     eventualCohort = new $.Deferred
     if @ACTIVE_EXPERIMENT?
       now = new Date().getTime()
-      if @lastFailedAt?
-        timeSinceLastFail = now - @lastFailedAt.getTime()
-      if @lastFailedAt == null || timeSinceLastFail > @RETRY_INTERVAL
-        try
-          $.get(@EXPERIMENT_SERVER_URL+'experiment/' + @ACTIVE_EXPERIMENT + '?userid=' + @Geordi.UserStringGetter.currentUserID)
-          .then (participant) =>
-            @currentCohort = participant.cohort
-            @currentParticipant = participant
-            eventualCohort.resolve participant.cohort
-          .fail =>
-            @lastFailedAt = new Date()
-            @Geordi.logEvent {
-              type: "error"
-              errorCode: "500"
-              errorDescription: "Couldn't retrieve experimental cohort data"
-            }
+      if @currentCohort?
+        eventualCohort.resolve @currentCohort
+      else
+        if @lastFailedAt?
+          timeSinceLastFail = now - @lastFailedAt.getTime()
+        if @lastFailedAt == null || timeSinceLastFail > @RETRY_INTERVAL
+          try
+            $.get(@EXPERIMENT_SERVER_URL+'experiment/' + @ACTIVE_EXPERIMENT + '?userid=' + @Geordi.UserStringGetter.currentUserID)
+            .then (participant) =>
+              @currentCohort = participant.cohort
+              @currentParticipant = participant
+              eventualCohort.resolve participant.cohort
+            .fail =>
+              @lastFailedAt = new Date()
+              @Geordi.logEvent {
+                type: "error"
+                errorCode: "500"
+                errorDescription: "Couldn't retrieve experimental cohort data"
+              }
+              eventualCohort.resolve null
+          catch error
             eventualCohort.resolve null
-        catch error
+        else
           eventualCohort.resolve null
-      else
-        eventualCohort.resolve null
     else
       eventualCohort.resolve null
     eventualCohort.promise()

  Define the active experiment here by using a string which exists in http://experiments.zooniverse.org/active_experiments
  If no experiments should be running right now, set this to null, false or ""
  ###
  ACTIVE_EXPERIMENT: "SerengetiAdvisoryBoard2015Experiment"
  #ACTIVE_EXPERIMENT: "SerengetiBlanksExperiment1"
  ###
  The URL of the experiment server to use

    @currentCohort = null
    @currentParticipant = null
    @Geordi.UserStringGetter.currentUserID = null

  ###
  This method will contact the experiment server to find the cohort for this user in the specified experiment
  ###
