Greetings, new members! I hope you managed to survive the snowfall of this weekend without any traffic accidents or lack of electricity, and that today your classes and meetings and daily tasks are comfortably back on schedule.
Remember our last blog post, when I wrote about Conference Reimbursement? I just want to emphasize how fortunate we are to have a faculty union that negotiated, and continues to protect, our right to funding for professional development. $1700 per person, particularly when multiplied by our membership, seems like a lot of money, doesn't it? And, of course, it is -- but we have to remember that $1700 is intended to stretch across two years. If you're familiar with the rising cost of airfare -- and/or the astronomical costs of staying in "the" conference hotel for the duration of a conference -- you'll know that this $1700 is not going to last beyond, well, one or two conferences (depending, of course, on how long you stay and how far away the conference is located).
 |
| Winter sun. It likes to hide. |
In your first years as a tenure-track faculty member, you'll be expected to stay current in your field by attending relevant local and/or regional conferences. There's no magic number -- although I'd suggest that a minimum of one per year demonstrates a comfortable commitment to one's professional development. With each subsequent promotion, however, and as with most aspects of your career, the stakes are raised the higher you climb toward full Professor or PA 2 or Specialist 2. You'll be expected to attend -- and eventually present at -- larger, more widely-recognized events on a national scale.
This, of course, will take money. My trip to LA in March, for instance, to attend the annual conference of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, will cost well over $1700. Such is life -- it's the premier conference in my field and I'm presenting on a panel, so I've said "bye-bye" pretty swiftly to my conference allowance, haven't I? (Yes. Yes I have.)
SO: if I want to attend the annual Southampton Writers' Conference this summer I'm out of luck, then, right? And I shouldn't even dream about AWP in 2017!
Not necessarily. Because, well, I'm a planner by nature, I anticipated having all of my conference money sucked away by this AWP visit in March. ALSO, I anticipated wanting to attend the Southampton Writers' Conference and finally (FINALLY) finishing the play I've been tooling away at for almost ten years. And yes, I'll probably be attending AWP next year.
The catch is that I had to anticipate most of this almost a year ago -- in April of 2015 to be precise. You see, the Faculty Association has ALSO negotiated an additional amount of money for faculty development and retraining: $30,000 per year, to be exact. Assistance for the next academic period is awarded to faculty who apply by April 15 of each year. The committee that oversees these applications will award funds first and foremost to faculty who require retraining. Then, after retraining needs have been met, those faculty who have applied for assistance for faculty development (like my attendance at the summer writers' conference) are awarded based on the strength of a faculty member's application and the amount of money still available in the fund.
So if you anticipate attending a conference or two next year -- and if you suspect you'll use your entire $1700 conference allowance pretty early, like yours truly -- you should consider applying for Faculty Retraining and Development assistance this spring. One way to make sure you understand the process and follow it correctly is to attend a Faculty Retraining and Development workshop one of our three campuses this semester, held by FA Secretary Marie Hanna (who is also a member of the Faculty Retraining and Development Committee -- so she knows what she's talking about).
The Ammerman Campus workshop was last week -- but that doesn't mean you can't attend on a different campus if you're interested in learning more. The dates for the remaining workshops, held during common hour (11:00 a.m.-12:15 p.m.) are as follows:
Wednesday, February 10 (tomorrow!) on the Grant Campus in Sagtikos 221.
Wednesday, February 17 (next week!) on the Eastern Campus in Corchaug 18.
Of course, if you can't make either of these workshops, simply email Marie Hanna with your concerns at marie [at] fascc.org. She'll be happy to help. Or ask your mentor, who may be able to answer your questions after having gone through the process him or herself.
(And if you are interested in attending one of these workshops, give Marie a heads up by registering here.)
p.s. Want to learn more about how to balance professional development and scholarship with your regular job duties? Make sure you attend next Friday's New Member Discussion Series Event:
Friday, February 19: “Taking Your Show on the Road:
How to Participate in Scholarship while Teaching at a Two-Year School” Faculty from various
departments and disciplines reflect on finding time for writing, research, and
other forms of scholarship at an institution where teaching is the focus. While
describing their own personal paths to publication and conference presentations,
panelists will offer advice and share resources for new hires looking to
balance their day to day duties with professional and scholarly concerns. Mildred Green Room, BSC, Ammerman Campus,
11:00-12:15 p.m.
No comments:
Post a Comment