General

The dinner coop operates on a 3 week cycle (Sunday- Thurs). There are 15 cooking slots, and typically, every member cooks once in each cycle. Each member is only charged for the dinners they attend. The charge is only an equal share of the cost of the ingredients (among the attendees). Attendance varies from once in two weeks to three times a week. Typically 6-8 people will sign up for dinner.

Important email addresses are:

d i n n e r - c o o p@cs.cmu.edu - general distribution

d i n n e r - c o o p - t r e a s u r e r@cs.cmu.edu - expense reporting

The typical cycle of a single dinner is:

the cook posts a menu

the cook gets RSVP's from guests

the cook cooks at his own house

the guests show up at the cook's house, eat and leave

the cook cleans up.
We live within about 20 minutes' drive from one another.

Scheduling

Typically, one schedule is made for each semester and much teeth gnashing is involved in ensuring that the time constraints of all members can be met. The schedule is posted on the mailing list and you can be ensured that the dates you are scheduled to cook will not changed unless you request them to be changed. For people in CS/RI, an up-to-date schedule can be found in /afs/cs/usr/khaigh/www/Schedule. If you can't get to the schedule, send mail to me and I will send it to you.

Announcing Dinner

5 days before a you are supposed to cook, you will get an automatically generated piece of mail warning you that you are scheduled to cook. Send your dinner announcment at least 3 days before the date that you cook to d i n n e r - c o o p@cs.cmu.edu. A typical dinner announcement might look like this:

From: Jane Cooper
To:   D i n n e r - C o o p@cs.cmu.edu
Subject: Dinner Nov 10, 1992
Date : Nov 6, 1992

I will be cooking a Gerbo-Cimmerian meal this thursday at 7:30pm.
Fresh Grsuhsung with Choola Endives
Hearty pig knuckle soup
Baked cormorrants in a tamarind sauce

Old fashioned Soybean pie

Please let me know by Tuesday at noon if you'd like to come.
-JC

Here's some actual recent menus.

If your meal is going to cost more than about $7, please put an "expensive meal" warning in the menu.

Dinner is usually at the time advertised (give or take 15 mins) and most guests leave soon after they eat. Most cook start their dinners between 6:30 and 8.

You should probably mention what meats your main dishes contain, since there are often a members who avoid pork or red meat. Also indicate if you are flexible and can provide a meat-modified corner for them.

Acknowledging Responses

The cook should send an acknowledgement to the people who respond to the announcement at least a day in advance of the dinner. The cook should be ready to take 6 people from the coop. If less than 3 people sign up, the cook has the perogative of cancelling the dinner (without having to make it up).

If more than 6 people sign up (not including guests), then the cook might close the dinner by sending mail to the coop list. Give people at least 24 hours to sign up --- we don't want to close the co-op to people who don't live at their computers. One possible way to select who gets to come is through a random selector: (e.g. a hat, or random.c).

A cook may have an unlimited number of personal guests (non-coop members) but they are not to be counted in the 6 person limit. Sometimes, coop members will sign up and say that they would like to bring a non-member. It is up to the cook to decide if s/he wants to entertain these people.

Moving or Cancelling a Dinner

The only reason to cancel a dinner should be because not enough people signed up. If less that 3 people sign up, the cook can cancel.

If you know in advance that you'll be away when you are scheduled to cook, please reschedule your meal. Rescheduling allows other people to use your now-empty date.

If you know well in advance, have a look at the schedule, choose a slot that is free, and then send me (that's k h a i g h@cs.cmu.edu) mail.

If something comes up just a couple of days before the meal, then send a notice to the mailing list saying that you are moving the dinner to another date. Remember Fridays and Saturdays are usually free and they are good days to make up dinners. Please try and move the dinner date before your scheduled date and not after -- that way someone else can use your slot.

Reporting Expenses

After the meal, you should send mail to d i n n e r - c o o p - t r e a s u r e r@cs.cmu.edu reporting how much the ingredients cost and who attended. The treasurer will periodically send out bills to tell people who owes who how much. Please follow the format suggested by the treasurer to report the expenses. Here is the detailed description of the bill format. In brief, it is:

Subject: Expenses, dinner May 19, 1994
---
/*
Cook: John
Cost: $32.12
Date: Monday.19.5.94
Attendees: 5
1 guest of john
Sanjiv
Sonia
Arthur
*/

If you're interested, here are some bills that were sent to me at the end of the billing cycle; they show stats on how much we ate & cooked and how much we owe whom.

Costs for a meal range between about $2 and $8. Anything over about $7 is considered an "expensive" meal, and most of us will not bill for any costs over $8 per person.

Administration

Our general policy is that we take new people on a privisional basis. They join on a trial basis and do not cook for a month. At the end of this, if they want to be a part of the coop, they become full members. The tone of the coop is pretty relaxed- there is very little policing. If someone lapses by not cooking for a while, we gently ask them if they still want to participate. Occasionally, if someone hasn't posted a meal announcement, they will get mail from another automated program that will look like mail from me asking them if there was some problem with the Remind program.

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