The Conventional Facilities and Siting Group at VLCW06: Standing L-R: Vic Kuchler, Jean-Luc Baldy (CERN), Fred Asiri (SLAC), Lee Hammond (FNAL), Tom Lackowski (FNAL), Masami Tanaka (KEK), Gerry Aarons (SLAC), Jerry Leibfritz (FNAL), Clay Corvin (SLAC), John Pedersen (CERN) Kneeling L-R: Michael Poehler (CERN), Martin Gastal (CERN), Maurice Ball (FNAL), Emil Huedem (FNAL), Atsushi Enomoto (KEK).

Fifteen members dedicated to conventional facilities and siting for the International Linear Collider participated in the Vancouver Linear Collider Workshop 2006 – a record number for the group. Prior to the workshop through their weekly videoconferences, the three group leaders, Jean-Luc Baldy of CERN, Vic Kuchler of Fermilab and Atsushi Enomoto of KEK, encouraged everyone to attend the meeting in Vancouver. The outcome resulted in participants from Fermilab, SLAC, CERN, KEK and JINR.

"There are enormous benefits to having everyone come face to face and participate with the other area systems and with their points of contact," Kuchler said. "These formal and informal discussions are essential to the progress that we have been able to make so far."

Given the monumental task of coordinating the work between the technical system and area system groups, the Conventional Facilities and Siting Group established a "point of contact" system during the Snowmass Workshop in August 2005. Based upon an individual's areas of expertise, Conventional Facilities and Siting Group members get paired with a member from one of the other groups in the project. As a point of contact, that Conventional Facilities and Siting Group member is responsible for maintaining close communication between the two groups. One year later, the "point of contact" system is serving the Conventional Facilities and Siting Group well and still expanding . "We were able to establish a good connection to the Survey and Alignment group at this meeting," Kuchler said, providing just one example of the group's success. "Survey and alignment is closely tied to the conventional facilities, and we wanted to get off to a good start and incorporate their needs."

With local experts working together in the Americas, Asia and Europe, all tasks for the Conventional Facilities and Siting Group are distributed across the three regions. As milestones for completing a cost estimate quickly approach, communications between the regions and between the group members and their points of contact will become increasingly important. "The avenues of communication will be just as important in the coming months as we do more to gain economies in the cost estimates," Kuchler said. "Many of the cost comparisons go beyond the conventional facilities group to affect others."

The Conventional Facilities and Siting Group leaders also expressed their appreciation for the continual patience and assistance from their fellow collaboration members. "It is very gratifying to see the success that we as a group have been able to accomplish," Kuchler said. "Everyone in the ILC collaboration deserves our thanks for allowing us to get the work done."

-- Elizabeth Clements