diff --git a/batchconsumer/sender.go b/batchconsumer/sender.go
index 03e0421..ed90ad6 100644
--- a/batchconsumer/sender.go
+++ b/batchconsumer/sender.go
@@ -11,6 +11,8 @@ var ErrMessageIgnored = errors.New("Message intentionally skipped by sender")
 
 // Sender an interface needed for batch consumer implementations
 type Sender interface {
+	// Initialize called once before ProcessMessage and SendBatch
+	Initialize(shardID string)
 	// ProcessMessage receives a raw message and is expected to return an appropriately formatted
 	// message as well as a list of tags for that log line.  A tag corresponds to a batch that
 	// it'll be put into.  Typically tags are series names.
diff --git a/batchconsumer/writer.go b/batchconsumer/writer.go
index cf5eab4..4fe8c9b 100644
--- a/batchconsumer/writer.go
+++ b/batchconsumer/writer.go
@@ -49,6 +49,8 @@ func (b *batchedWriter) Initialize(shardID string, checkpointer kcl.Checkpointer
 		BatchInterval: b.config.BatchInterval,
 	}
 
+	b.sender.Initialize(shardID)
+
 	b.chkpntManager = newCheckpointManager(checkpointer, b.config.CheckpointFreq)
 	b.batcherManager = newBatcherManager(b.sender, b.chkpntManager, bmConfig, b.failedLogsFile)
 
diff --git a/batchconsumer/writer_test.go b/batchconsumer/writer_test.go
index 7bc7e33..8de24a9 100644
--- a/batchconsumer/writer_test.go
+++ b/batchconsumer/writer_test.go
@@ -14,6 +14,8 @@ import (
 
 type ignoringSender struct{}
 
+func (i ignoringSender) Initialize(shardID string) {}
+
 func (i ignoringSender) ProcessMessage(rawmsg []byte) (msg []byte, tags []string, err error) {
 	return nil, nil, ErrMessageIgnored
 }
@@ -27,6 +29,7 @@ type tagBatch struct {
 	batch [][]byte
 }
 type msgAsTagSender struct {
+	shardID   string
 	batches   map[string][][][]byte
 	saveBatch chan tagBatch
 	shutdown  chan struct{}
@@ -61,6 +64,10 @@ func (i *msgAsTagSender) startBatchSaver(saveBatch <-chan tagBatch, shutdown <-c
 	}()
 }
 
+func (i *msgAsTagSender) Initialize(shardID string) {
+	i.shardID = shardID
+}
+
 func (i *msgAsTagSender) ProcessMessage(rawmsg []byte) (msg []byte, tags []string, err error) {
 	if "ignore" == string(rawmsg) {
 		return nil, nil, ErrMessageIgnored
@@ -176,6 +183,8 @@ func TestProcessRecordsSingleBatchBasic(t *testing.T) {
 	wrt := NewBatchedWriter(mockconfig, mocksender, mockFailedLogsFile)
 	wrt.Initialize("test-shard", mockcheckpointer)
 
+	assert.Equal("test-shard", mocksender.shardID)
+
 	err := wrt.ProcessRecords([]kcl.Record{
 		kcl.Record{SequenceNumber: "1", Data: encode("tag1")},
 		kcl.Record{SequenceNumber: "2", Data: encode("tag1")},
diff --git a/cmd/batchconsumer/main.go b/cmd/batchconsumer/main.go
index 004ec36..ff7c1d4 100644
--- a/cmd/batchconsumer/main.go
+++ b/cmd/batchconsumer/main.go
@@ -23,7 +23,12 @@ func main() {
 }
 
 type exampleSender struct {
-	output logger.KayveeLogger
+	shardID string
+	output  logger.KayveeLogger
+}
+
+func (e *exampleSender) Initialize(shardID string) {
+	e.shardID = shardID
 }
 
 func (e *exampleSender) ProcessMessage(rawmsg []byte) ([]byte, []string, error) {
diff --git a/golang.mk b/golang.mk
index 7d8ba4c..b539763 100644
--- a/golang.mk
+++ b/golang.mk
@@ -1,12 +1,15 @@
 # This is the default Clever Golang Makefile.
 # It is stored in the dev-handbook repo, github.com/Clever/dev-handbook
 # Please do not alter this file directly.
-GOLANG_MK_VERSION := 0.3.2
+GOLANG_MK_VERSION := 0.3.8
 
 SHELL := /bin/bash
 SYSTEM := $(shell uname -a | cut -d" " -f1 | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')
 .PHONY: golang-test-deps bin/dep golang-ensure-curl-installed
 
+# set timezone to UTC for golang to match circle and deploys
+export TZ=UTC
+
 # if the gopath includes several directories, use only the first
 GOPATH=$(shell echo $$GOPATH | cut -d: -f1)
 
@@ -36,18 +39,31 @@ $(FGT):
 golang-ensure-curl-installed:
 	@command -v curl >/dev/null 2>&1 || { echo >&2 "curl not installed. Please install curl."; exit 1; }
 
-DEP_VERSION = v0.3.2
+DEP_VERSION = v0.4.1
 DEP_INSTALLED := $(shell [[ -e "bin/dep" ]] && bin/dep version | grep version | grep -v go | cut -d: -f2 | tr -d '[:space:]')
 # Dep is a tool used to manage Golang dependencies. It is the offical vendoring experiment, but
 # not yet the official tool for Golang.
+ifeq ($(DEP_VERSION),$(DEP_INSTALLED))
+bin/dep: # nothing to do, dep is already up-to-date
+else
+CACHED_DEP = /tmp/dep-$(DEP_VERSION)
 bin/dep: golang-ensure-curl-installed
+	@echo "Updating dep..."
 	@mkdir -p bin
-	@[[ "$(DEP_VERSION)" != "$(DEP_INSTALLED)" ]] && \
-		echo "Updating dep..." && \
-		curl -o bin/dep -sL https://github.com/golang/dep/releases/download/$(DEP_VERSION)/dep-$(SYSTEM)-amd64 && \
-		chmod +x bin/dep || true
+	@if [ ! -f $(CACHED_DEP) ]; then curl -o $(CACHED_DEP) -sL https://github.com/golang/dep/releases/download/$(DEP_VERSION)/dep-$(SYSTEM)-amd64; fi;
+	@cp $(CACHED_DEP) bin/dep
+	@chmod +x bin/dep || true
+endif
 
-golang-dep-vendor-deps: bin/dep
+# figure out "github.com/<org>/<repo>"
+# `go list` will fail if there are no .go files in the directory
+# if this is the case, fall back to assuming github.com/Clever
+REF = $(shell go list || echo github.com/Clever/$(notdir $(shell pwd)))
+golang-verify-no-self-references:
+	@if grep -q -i "$(REF)" Gopkg.lock; then echo "Error: Gopkg.lock includes a self-reference ($(REF)), which is not allowed. See: https://github.com/golang/dep/issues/1690" && exit 1; fi;
+	@if grep -q -i "$(REF)" Gopkg.toml; then echo "Error: Gopkg.toml includes a self-reference ($(REF)), which is not allowed. See: https://github.com/golang/dep/issues/1690" && exit 1; fi;
+
+golang-dep-vendor-deps: bin/dep golang-verify-no-self-references
 
 # golang-godep-vendor is a target for saving dependencies with the dep tool
 # to the vendor/ directory. All nested vendor/ directories are deleted via