Western Student Medical Research Forum

Carmel 2012

Congratulations on having your abstracts accepted for presentation! We had a huge response this year and are delighted that approximately 70 students will be attending. This is an incredible opportunity for you to present your research and to hear about other research being conducted. Dean Ramsey is committed to providing funding assistance to enable you to participate in the Forum. We will provide assistance with airfare, lodging, rental car, meal per diem, and conference fee expenses if you are currently enrolled and in good standing in the School of Medicine during Winter A Quarter.

Please READ THIS ENTIRE PAGE CAREFULLY and refer back to it if you have questions.  Feel free to use the UW Carmel Students list serve (uwcarmelstudents@uw.edu) to arrange for hotel sharing/car rental sharing, etc.  You will want to buddy up with students who have similar schedules for traveling (leaving and returning on the same day).

In order to help you make the most of this opportunity, there is a mandatory meeting on Friday, January 6 from 11:30 AM - 12:20 PM in T-733 that you will need to attend.

Registration

• You need to register for the conference. You may do this at http://www.wsmrf.org/, click on the REGISTRATION PACKET icon, and follow the prompts. The site will be open by November 30^th.
• YOU ARE STRONGLY URGED you to sign up for one of the Breakfast with the Investigator sessions. These informal breakfast sessions are always popular and fill quickly. There are a total of 120 slots for more than 300 students, so they go rapidly. There is no additional charge for the Breakfast with the Investigator breakfast.
• You will also want to sign up for the Saturday night awards banquet. There is no additional cost to attend the banquet, but there is a $25 charge if you would like to bring a guest (payable by check or cash when you check-in).  We will pay for your hotel Saturday evening ONLY if you attend the banquet.

Outlined below are the major conference expenses. Use this as a guide for making your arrangements, staying within a reasonable budget, and retaining receipts. If you have any difficulties making your own travel arrangements, please contact us.

Airfare

• You will be responsible for purchasing your airline ticket; you will be reimbursed for this cost after we receive a copy of your itinerary showing payment.
• You will be reimbursed for a maximum of $215 for airfare and baggage related fees into San Jose or San Francisco.
• Student check-in begins at 8:00 AM on Thursday, January 26, 2012. You will want to coordinate your travel based on when you will present, i.e., if you are presenting on Thursday afternoon, you may wish to depart Seattle Wednesday evening. Otherwise, plan on arriving as soon as possible on Thursday morning to ensure you can attend the Thursday presentations and attend the Poster Session/Welcome Reception on Thursday evening. The majority of the students leave on Sunday morning.

Ground Transportation

• You are responsible for making your rental car reservations. Individually, you will be reimbursed for one day's car rental; therefore, we recommend that you share with your classmates accordingly. We strongly recommend you share a car with 3 other UW students attending the conference. You must provide us with the names of the students with whom you shared a rental car.
• We recommend that you fly to San Jose, rent a car, and drive to Monterey. In planning arrival and/or departure times, remember that it is a two-hour drive (in good weather) from San Jose to Monterey/Carmel.
• You MUST rent through Enterprise Rent-A-Car; the UW has an account with this company and you will be eligible for a greatly-reduced rate. You can rent through Enterprise's web site. Reference account number 45WA033, and "WAS" as the PIN when logging in.  A maximum car rental charge of $36.00/day (base price) will be reimbursed.
• One gas receipt per rental car will be reimbursed.
• Do not purchase the additional insurance, this is built into the WA contract rate.
• Transportation costs to and from the Seattle airport are not reimbursable, nor are parking fees at SeaTac.

You will want to buddy up with students who have similar schedules for traveling (leaving and returning home on the same day).

Hotel Reservations

• Make arrangements with the Monterey Beach Hotel. You can make reservations online at www.montereybeachresort.com, select RESERVATIONS, using GROUP CODE (25G) and selecting a "Western Student Medical Research Forum" room in all instances to receive the group rate. To guarantee a room, ALL reservations MUST be received by January 4, 2012.
• The maximum we will reimburse is one-half of the room charge for the Monterey Beach Hotel per student per night; therefore we encourage you to share a room with another classmate. Make sure the hotel knows you are there for the WSMRF conference. The WSMRF rate is $110 (base price)/night.
• Please be sure to have the hotel provide you with a " folio " showing dates of your stay and that you have paid in full. We will only reimburse the student whose name appears on the folio as having paid for the lodging. In order to be reimbursed for the full cost of the lodging, you must provide us with the name of the student with whom you shared a room.
• We will pay for your hotel Saturday evening ONLY if you attend the banquet.
• You will want to buddy up with students who have similar schedules for traveling (leaving and returning home on the same day).

Registration and Abstract Publication Fees

• You will need provide your receipts for the $110 registration fee and for the $75 abstract fee in order for us process your reimbursement.

Other Miscellaneous Expenses

• Other costs, such as tips, slide preparation, etc. will be your responsibility or may be covered by your sponsor.
• You will not be reimbursed for any expenses incurred outside of direct travel and attendance at the conference.

If you have any questions about travel reimbursement, please feel free to contact Scott Bailey at 206-685-7022 or sgbailey@uw.edu.   

DETAILS YOU WANT TO KNOW:

It can take up to three weeks for the University Travel Office to process forms for reimbursement, so do not delay in getting your receipts to Scott Bailey in the Academic Affairs Office, A-300!

BRING IN YOUR RECEIPTS NO LATER THAN March 5, 2012. WE WILL BE UNABLE TO PROCESS RECEIPTS AFTER THIS DATE!

How the process works:

Once you supply Scott with your receipts, he will create forms for you to sign and date. He won't be able to do these while you wait, and will ask that you return the next day to sign them, or he will email you the forms. Please allow up to three weeks from the time you sign the forms to the time the check arrives.

Once again, congratulations! We know this will be a great experience for you!