To: J3                                                     J3/22-207
From: Tom Clune
Subject: Options for hosting meetings at NASA GSFC
Date: 2022-October-26

This paper summarizes various aspects of potentially hosting a Fortran
meeting at NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center (GSFC).

Location
--------

Goddard is located in Greenbelt, MD and is approximately 10 miles from
downtown Washington D.C.

Airports
--------

The Washington region has 3 international airports with BWI and DCA
being the closest and IAD a bit further off.

Local transportation
--------------------

Technically, Goddard is accessible via public transportation.  But the
buses are not frequent and the center is some distance from the
nearest metro stations.  Attendees would be advised to drive/carpool
or use a ride-sharing service such as Lyft or Uber.

Entrance to center
------------------

Badges are required to enter the Goddard campus and must be arranged
in advance of the meeting.  For non US citizens (from non-designated
countries) the arrangements must be well before the meeting.  I don't
have the precise timeline but I think it is 6-8 weeks.

Facilities
----------

There are suitable rooms in a building that is a very short walk from
the main entrance. The larger room is sufficient for plenary and can
be divided into two for subgroup.  There is another small room next
door that will suffice for another subgroup.  The big caveat is that
the only other meeting room is in the basement, and I have not yet
found how to obtain a key.  There are other open areas near the
cafeteria (see below) that could also serve as subgroup during non-peak
dining hours.

I'm not certain whether we will be able to lock the other rooms during
the day.


Dining options
--------------

The building with the meeting rooms has a small cafeteria that
currently consists of a Subway and a Japanese kiosk.  Previous to
COVID there was also a grill, and this may return as the center
returns to "full work" in the near future.  (I could not get a
definitive answer at the time of this paper.)

The building is also a short walk (< 5 minutes) from a larger
cafeteria with a larger variety of options.

Across the street from Goddard's main entrance (< 5 minutes) are a few
restaurants: 5 Guys, Ledo's pizza (take out only in the post-COVID
world), Papa John's (takeout only), and Osaka, a very nice Japanese
restaurant.  (I'm told by a colleague that hails from that region of
Japan that the family that runs Osaka is actually Korean, and there is
a page of Korean items which I really enjoy.)


Hotels
------

There are a few hotels within a 2 mile radius of Goddard's main
entrance, including a Residence Inn.  As a dry run, we were able to
reserve a block of rooms at the government rate for February.
(Canceled for now.)  Walking from the hotels is possible, but not
recommended.  The main road has high-speed traffic, though there are
sidewalks for most of the way.

===END===