Sample Emails for Stored Research Equipment

Email when first storing equipment

Subject: Recently received equipment

Reply-To: cs-inventory@cscf.cs.uwaterloo.ca CC: lfolland@uwaterloo.ca

Dear Dr. (professor's last name),

CSCF recently received the following equipment which, we believe, belongs
to you. 

List of equipment:
1) CRT: Samsung SyncMaster 900DF (CS001234) - Option [   ]
2) PC: P4 2.8 GHz Processor, 512MB RAM, 80GB disk, hostname.cs (CS00####) - Option [    ]

We have put your name on each piece of equipment. We would like 
to know what you would like done with each of the items. Please pick an 
option for each:

1) We return the equipment to you. Let us know whether you would like it
delivered to your office, lab or research associate’s office.

2) We hold onto the equipment, but make it available to other
researchers as requested (using a fresh OS image). Your name is on 
the machine and will be returned to you when you request it. This is 
primarily intended to help out with short-term visitors (ie: a term 
or less). The end-user (or their sponsor) is responsible for any 
support charges for work done.

3) You turn the equipment over permanently to CSCF. We will either
redeploy or surplus the equipment as we see fit.

Please contact us with your decision. Until we hear from you, we will 
assume option 2 - loaning out to other researchers as needed.

If you have any questions about any of the above, please contact Lawrence Folland at 
lfolland@uwaterloo.ca x32214.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Sincerely,


CSCF Co-op

When listing the equipment belonging to faculty or staff, it is recommended that you mention the hostname of a PC in addition to the hardware and the barcode. In a lot of cases, the barcode is useless information to them. So instead of listing just barcodes, include defining characteristics about the machine. If the machine lacks a current hostname, research the history of it to see any "Old" hostnames there might have been or anything else that will help faculty recognize which equipment you're talking about. If the equipment was removed from a particular room or from a particular grad student, mentioning that information might also be helpful.

List of equipment:
1) CRT: Samsung SyncMaster 900DF (CS001234) - Option [   ]
2) PC: P4 2.8 GHz Processor, 512MB RAM, 80GB disk, hostname.cs (CS001111) removed from DC 1234.  Was John Smith's workstation - Option [    ]

Email for wanting to surplus stored equipment

Subject: Surplussing old equipment

Reply-To: cs-inventory@cscf.cs.uwaterloo.ca
CC: lfolland@uwaterloo.ca

Dear Dr. (professor’s last name),

CSCF is currently storing a number of pieces of equipment that belong to 
researchers. Mostly these have come to us when grad students have left. 
While we're not supposed to be storing such equipment, we have been doing
this as a favour to our clients. Unfortunately, we only have limited space 
and cannot store all of this equipment. 

CSCF is currently storing the following equipment for you:

1) PC: P4 2.2 GHz Processor, 1 GB RAM, 40 GB disk, hostname.cs (CS00####) 
– “list any other useful information here, eg: grad student/visitor who had it last”

However, we would like to surplus this equipment because we have newer more 
efficient machines. These faster machines would still be made available to 
you and your researchers as needed. Since the above are still your machines,
we would like to know what you would like to have done with each of the items.
Please pick an option for each: 

1)We return the equipment to you. Let us know whether you would like it 
  delivered to your office, lab or research associate’s office.

2)We surplus the above equipment.

If we don’t hear from you within a week, we will assume option 2 – surplus
the above equipment.

If you have any questions about any of the above, please contact Lawrence Folland 
at lfolland@uwaterloo.ca x32214.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Sincerely, 


CSCF Co-op

Email when lending equipment out (optional?)

Email for tracking down status of currently stored equipment

Subject: Stored research equipment Reply-To: cs-inventory@cscf.cs.uwaterloo.ca
CC: lfolland@uwaterloo.ca

Dear Dr. (professor's last name),

CSCF is currently storing the following equipment for you. We have put
your name on each piece of equipment. We would like to know what you
would like done with each of the items. Please pick an option for each:

1) We return the equipment to you. Let us know whether you would like it
delivered to your office, lab or research associate’s office.

2) We hold onto the equipment, but make it available to other
researchers as requested. Your name is on the machine and will be
returned to you when you request it. This is primarily intended to help
out with short-term visitors (ie: a term or less). The end-user (or
their sponsor) is responsible for any support charges for work done.

3) You turn the equipment over permanently to CSCF. We will either
redeploy or surplus the equipment as we see fit.

Please contact us with your decision. Until we hear from you, we will 
assume option 2 - loaning out to other researchers as needed.

If you have any questions about any of the above, please contact Lawrence Folland at 
lfolland@uwaterloo.ca x32214.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Sincerely,


CSCF Co-op

Text list of equipment, including barcodes, eg:

List of equipment:
1) CRT: Samsung SyncMaster 900DF (CS001234) - Option [   ]
2) PC: P4 2.8 GHz Processor, 512MB RAM, 80GB disk, hostname.cs (CS00####) - Option [    ]

Initial introduction to the Stored Research Equipment

To: cs-faculty@cs

Subject: Stored Research Equipment

CSCF is currently storing a number of pieces of equipment that belong to researchers.  
Mostly these have come to us when grad students have left.  While we're not supposed
to be storing such equipment, we have been doing this as a favour to our clients.  
Unfortunately, we only have limited space and cannot store all of this equipment.  
Aside from storage issues, we felt that this equipment could be useful for other
purposes until the owner needs it back.

So, we are proposing that any equipment that we are storing be made available to any 
other CS researcher who has a short-term need for it.  This might be for a visitor or 
other needs.  When we get such equipment, we will send an email to the owner to request 
what they would like done with it.  If they would like it returned, we will need to know 
where it is to be delivered.  If they are happy to let it be loaned out, and it seems 
like it might be useful, we will continue to hold on to it.  If it is non-functional 
or too old to be useful, we will ask that it be surplussed or returned to its owner.  
You may also choose to turn the equipment over permanently to CSCF and we will decide 
if we have a use for it, or may lend it back out to other researchers.

We are currently tracking the equipment we have in a Twiki page.  You may view it here:
   https://www.cs.uwaterloo.ca/twiki/view/CF/StoredResearcherEquipment

If we are storing any equipment of yours, one of our staff will contact you, within 
the next two weeks, to ask what you would like done with it.  Your options will be:

   1) We return the equipment to you. Let us know whether you would like it
   delivered to your office, lab or research associate’s office.

   2) We hold onto the equipment, but make it available to other
   researchers as requested. Your name is on the machine and will be
   returned to you when you request it.  If it has been loaned out, then we
   would hope that the user can finish with it before it is returned, since 
   the loan is expected to be a term or less.  Equipment loans are primarily 
   intended to help out with short-term visitors or temporary research projects. 
   The end-user (or their sponsor) will be responsible for any support charges 
   relating to work on the machine.

   3) You turn the equipment over permanently to CSCF. We will either
   redeploy or surplus the equipment as we see fit.

   Until we hear from you, we will assume option 2 - loaning out to other
   researchers as needed.

Any time we receive such equipment in future, we will send out a similar
email looking for direction as to what you want done with it.

If you prefer to store your own equipment, you may be interested in one of
the rolling racks such as we use.  We would be happy to show what we're 
using and give you purchase information.  It is a handy rack for storing and
moving equipment.

If you have a need to borrow some of this equipment, please speak to your 
research Point of Contact.

If you have any questions about any of the above, please contact me at 
lfolland@uwaterloo.ca x32214.

Sincerely,


CSCF Co-op