Excerpts of letter from Robert L. Dickman, Coordinator, Radio Astronomy
Facilities Unit of the Division of Astronomical Sciences, NSF to
Riccardo Giacconi, President of Associated Universities, Inc.

Dated 29 Sept 2004

...
  The Division of Astronomical Sciences is grateful to Dr. Martha Haynes'
  recent offer on behalf of the AUI Board of Trustees to have AUI lead the
  U.S. radio astronomy community in developing an implementation plan
  for the Decadal Survey's recommendations in the area of ground-based
  radio astronomy. Paralleling the similar exercise recently undertaken in
  the OIR community, the plan should embody budgetary expectations of 
  level or possibly inflation-compensated Divisional budgets in the near 
  to medium term, as well as the presence of strong competition for 
  construction funds from an essentially flat NSF Major Research 
  Equipment and Facilities Construction account. The plan should
  also factor in the ongoing operational costs of existing NSF radio
  astronomy facilities, projected costs for operating new facilities
  like ALMA as they come on line, and should carefully consider the
  balance between the radio community's major national 
  intrumentation and University-based programs.

  The outcome of the study process should be a strategic plan for 
  maintaining U.S. leadership in radio astronomy with an appropriate
  and viable balance between university, national and international
  facility investments, and the support of the U.S. radio user
  community. The plan should suggest to NSF appropriate time frames
  for making decisions regarding new facility starts, the initiation
  of R&D support for such projects, and the retirement of less productive
  facilities.

  The study will be used as one element in the "senior review" which 
  AST will hold sometime during the next 6 to 9 months in order to advise
  us on strategic decisions within the next few years. You should recognize
  that one outcome of this decision-making process may be a significant
  reallocation of resources across the Division, including the closure of
  existing major facilities.

  The Division agrees with the suggestion by Dr. Haynes that the radio
  astronomy panel of the most recent decadal survey would afford a logical
  and appropriately broad and diverse organizing mechanism for carrying out
  this important exercise on behalf of the US radio astronomy community.
  We encourage the community to be as creative as possible in the exercise,
  and to consider both the benefits and costs of international collaborations,
  and specifically, to address recent developments in the low-frequency
  community.

....

(transcribed by MPH from her copy of letter)