TMT Science Operations Planning - Prepared by: CASCA/ACURA TMT Advisory Committee (CATAC)

One aspect that significantly differentiates the TIO and ESO partnerships is that the US proposal to NSF is for US community access to both TMT and GMT, while none of the other TMT partners have access to GMT. [...] What is certain is that needs and expectations for operations will continue to change and evolve, leading up to construction and also throughout the lifetime of the Observatory. [...] Service observing also reduces the opportunity for observatory staff to interact with the users, and for the users (in particular students and postdocs) to understand and feel ownership of their data. [...] There needs to be oversight to ensure that such modifications are within the scope of the original proposal, but this should not be onerous or a disincentive to users trying to maximize the impact of their observations. [...] There needs to be oversight to ensure that such modifications are within the scope of the original proposal, but this should not be onerous or a disincentive to users trying to maximize the impact of their observations.