From: Coffeebot Subject: Coffee Hour Shopping Dear #NAME#, This is an automated reminder that you have volunteered to do the shopping for the coffee hour of #DATE#. Even if you have done the shopping before, please read this entire message. Some details may have changed. Please remember the following: -Buy chocolate cookies of some kind. -There's a shopping list below, but please check the kitchen so that you don't end up buying stuff that we already have. -Get credit card authorization from business office. -Food must be in the kitchen (1151 AVW) by 2:00pm Weds. -YOU MUST RETURN THE RECEIPT TO THE BUSINESS OFFICE! -YOU MUST RETURN THE RECEIPT TO THE BUSINESS OFFICE! -YOU MUST RETURN THE RECEIPT TO THE BUSINESS OFFICE! There is a detailed set of instructions below. If you have any questions, email Jared (jsylvest@umd.edu). Thanks very much for your help! ----- Yes! It's the Coffee Hour shopping FAQ! 1. What do I need to do before shopping? 2. When do I need to do the shopping? 3. Where do I do the shopping? 4. How long does it take? 5. Do I need a shopping list? 6. What things are required for the coffee hour? 7. What other things would be nice to buy for the coffee hour? 8. How do I make a purchase with the credit card authorization? 9. What do I need to do after shopping? 1. What do I need to do before shopping? Before heading off to the store, make sure you have the following items: (a) The credit card authorization form from the business office. You must get the authorization from Kathleen Barton (kathleen@cs) in the Business Office (4172 AVW). (b) A shopping list. There is a shopping list below. (c) A Giant Bonus Card. You are welcome to use your own. If you don't have one, you can tell the cashier that you have one, that you want to use your phone number and use the phone number 301-484-6714. Alternatively, there is one on the exec_co keychain. You can pick this up in 3136 AVW. You will need it later, so might as well get it before shopping. (d) You might find it helpful to bring a calculator. You want to make sure that you use the entire budgeted amount, but no more than that. 2. When do I need to do the shopping? You must have everything delivered to the kitchen (AVW 1151) at least an hour before the coffee hour starts. Since the coffee hour is at 3:00 on Wednesday, that means you should have everything there by 2:00. It may take you a few hours to do the shopping, so use your best judgement as to when to head to Giant if you are going on Wednesday. However, you are by no means required to do the shopping on Wednesday. The credit card authorization will be ready the Friday before, and you can pick any time you want to go to the store. Incidentally, the Giant is open 24 hours. 3. Where do I do the shopping? Giant Food on Greenbelt Rd. (MD 193), at Beltway Plaza in Greenbelt, 1.5 miles east of campus. We have a long-standing relationship with Giant. They are used to dealing with the credit card authorization. However, we are not specifically required to go to Giant. If you are highly motivated to do the shopping somewhere else, you can do the following: 1) Thoroughly familiarize yourself with the authorization process. 2) Check with the store management to see if they will accept the University of Maryland credit card authorization form. This is not a purchase order. It's a credit card, but you only get a form with the card number, not the actual card itself. 3) If you are sure that the store takes the credit card, ask Kathleen (kathleen@cs) to have the authorization form for that week made out to the store. 4. How long does it take? This really varies and depends on a lot of parameters, such as how long it takes you to decide what to get, checkout, and transport stuff back. If you are going for the first time it can easily take a few hours. Once you're a pro, you can usually manage in less than an hour. 5. Do I need a shopping list? Yes. There are numerous items that are *required*. Some required (and possibly non-required) items may be leftover from previous coffee hours. The best course of action is to go to the kitchen, take inventory of what's there, and then make sure that you buy whatever's missing. Incidentally, you get the key to the kitchen from Brenda Chick (brenda@cs) in AVW 1105. 6. What things are required for the coffee hour? There may be stuff left over from the week before. Regardless of what's leftover, by the time you return from the Giant, the kitchen should contain, at a minimum, the following items: - 1 lb. GROUND NON-DECAFFEINATED coffee. Giant has coffee bins where you select whole beans, then grind them for a percolator. Select your favorite flavor (it must be caffeinated). Make sure to grind the beans in the store grinder! - 4 gallons of spring water or otherwise bottled drinkable water (for making coffee and tea) note: I am requesting that you buy water to make coffee, so that it is drinkable. The water in the kitchen seems to come unfiltered directly from the Anacostia River, and makes for really nasty coffee. - large water dispenser (the 2 gallon water dispensers sold at Giant are sufficient, and last a few weeks) -1 lb. sugar *** HAVE PLENTY AS OF FALL 2007 - 50 STYROFOAM STYROFOAM STYROFOAM cups. If there are cups in the cabinet, and they are not STYROFOAM, they CANNOT be used for coffee. We must have STYROFOAM cups for coffee. Only STYROFOAM cups provide a sufficient amount of insulation to protect people from HOT coffee. - Did I mention that the cups should be made of STYROFOAM? - 50 plates - 50 napkins *** HAVE PLENTY AS OF FALL 2007 - 50 coffee stirring thingies *** HAVE PLENTY AS OF FALL 2007 - 1 container of creamer *** HAVE PLENTY AS OF FALL 2007 - 50 single-cup teabags *** HAVE PLENTY AS OF FALL 2007 7. What other things would be nice to buy for the coffee hour? DO NOT BUY SODA. There are enough things to drink. We don't have the budget for soda. After you've bought the required items, you should spend every last penny that you can squeeze out of the $60 budget. Buy as much stuff that is on sale as you possibly can (I generally save about $15 - $20 on that Bonus Card), and keep track of what you spend. You must cover 3 or 4 of the following categories COMPLETELY. That means that there should be enough to serve a reasonable number of attendees (our average 40 or 50). If you buy cookies, one bag of cookies is not sufficient. You need to have at least 4 bags. If you buy bagels, a dozen bagel halves won't go very far. You must have AT LEAST 3 dozen. However, 4 dozen is preferred. I wish that I could give you a specific, down-to-the-last-item shopping list, but I can't. It depends very much on what's on sale, and that varies week-to-week. Look for things listed below that are on sale. Buy those first. If you can buy more, that's terrrific, but not required. Remember, you should cover AT LEAST 3 categories. 4 is even preferred. 5 is even better. If you manage to cover all of the categories, you will probably be arrested for shoplifting. -oranges (about 9 or 10 minimum. bag is best buy) -apples + Marzetti's caramel dip (about 9 or 10 minimum. bag is best buy) -vegetables (pick 4 or 5 of the following: 1 bag of baby carrots, 2 green peppers, 2 cucumbers, 2 heads of broccoli, 1 container of grape tomatoes, 1 packages of sliced mushrooms) + vegetable dip (pick your favorite: ranch, blue cheese, french. Whatever you like.) -cookies (expensive. check for sales. You should by 5 or 6 bags. people tend to like chocolate cookies the best, but please have some variety) -assorted baked goods (For instance, if pies are on sale for under $2, you could buy 5 or 6 of them. If pecan rolls are on sale for $.69 for a half dozen, buy 10 packages. If mini donuts are on sale, buy 4 or 5 packages. Whatever you end up buying, it will be expensive, so don't buy this stuff unless it's on sale. However, Giant often has tables set up in the middle of the store, near the entrance and near the bakery, that showcase their weekly sales. This is the first place I stop when I go shopping). -chips + salsa/cheese/guacamole (chips are full of gross preservatives. Buy only 1 or 2 bags. I container of dip is sufficient) -crackers + cheese cubes (1 or 2 boxes are crackers are enough, but you'll have to buy 4 or 5 packages of cheese cubes. They are expensive). -bagels (there are 12 bagel halves per 6 bagels. Buy 4 packages of 6 bagels) + cream cheese (enough to cover the bagels that you bought. You can buy flavored cream cheese, so long as it's economical. An 8oz. container of cream cheese is not sufficient. 16 oz. is barely adequate. I'd prefer that you provide at least 24 oz. As you can tell, this is a really expensive proposition. However, those sharp folks at Giant will often have bagels and cream cheese on sale during the same week). If you don't know what to buy, pick a few of the categories above and cover those. Please make sure that you buy enough for 40 or 50 people. 6 bagels, or 2 bags of cookies, or 4 oranges are not enough. Only the first 10 people will get them, and everyone else will be annoyed. In general, you'll probably spend $15 to $20 on required stuff, so expect to spend about $10 apiece on each of the categories that you select. Also, if you are a creative caterer, do not feel constrained by this list. If you have a fantastic, novel idea about the food for a coffee hour and you can manage to do it all within budget, don't be afraid to experiment. You are encouraged to do so. If it's a hit, I'll put it on the list of suggestions above. After all, this sort of thing can always use a boost from someone with creative ideas. 8. How do I make a purchase with the credit card authorization? The credit card authorization form is exactly what it sounds like: an official form on department letterhead, authorizing you to use up to $60 from a University credit card. You don't get to handle the actual credit card (don't ask why). So, in order to make the purchase, the following must happen: 1) ring up items (make sure you use the Giant bonus card, and make sure you stay within budget). 2) the cashier must type in the credit card number (from the form) 3) the cashier must type in the credit card expiration date (from the form) 4) the cashier gets override permission from the store manager. Sounds easy, but it can be a pain if you aren't prepared. First of all, it is a rather uncommon experience for the cashier to have a customer pay by credit card without possessing the actual credit card. You may need to guide them through it. I often find it helpful to alert the manager (at the booth facing the cash registers near the middle of the store) of what you're about to do before getting in line. They usually understand the process better, and they'll back you up when they get called over by the cashier. Sometimes, you will be given forms to fill out by one of the employees. You must only ever fill out the tax-exempt form (a little tiny form). DO NOT FILL OUT THE PURCHASE ORDER FORM. NO MATTER WHAT ANY OF THE EMPLOYEES TELL YOU. The purchase order form causes Giant to bill the University on a separate account. However, YOU are paying by CREDIT CARD, ALREADY. If you fill out the purchase order form, then the University is billed twice: once on the purchase order, and again on the credit card. The business office will scold us for doing this. Most importantly: whatever happens, be patient and polite to the Giant employees. It will make things happen in a much more expedient manner. 9. What do I need to do after shopping? -Put stuff in the kitchen. Obviously, put refrigerable stuff in the refrigerator. Other groups use the refrigerator, so keep our stuff all in one place (better yet, leave it all in the bag). You picked up the keys for the closet and cabinets in 3122 AVW when you got the Bonus Card, right? Put whatever you can in the cabinets, the rest in the closet. We have the cabinets to the immediate right of the sink, both top and bottom. -Give the keys to the setup person, or return to 3136. -BRING THE RECEIPT TO THE BUSINESS OFFICE. You did keep the receipt, didn't you? They need it for assorted record-keeping purposes, and they get very annoyed if we don't have it. If you lose it, they will then ask you to provide a signed, notarized affadavit explaining why you don't have the receipt, and add 5 points to your driver's license, and keep you from graduating for another year. And that's only for the first offense. Please bring them the receipt.