  The main objective of the Penn State/Torun Centre for Astronomy Search for
Planets around Evolved Stars is the detection of planetary systems around
massive, evolved stars. We are also interested in the evolution of these
systems on stellar evolution timescales. In this paper we present our approach
to determine the basic physical parameters of our targets GK-giants. We also
discuss the stellar activity indicators used in our survey: line bisector and
curvature, and Halpha variability.
