coconut ice cream is fabulous).

2)      Love the homemade pizza crust!  It is so much better than the pizza crust was before.

3)      A soda machine might cut down on container waste.  (A comment from the forum was that you can’t take sodas from a machine it into the field, which lots of people do.)

4)      A variety of small food comments included requests for lactose-free milk, more apple-cinnamon oatmeal, lactose-free ice cream, mixed nuts, and dark chocolate.  (The nuts and dark chocolate have been very popular, and it has been hard to keep them in stock; more will be ordered.  The cooks will consider the other requests, at their discretion.)

5)      Female condoms would be nice (Trina will order some).

Safety training

Christie Haupert noted that Dan White (who couldn’t be here tonight) asked whether there are any on-line safety resources that could be posted on our website to make them available to research assistants before they come up, or have a library of videos that could be shown intermittently during the summer when demand warrants.  For example, a bear safety video could be very helpful.  Christie (who just gave a CPS-sponsored safety training) agreed to make her powerpoint slides available for future users who might have missed her presentation.  Jeb indicated that a video on snowmachine and boat safety training would be helpful.  (In response to these comments, TFS staff initiated Monday night safety briefings, in which a variety of topics are covered, throughout the summer.)  Finally, Brett advertised the upcoming bystander intervention training that we will hold on Saturday, July 9, from 8:30 am to 12:30 pm.

Printer problems

It was suggested that we consider getting either repairing or getting a new printer for the common use computer area.  The one that is there has lots of paper jams and sometimes blurs the prints.  Brett indicated that the printer will be repaired in town.  In the meantime, the ImageRunner in the staff office is available for printing from the two common-use computers in the dining hall.

Miscellaneous items

Darrel Deck said that he really appreciated the newly remodeled Toolik Health Club.  We had some discussion about whether the Toolik Facebook page is useful.  Jeb indicated that Seth’s latest post has received quite a few views.  There were no requests for common use equipment.

The meeting adjourned.