This document is divided into the following sections:
Parts of this document are currently under revision. Your input is welcome.
Return to the Talks and Events Page.
- Grad students pay a $5 deductible. Faculty pays a $20 deductible. Alcohol is not covered (except for the speaker).
- Dinner group size: 7. This will include the speaker, the faculty host and the student host.
- Dinner is at a reasonably priced place where the total cost per person is around $25.
- The policy is applied to all speakers, including our own finishing students.
back to top of this document
1 MONTH BEFORE COLLOQUIUM
- Send reminder to speaker.
1 WEEK BEFORE COLLOQUIUM
- Send reminder to speaker. Ask for title and abstract. Ask if any special equipment (e.g. projector, speakers) is needed.
- Send speaker's title and abstract to the committee who's in charge of the colloquium website.
- Send e-mail to department (LINGDEPT) advertising colloquium.
- Put up flyers for colloquium around department.
- Initiate reimbursement with Christopher Palomo (cpalomo[at]humnet).
DAY OF COLLOQUIUM
- Be the "go to" person if anyone has questions. You should introduce yourself to the speaker at some point, too.
- Make 40 copies of handouts (if needed) in advance.
- Bring the handouts, a bottle water (from the kitchen), well-functioning whiteboard markers (if we are in a room with whiteboards) and special equipment (if needed) to the colloquium room. Set up the special equipment.
- Make a rough attendance list of the people who attended.
back to top of this document
1 WEEK BEFORE COLLOQUIUM
- The budget is $120. You purchase, prepare, transport, set up and clean up everything yourself.
- Expect to feed approximately 40 people, some of whom will be vegetarian. It's a good idea to include:
- at least one large salad
- at least one grain (e.g. a rice dish, pasta salad, etc.)
- at least one main dish item
- fresh fruit
- drinks (~3 bottles of soda and/or juice will do)
- some fillers (e.g. pita bread cut into wedges and arranged around sauce or dip or a platter of cheese, crackers)
- Check the department kitchen and make sure there are enough plates/forks/cups/etc. If there aren't, you should purchase those items and get reimbursed (from the same $120 budget).
DAY OF COLLOQUIUM
- Organize the social hour after the colloquium.
- You should begin to set up at least 1 hour before the social hour begins (even if you don't think you have much set-up to do).
- Make a rough attendance list of the people who attended.
- Give the receipts to the Jennifer Chou (jenniferchou[at]humnet) to get reimbursed.
back to top of this document
1 MONTH BEFORE COLLOQUIUM
- Get in touch with the speaker regarding transportation to/from the airport and lodging.
BEFORE COLLOQUIUM
- Set up office hours for the speaker (find out when s/he will be available in advance). Put a sign-up sheet in the front office and send e-mail to LINGDEPT indicating sign-up sheet is available.
- Make sure that the speaker knows how to get to/from the airport/train station, which could be by faculty or student ride if someone wants to do it, otherwise by bus/shuttle/taxi, which the department will pay for.
- Provide housing for the speaker.
DAY OF COLLOQUIUM
- Show the speaker around the department (e.g. the office they will be using for office hours).
- Introduce the speaker at the colloquium.
- Take the speaker out to dinner after the colloquium.
- Pay for the speaker and the non-deductible non-alcohol portion of everyone else's bill and collect deductibles from everyone. Make a precise list of the people who attended and the individual food and beverage items ordered and get an itemized receipt (not just a credit card slip). Then submit the list of attendees, the itemized receipt, and a breakdown of the amount to Jennifer Chou (jenniferchou[at]humnet) to be reimbursed.
back to top of this document
(a version of this FAQ was formerly distributed as
"An Inventory of Colloquium Guilt" )
Q: What do we do for speakers?
A:
In general, there are two different categories of speakers: (These are
distinguished not by how much we respect them, but rather by how much we feel the
need to impress them!)
- Outside speakers
- faculty host: provides a place to stay for a couple of nights, introduces the speaker, and coordinate dinner with the speaker
- student host (contact): contacts the speaker, attends the colloquium
- student host (social hour): set-up & food for social hour
- Our own students
- faculty host: introduces the speaker (usually the student's advisor), helps coordinate and attends dinner
- student host (contact): contacts the speaker, attends the colloquium and dinner
- student host (social hour): put-up & food for social hour
Q: Is this difficult or time-consuming?
A:
A: No. especially once you have done it once and you know what needs doing! For student hosting, it can also be easier and more fun to sign up together with someone else, so you can shop together and share the duties... As long as enough people volunteer for stuff, no one person gets saddled with too much.
Q: Who should I feel guilty *ahem* eager to host?
A:
There are many flavors of guilt in the world, but here are some of the strongest:
faculty members: you should introduce your student advisees when they give their
colloquium!
everybody: speakers who you recommended! (and we do keep track of who recommended who! so volunteer before we have to start calling people on this one! we don't want to discourage people from recommending, and we understand that not everyone is in a position to be able to host someone at their house; but the amount of work on your part is relatively small, and you may at least be able to help coordinate dinner or introduce the speaker...)
and a correlate: speakers who you voted for! (if so many people voted for speakers, why do we have such a hard time finding volunteers?)
another thing: it has been my experience doing this for a while that some subfields are easy to find hosts for, while others are like pulling teeth. 'Nuff said.
and one last thing: students of every year should feel on the hook for student hosting! this is easy and even a bit fun, and you don't need an MA to do it. (In particular-- it would be nice to see some first year students step forward... apparently at some schools, first year students are required to organize social hours.)
Q: What if I want to host, but can't do all parts of my duties?
A: It is of course possible to divide duties among several people so if you would like to host someone, but there's one obstacle (like, say, you can't make it to the dinner), it is helpful to let us know this!!
It would be REALLY useful if you could think of other people who you could split the duties with, so that we don't have to scramble to find three people for each job instead of just one. But it's always useful to know what subtasks who's willing to do.
Q: How often do I need to host?
A:
There are 30 weeks in an academic year, and many of them do not have colloquiua/social hours. In theory, we have more faculty and students than social hours, meaning we would be covered if everyone did it once a year. Unfortunately, in practice it seems that some people end up doing it many times in a year, while others have never done it. It has happened that there have been exceptionally large numbers of speakers in smaller subfields some years (but this tends to happen because of job searches, not colloquiua) but no one should feel guilty for not volunteering more than once in a year!
back to top of this document
This document was revised by Grace Kuo. It is currently maintained by Byron Ahn.
This document was last revised on May 25, 2010.
back to top of this document