An e-mail acknowledgment is sent within a few days of a proposal's receipt, and the proposal is assigned a code such as BXnnn, where "B" designates the VLBA, "X" is the first letter of the proposer's last name, and "nnn" is a sequential number for investigators whose last names begin with "X" (e.g., BU012 is the 12th VLBA proposal received from proposers whose last names start with "U"). This code is used to identify a program throughout the observing process.

Each proposal is reviewed by several external referees who specialize in the particular scientific area of the proposal. NRAO compiles their reports and calculates grades, which are strongly advisory to the Proposal Selection Committee. That committee also incorporates knowledge about the technical capabilities of the VLBA, then uses the oversubscription of large additional telescopes and of the VLBA as a function of sidereal time to determine the final time allocation. Proposers receive e-mail notification of the results from this committee about three months after the proposal deadline.

If a proposal is accepted, the contact author receives e-mail notification of the specific time allocation and the deadline for schedule submission, and (for difficult observations) may be assigned an NRAO contact person in Socorro. For a dynamically scheduled proposal, a specific date will not be assigned, but a particular range of sidereal times will be specified.

Introduction Why use the VLBA? How to propose Proposal selection: refereeing and observing allocation Schedule preparation Observations, correlation, data validation, and distribution Calibration Final imaging and analysis Staff collaboration, financial support for data reduction, scientific results and publications, graduate student programs

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