[Bgsa] Lunch bunch organizer needed for Spring Term

[Carla Essenberg]

Dear fellow graduate students,

We are again in need of a volunteer to organize Lunch Bunch, this time
for the spring quarter. Again, there will be no funds for reimbursing
speakers for travel, so we will be focusing on local talent.  However,
there are, as you may have noticed, many colleges and universities
within striking range, and people generally seem happy to drive up for
the day to give a talk even without any reimbursement.  There are also
plenty of faculty and post-docs at UCR that we haven't heard talks
from (at least recently), and, although some people don't like this,
the Thursday speakers are often quite happy to give a second talk.
You could also take this opportunity to try to get Lunch Bunch to be
more like it used to be - i.e., more informal talks by graduate
students and post-docs - although that, of course, would be entirely
optional.

I am attaching the sheet that Rebecca and I put together that lists
all the things you would need to do (as well as some things that are
not relevant because of the lack of budget) – I was pretty detailed,
so it looks worse than it really is.  In brief, your task would be:

Prior to the start of term: Fill the slots, put together a schedule,
and make the schedule available to people.

During term: Help set up the projector each week, make sure someone is
lined up to introduce the speaker (or do it yourself), organize lunch
at the Barn for the off-campus speakers (funds will be available for
this), and make sure off-campus speakers have directions to get here,
a meeting schedule if they want one, etc.

That’s about it.  I found organizing Lunch Bunch to be a rewarding
experience and learned a lot from doing it.  It also gives you a
chance to influence what sort of talks are given (actually, it is
entirely down to you, so you can have as much power as you want).  It
might also look nice on your CV, and of course, it will earn you the
gratitude of your colleagues.

Anyway, if you are interested in doing this, or would like to ask any
questions about what it would entail, please send me an email.  If you
want to collaborate with someone on this rather than doing it by
yourself, that would be great too.  The sooner you can get started,
the better, so don’t delay!

Cheers,

Carla

-- 
Carla Essenberg
PhD Candidate and EEOBGSA President
Department of Biology
University of California, Riverside