Monday meeting, also historically known as "Chapel," is an all-hands meeting held at 2:30 pm each Monday afternoon, in the main CENPA conference room (Room 178; see Conference rooms). Its purpose is to affirm the intellectual unity of the laboratory–multiple research groups, one community. It is a way to stay in touch with what is going on around the lab as well as what is going on in the scientific community. And as a speaker it is a chance to get feedback on your research.
Monday meetings are held year-round, except on university holidays. Each meeting begins with CENPA announcements: interesting seminars, new personnel, safety reminders, important events, etc. After the announcements, there is a talk, usually by someone from CENPA. Logged-in CENPA users can see a list of past and upcoming speakers at https://www.npl.washington.edu/cenpa/seminar, along with slides for some talks. These talks are meant for a private, CENPA audience – please don’t distribute the slides! They are likely to contain research results that aren't yet ready for publication.
CENPA students, postdocs and professors are expected to give a Monday-meeting talk approximately once a year. Usually, the subject is an ongoing research project; the talk might cover the results of an experiment, plans and progress toward a future measurement, or even what’s going wrong in the lab right now. The CENPA audience is knowledgeable, attentive, and inquisitive, and many a problem has been solved (or discovered) in the seminar room. However, not all speakers choose to address research: past topics include vacations, exciting new gadgets, and works of art. If you have an idea for a Monday-meeting talk (or if you know it’s been a while since you gave one), you can always contact Ida Boeckstiegel to be added to the schedule. Talks by external visitors are also welcome.
The ideal Monday-meeting presentation is about 10-20 minutes long (without accounting for questions), but it can last up to an hour before the audience starts to rebel. They’re as formal or as informal as the speakers desire. A chalkboard and a projector are always available.