Skip to main content
more options

Hosting a CLC speaker

Thank you so much for agreeing to host a speaker! The CLC Speaker Series relies on your help to make sure visits go smoothly.

Contact details


CLC Speaker Series Senior Coordinator: Julie Balazs (jeb388)
CLC Speaker Series Junior Coordinator: David Lutz (del8)
CLC Treasurer: Steven Ikier (sdi3)
Technical consultant: Eric Evans (eje4)
Field assistant: Angie Tinti (akt2)

Typical schedule of the visit


Thursday: Speaker arrives. Office hours, if they arrive early enough. Lunch with grad students. Office hours. Talk at 4.30. Reception. Post-talk dinner at 7 or 7.30.
Friday: Office hours in the morning. If speaker is on campus and has no other plans, lunch. Office hours. Speaker leaves. Some speakers stay until Saturday. If this happens, offer to suggest activities for Friday afternoon and Saturday morning -- good bets are the Johnson Art Museum, the brain collection in Uris Hall, the Ornithology Lab, the Polo grounds, the collections in the Kroch Library, and the Farmer's Market. You are not obligated to chauffeur the speaker to these activities.
Note that the only non-negotiable item on the schedule is the talk, which is at 4.30 on Thursday afternoon.

Your job as host


Hosting duties may be divided between two or more people. If you have any questions, contact the Speaker Series Coordinators (SSCs). There's a few things you need to do as host and basically they boil down to the following:
  1. Stay in touch with the Speaker Series Coordinators
  2. Stay in touch with the speaker before they arrive
  3. Stay in touch with Angie
  4. Make sure the speaker has a lift to and from the airport
  5. Take care of pre-talk advertising
  6. Take care of talk logistics
  7. Arrange a lunch for the speaker and interested grad students
  8. Arrange a post-talk dinner
  9. Arrange the speaker's office hours schedule
  10. Write a thank-you note

Your job as host, in more detail


  1. Stay in touch with the Speaker Series Coordinators (SSCs)
    • The SSCs have a lot of information you'll need: Who is the faculty host? Where is the speaker staying? Is the speaker flying or driving? Will the post-talk dinner be at a restaurant, or will it be pot-luck style at a faculty member's house? Is the talk co-sponsored by another department? What is the budget for the visit?
    • Update the SSCs with any new information you find out from the speaker, the faculty, or Angie.
  2. Stay in touch with the speaker before they arrive.
    • At the very least, email the speaker at least 20 days before the talk, and again the week of the talk.
    • If we don't have them already, request the talk title and abstract. Email them to Eric so he can add them to the Events page on the department website.
    • Let them know where they are staying.
    • Double check their travel plans. If they are driving, offer to provide directions from the highway to the place they are staying, and suggest that someone in the department will provide rides to and from campus because parking on campus is a nightmare. If they are flying, arrange lifts to and from the airport.
    • Find out whether there will be a handout; if there is, you need it by the morning of the talk to make photocopies.
    • Find out if they need an overhead, A/V projector, or any other equipment.
    • Find out if they have any dietary restrictions or animal allergies (as this may affect where we hold the dinner).
    • Ask if they are willing to hold office hours. If they are, it is easiest to suggest a schedule for them, determined by their travel times. Then set up a Doodle. Appointments are typically 30 minutes long.
  3. Stay in touch with Angie.
    • Two weeks before the talk, email the talk title and abstract to Angie, asking her to forward them to the relevant lists. Email talk details to her again the week of the talk.
    • Also ask her to forward the office hours Doodle to the relevant lists...
    • ...as well as the details of the dinner. These should all be separate emails.
  4. Make sure the speaker has a lift to and from the airport. You don't have to do the driving, but if you can't or don't want to, you do need to find someone else. We prefer the driver to be from Linguistics if at all possible. We will reimburse for parking expenses both at the airport and on campus, as long as you have a receipt. If absolutely no one can drive, call the Airline Limousine Service in Ithaca (607-273-3030) and bill it to the department.
  5. Take care of pre-talk advertising.
    • Add the talk to the Cornell Events page. The event should be open to the public, and make sure you state that the talk is "Funded in part by the GPSAFC [and any co-sponsoring department]."
    • Make appropriate adjustments to the flyer template. Make sure the bottom of the flyer states "Funded in part by the GPSAFC [and any co-sponsoring department]" and "Open to the Graduate Community", else we won't get reimbursed. Make 10 photocopies on colored paper using the CLC copy account (#3134) and post them on the department boards on the 2nd floor and in the basement, and on the grad lab doors.
    • If the talk is co-sponsored, you will also have to advertise at the co-sponsoring department. Ask Angie to forward each email to the co-sponsor along with the relevant linguistics lists. Also, you should email the co-sponsor yourself to find out if it is alright to post flyers on their department boards. (CogSci: Julie Simmons-Lynch, cogst "at" cornell "dot" edu; SE Asia: SEAP "at" cornell "dot" edu; for other departments and programs, check their website.)
  6. Take care of talk logistics.
    • Introduction: Make sure the faculty host is willing to introduce the speaker.
    • Handouts: If there is a handout, make 30 to start, although you may need to make a few more right before the talk if we have a large turn-out. Use the CLC copy account (#3134).
    • Equipment: If the speaker needs any equipment, make sure it is available in room 106. If they have a Mac, find out if they need an adapter, which you can get from Eric in the P-Lab. You'll need to find out what kind of Mac it is because that determines which adapter you need.
    • Locking up: Make sure the lights are off and room 106 is locked after everyone has left.
  7. Arrange a lunch for the speaker and 2-3 grad students, including yourself.
    • If the speaker arrives early enough, it should be on Thursday. If they arrive close to talk time, it should be on Friday instead.
    • You can decide where lunch should be -- feel free to go somewhere in Collegetown.
    • Ask the CLC treasurer for a tax-exempt form and give it to the waitstaff when you place the order, and make sure you ask for an itemized receipt. You will need to pay for lunch upfront and fill out a reimbursement form (see the CLC treasurer). If this is going to be a problem, speak to the SSCs.
    • If the speaker is here at lunchtime both Thursday and Friday, we will have to do two lunches. In this case, please limit the grad student lunch to two students including yourself, and find a faculty member to take the speaker to a one-on-one lunch on the other day.
    • The total lunch budget for all lunches is $75, so you should keep this in mind while planning lunches.
    • Photocopy all receipts and see the CLC treasurer to deal with reimbursement.
  8. Arrange a post-talk dinner. We will have either a potluck style dinner at a faculty member's house, or go to a restaurant. Ask the SSCs which it is.
    • Potluck style dinner:
      • In this case, we can accommodate as many guests as want to go to the dinner. Put a sign-up sheet on the door of the 2nd-floor lounge where people can sign up to bring food, drinks, or plates/cutlery/cups. Please make sure someone will take care of a main course -- roast chickens from Wegman's are a good option.
      • Make sure people save their receipts because we will reimburse for food, soft drinks and tableware (but not alcohol). Let people know they should see the CLC treasurer to deal with reimbursement.
    • Dinner out:
      • If we have not found a faculty member willing to host a potluck, dinner will be at a restaurant. The budget for the dinner is $125; please make sure everyone knows in advance that we cannot reimburse for alcohol. Also be aware that some of the faculty have a tendency to go wild and order everything on the menu, so you should talk to the faculty host in advance to let them know what our dinner budget is. Restaurants where you can stay within budget: Taste of Thai, Moosewood, Wildfire, Viva Cantina, or one of the Indian restaurants (Diamond's (downtown) or Mehak (Collegetown); Sangam is more expensive and their service isn't great).
      • Depending on where you decide to have dinner, we can accommodate no more than 8 people people including you, the speaker, and the faculty host. Put a sign-up sheet with 5 spaces on the upstairs door. In the dinner email that Angie forwards, please stress that there are only five spaces, and if anyone wants to go, student or faculty, they need to sign up.
      • Take a tax-exempt form with you (ask the CLC treasurer) and give it to the waitstaff when you order. Make sure you get an itemized receipt. A faculty member can pay for the meal with their procurement card, but please get a photocopy of the receipt to give to the CLC treasurer.
  9. Arrange the speaker's office hours schedule. See above.
  10. Write a thank-you note. After the visit, please write a thank-you note to the speaker. You can get a card from the senior Speaker Series Coordinator.