If you are in charge of organizing a lunch/dinner...

  1. One to two weeks ahead of time: Decide on possible days you would like to schedule your lunch/dinner and send out a poll to gwip@mit.edu. You can also include gwip-friends@mit.edu (the postdoc list) if you'd like. Ask about any dietary restrictions besides vegetarian and vegan. You can do lunch, dinner, or even an afternoon snack, though it may be easiest to book a room for a dinner.
  2. Once you have a date: contact PGSC Vice President to obtain PGSC approval for the event (find who is the current contact person on the PGSC website). This step is necessary since GWIP events are now treated the same as PGSC events financially. Contact the GWIP event cleaning logistics team (find who that is) so they can request a cleanup. This is to make sure there are enough food waste and garbage bins in the room, and have them emptied by the cleaning staff after the event.
  3. One week ahead of time: Book a room. Send out an announcement to the gwip email list with the location, date and time. Ask for RSVPs so you know roughly how much food to get.
  4. Three days before: Order the food. The budget for dinner should be around $15 per person and lunch is about $6-8 per person, and you should order a few extra meals. Usually order 1/3 to 1/2 vegetarian meals, including a few vegan meals. Tips to the delivery person should stay within the 15% range and be written on the receipt. Have the food delivered at least 15 minutes before the lunch/dinner is scheduled to start. The easiest way to order food is to use the GWIP ezCater account. The login details will be emailed to the lunch/dinner organizer. MIT will not reimburse for tax, so we have a tax-exempt ezCater account. Otherwise, you will need to make sure the restaurant will accept MIT's tax exemption number, 042-103-594. You can find MIT's tax exemption forms ST-2 and/or ST-5 at the bottom of this page. Note: we now have a GWIP procard for purchases (instructions for using the procard will be emailed to the lunch/dinner organizer).
  5. The day of: Call the restaurant to confirm the order and delivery. Send out one last reminder to GWIP. Arrive a little early to the location where you agreed to meet the delivery person (it is often easier to arrange to meet them on the street or at an easy-to-find location on campus). Get an itemized receipt. Save the receipt so that you can be reimbursed.
  6. The next day: If you used your own card for the purchase, submit a reimbursement request through Atlas by following these instructions. If you used the GWIP procard, email the itemized receipt and list of attendees to the current GWIP lead (find who that is).

Current dietary requirements: