Lab Management

Recurring tasks for everyone

Be a good citizen of the community: help others, attend lab meeting, be on time for your obligations, be kind.
Keep the lab clean.
Make sure your CITI / HIPAA / human subjects training is up to date.
Make sure you are on the appropriate IRB protocols, and that your protocols are active.
Give the lab manager completed consent forms for studies of yours that are no longer active.
When asked, give the lab manager a list of demographic info for participants in your experiments, for reporting in grant progress reports.
When you are scheduled to present at lab meeting, provide the lab manager with information about what you’re going to present (e.g.,
title, what your plan is) at least 48 hours before the meeting (more if you are presenting a paper, to give people time to read it).
Make sure you and Mariam are aware of major milestones and critical dates in your career path.

Recurring lab manager tasks

Welcome new lab members and make sure they are set up with all that they need (see Lab Orientation)
Make sure IRBs are up to date (write new IRBs, and submit continuations and amendments).
Make sure that the IRB dropbox folder for the lab has all the IRB documents (consent forms, demographics forms, recrtuiment flyers, etc).
Regularly check the lab e-mail address and the lab website inbox,respond to what messages you can, and forward the rest to Mariam. Lab members’ requests to share directories with the lab Dropbox account will go to the lab e-mail address, so make sure to keep an eye out for those requests.
Interview and accept RAs, as needed by you and fellow lab members. Make sure to bring in people you trust, and who would be an asset to the lab. It’s better to not have any helpers than have people who don’t take the job seriously, or are otherwise detrimental to the lab environment.
Compile demographics questionnaires. File away consent forms for studies that are no longer active (students and post-docs are responsible for giving those forms to you).
Work with Mariam to order lab supplies when needed (e.g., pens, paper, cleaning supplies). This can be done by emailing Mariam a list of what you need.
Make sure software on shared computers (i.e., the running room computers) is up to date. But never update the Operating System without checking with Mariam and the lab first!
Make sure the lab list-serv is up to date (add new lab members when they arrive, remove lab members who are leaving and no longer wish to receive these e-mails).
Maintain the lab Google calendars (lab meetings/lab events, running rooms, laptops, birthdays). Add lab meetings, events, and birthdays to the appropriate calendars. Make sure people are booking time on the running room calendar, rather than using the running rooms without booking time. Make sure that the running rooms are used fairly. Similarly, make sure people are checking out lab laptops before taking them, and that the laptops are used fairly.
Help recruit paid participants when needed. Put up flyers. When participants e-mail the lab email address to indicate interest in an experiment, make sure to connect them with the lab member(s) whose flyers were posted.
Make sure a room is booked for lab meetings. When we set the lab meeting time every semester, book a room for that time for the whole semester. Send out reminder e-mails to the lab list-serv at least 48 hours before lab meeting, including the title of the presentation / what is happening in that lab meeting (speak to the presenter to get information). If someone is presenting a paper, it’s best to send it out more than 48 hours in advance, to give people a chance to read it.
Update the lab wiki and the lab website (e.g., add new publications to the lab website, add new lab members to the lab website, add new tips or instructions or forms to the lab wiki). Check the messages delivered to the lab website via the contact form.
Help other lab members with experiment programming, MTL segmentations, and fMRI scanning.