Tea Time - Instructions and Hints

Are you hosting this week? Don't know? Check the Hosting Schedule.

Page Contents:

Check the Hosting Schedule, preferably the on-line version since it is the most current.
Pick a date (always a Friday) that is not yet assigned a host.
- If there are no dates available, or even if there are, you can offer to help someone with their Tea Time; this is a good idea for first-time hosts. The Hosting Schedule has links to each host's web page, which makes it easy to contact someone.
Try to think of a theme or menu (e.g., Mexican, salads, etc.), and email the Tea Time Tsar your plan.
- Keep in mind that people have different dietary tastes and/or restrictions. Many people in the department are vegetarians, and others may be religiously prohibited from eating meat on Fridays.
- When in doubt, think vegetables, low-fat, low-calorie, and low-spiciness. (You can always bring along extra spices, sauces, and tubs of butter).

Do your shopping (or cooking) early, but not too early. Some foods can keep in your fridge for a few days, but others are best served fresh or warm. Plan ahead. You need the food ready to eat at 4:00 on Friday.
Make sure you buy or cook enough food for everybody. Expect around 40-60 people (20-30 in the summer) to show up, most of them hungry.
REIMBURSEMENT: The CS department will reimburse you for up to $100 ($75 in the summer). Amounts more than $100 ($75) should be preapproved (talk to Brenda) to guarantee reimbursement. Turn all receipts in to Brenda, and allow around three weeks for the reimbusement check.
We have attached some menus and phone numbers for popular Tea Time sources (restaurants, food stores, etc.) to the packet that's passed along with the Tea Time Turkey. Feel free to add menus to the pack if you think they will be helpful to future hosts.

Tea Time is at 4:00. Start getting ready early, like around 3:30.
The normal Tea Time room is 228-E. Most of the time this room will be available for the Tea Time. If it is not, you should put a big note on the door saying "Tea Time will will be held in the library" or some other available large room.
Tea Time supplies (see the box below for details) are stored in the CS lounge, usually in the cabinets above and to the right of the sink.
You will need to make coffee and hot water:
- It takes around 30 minutes for them to get hot; you can start them at 3:30 in the CS lounge and then move them over into the Tea Time room at 4:00.
- Coffee filters and grounds will either be in the Tea Time cabinet or near the coffee makers on the other side of the lounge. You will need to poke a hole in the middle of the filter. Use approx 1 teaspoon coffee per cup.
- Coffee pots are under the sink and to the right of the sink; use one of these pots to make hot water for tea. Please put the pots back in their boxes after Tea Time's over.
- Most hosts move the tables in 228-E around so that coffee pots and drinks are on the table under the blackboard. That way, you can plug pots in under the blackboard by the door.
228-E shares a partition with room 236-D. If 236-D is not going to be used by another group during Tea Time (check to make sure beforehand), then you should open up the partition.

Get a couple of people to help you. And then help them when they host. Yes, just like Kindergarten.
Get all the trash out of the room. The trash bins are in the CS lounge. Crush cans and plastic bottles so that they can be easily recycled.
Wipe down the tables well, and put them back in their original places. Make sure you get rid of any stickiness.
Clean up any trays you may have used, and rinse out any coffee pots. Return trays and coffee pots to their original locations in the lounge.
Leave any extra non-refrigeratable leftovers on the tables in the lounge; they should get eaten pretty quickly. Do not stuff the fridge full of TeaTime leftovers, because the fridge is crowded enough already. Either take the refrigeratable leftovers home, give them to Travis :) or someone else, or throw them away.

After you finish hosting tea time, please write down in the Menu and Expenses columns what you brought to Tea Time and how much money you spent; this will help future Tea Time hosts plan get an idea of what they need to do.
Pass the Tea Time Turkey and all attached papers to the next week's host listed on the Hosting Schedule. If you cannot find that person, return the Turkey to Travis Emmitt (Room 228).
If there is no host scheduled for the next week, then you are responsible for recruiting one! Please make sure you let Travis known whom you've recruited.

Check the Tea Time supply cabinet for supplies and leftovers. It is in the CS lounge, on the right side of the cabinet to the right of the sink.
Please don't expand to the left side. [I think we already have.]
If there are no supplies here, you need to buy them.
Supplies that might already be in the CS lounge are listed below:

ice (1 bag is enough) - can store in freezer
fruit of your choice - grapes and strawberries require little prep
chips of your choice - ~2 bags
~5 liters of soda of your choice - usually 3 coke, 1 caffeine free diet coke, and 1 sprite
small (pint) of half and half or milk
dip of your choice for chips

Note: The perishables are really your choice - these are just suggestions.