December

Contents

1. 2008 Hotel Discounts on Travel Site
2. Why Certification Statement Was Added to Paper Daccas
3. Popular Office Furniture Items to Be Stocked
4. No Brown Bag Lunch in January
5. NIMBUS Training Offered in February
6. Contact Information – When You Need Help

1. 2008 Hotel Discounts on Travel Site
The Travel Office has updated discount arrangements with hotels for 2008 in the general area and one with Club Quarters. You will also find a link for Academic Ambassadors www.academicambassadors.com. This service was specifically created to provide discounted hotel rates for academic (and other non-profit) travelers.

MIT is a member of Club Quarters – a private, full service, downtown hotel concept for the exclusive use of member organizations. The membership arrangement allows for significant savings (both business and personal with no blackout dates) at locations in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, London, San Francisco, Houston, Chicago, and Washington, DC.

Club Quarters will continue to subsidize rates for MIT employees, their friends and families on weekends and holiday periods with rates starting at $56, upon request and subject to availability. There is an additional charge for a 2nd and 3rd person. MIT guests earn a free “Night on the House” certificate each and every business stay valid after the second stay. These certificates can be used for a complimentary stay for two on select dates. There is a small handling charge. Corporate apartments with full hotel services are available in all Club Quarters. Please see www.clubquarters.com for more information. Use password: MIT.

You should always check with the hotel to see if there is a promotional rate that is lower than the MIT rate. To obtain the MIT rate, it is necessary to request it when reserving the room, unless noted differently on the guide. View the site periodically for changes or additions.

The travel directory lists government rates wherever applicable, for those departments and laboratories that may have visitors from the U.S. government. Some hotels may only offer the government rate during their slow season. To obtain these rates, the visitors must present their government identification upon registering.

Group rates may vary. Please check with the hotel sales office. Blackout dates at some hotels may apply. They are listed on the directory.

The hotels keep records of Institute-related business placed with them, and volume will be the key to future negotiations. It is important to notify potential visitors to your respective departments and travelers visiting key cities included in the directory of the availability of these rates, and to use them when staying at these hotels.

2. Why Certification Statement Was Added to Paper Daccas
As many of you have noticed, the December 2007 centrally-printed DACCA’s now have the same certification statement that was added to the electronic version several months ago. The addition of this statement does not in any way change the Institute’s quarterly certification process.

Here’s some background on this change.

In late December, a desk audit carried out by Booz Allen for NSF was completed and its findings were reported to MIT. The auditors pointed out an inconsistency between the paper and electronic process. Specifically, the paper “certification by proxy” form does not include an actual “certification statement”. The “certify by proxy” process is where the certifier/faculty member signs a monthly or quarterly printed DACCA, or a screen print of the monthly or quarterly electronic DACCA.

While we believe our faculty understand that they are certifying compliance with federal regulations, we agreed that the change was necessary for consistency and therefore acted quickly. At the request of OSP, and after reviewing the situation with the HR Payroll Coordinating Body (HRPCB) and consulting with them on implementation details, we added the certification statement to the monthly and quarterly on-line DACCAs as well as to the monthly and quarterly printed DACCAs. We were able to report this action on our response to Booz Allen, sent in early January.

The certification statement now appears on centrally-printed paper DACCAs and screen prints of monthly and quarterly DACCAs. Any form used to support the quarterly certification by proxy, whether quarterly or monthly, will now have that certification statement. Certifiers using the electronic process will see no change at all.

We apologize for the confusion caused by this very quick implementation of a format change. Again, I would like to emphasize: there is no process change. We appreciate everyone’s understanding of the need to respond to this serious compliance finding.

If you have questions or comments, please feel free to contact me at gemmons@mit.edu, or 3-2777. Please pass on this information to anyone who may have a concern about the change.

3. Popular Office Furniture Items to Be Stocked
The MIT community may now take advantage of the Office Environments/ MIT Stocking Program. The Procurement Department is pleased to announce that Office Environments, which has been selected as our primary vendor for Steelcase Office furniture, will be stocking some of the more popular office items in small quantities with a 2-3 day delivery.

Please click on Partners and MIT Partner Vendors. Go to Furniture and click on Stocking Program under Office Environments. http://controllers.mit.edu/site/procurement/partners/mit_partner_vendors

You should continue to create a requisition to submit to Procurement for processing. Any questions or problems should be directed to MIT’s Office Environments Account Representative Stephen Newman 617-443-6785 or Susan Ocitti Sales Coordinator at 617-443-6768, and of course, Maureen Ahern - Procurement 617-253-8373.

4. No Brown Bag Lunch in January
There will be no VP for Finance Brown Bag Lunch in January. The Brown Bag Lunch schedule through June 2008 is below. As usual, we will send out the agenda shortly before the scheduled date. Please note that if we do not have a full agenda for a particular month, we will cancel the BBL, and let the community know.

5. NIMBUS Training Offered in February
The Office of Budget, Finance & Treasury will be providing training in the use of the Nimbus Budget System for submission of the Fiscal 2009 budget. If you will be a first time user or just need a refresher course, please plan on attending one of the training sessions.

One hour Nimbus training sessions will be held in the OSP conference room, E19-758 on:

· Thursday, February 7 at 10:00 am

· Tuesday, February 26 at 10:00 am

Registration is not required, however if you plan on attending, please send an email to rslauzis@mit.edu indicating which session you plan to attend.

We will also be updating our Budget Preparation Guide & Tutorial and this information will be available in February on the Nimbus system launcher page at http://web.mit.edu/budget/nimbus/index.html

The Nimbus budget submission application is now open for the FY09 budget submission. Submissions are due by Friday, February 29, 2008.

6. Contact Information – When You Need Help