Logistics

Planning

We have secured a rate for a group hotel for the Placemakr Dupont Circle. The rate is $259 per night plus taxes and here is the link to book at this rate, which will be available until April 4th. This hotel ensures that they have at least 20 rooms available for us. The RD team will plan to leave as a group at a certain time each day to travel to the activities.

If you are interested in sharing a room with a colleague, please contact the RD team to see if anyone else is interested. Please feel free to contact any of the other travelers as well.

Hotel and Room Sharing

If you are interested in sharing a room with a colleague, please contact the RD team to see if anyone else is interested. Please feel free to contact any of the other travelers as well.

Meetings with Program Officers

You are responsible for making individual or small group (less than 5 people) meetings with program officers. Plan on starting to email or call starting in March, and ping them weekly until you get a meeting or an answer. We expect that you have received a variety of responses: some saying they don't meet with PIs, some requiring a concept paper, and some requiring you to work with another person within the agency. There is great variability in PO personalities. If you are receiving a disappointing response, we can help. Contact someone on the RD Team.

To the right is some sample text you can use to reach out to program officers. You can click on the document to open the Google Doc and make a copy.

2023 Email Draft for Contacting Program Officers

Group Sessions

When the group sessions are confirmed, we will invite you on Google Calendar so you have a placeholder. Look for these in your inbox soon. We will also add them to the Google Site Itinerary page when it's up.

Security Clearance at Federal Agencies

We are working on getting group clearance to increase the efficiency of arriving at NSF and other agencies where we arrive as a group. As you schedule individual meetings with program officers, please work with your contact to make sure you follow their security protocol. Review this page about visiting NSF.

We will send one security list for all attendees to cover your security at NSF on Wednesday.
If you leaveIf you leave the NSF building for any reason (lunch, another meeting, etc.) and wish to come back in, you need to have your visitors badge and a form of ID to get through security again.

In all cases,In all cases, be prepared with a government-issued ID. NSF and NIH only require one form of ID; others may require two forms of identification. Be sure to read the information carefully if you are going to another agency.

Use Spaces to interact with researchers and staff going on the trip

We will use the Spaces feature of the Gmail App for speedy communication during the trip. Please make time to download the app and log into your mtu.edu Google account before the trip. It’s super helpful when coordinating metro and walking directions, finding out if anyone wants to have lunch or dinner together, and ride-sharing. Feel free to email us or ask a question on the Google Space chat.

In a browser window, navigate to your Gmail.
On the left-hand side of the screen, click "Spaces."
Click on "2025 Spring DC Trip"

In the Space, you can navigate Chat, Files, and Tasks

Use Chat to ask questions and answer prompts. We will use this more often on the trip. Plan on downloading the Gmail app if you don't already have it on your device. Tagging is helpful here to get someone's attention.
Use Files to access files.
Use Tasks to assign yourself or other tasks related to this trip, either in preparation, during the trip, or follow-up action items.

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