Administrative Steps to Request “Conference/Webinar/Seminar”Funds
- Once the college operating budget is approved and available in Banner, each Vice-President will inform their division of the dollar amount of conference funds available for their division.
- These budget conference funds supplement the “Professional Development Funds” contractually negotiated and paid to faculty and staff once each semester.
- Funding will primarily be available for state or federal conferences related to regulatory and compliance changes, and conferences that support the College Strategic Plan and the SUNY Excel initiative.
- The “Seminar/Conference/Workshop Authorization Form” must be completed to request monetary support for conference attendance. The form can be found in the VPAF folder on the “P” drive.
- Complete all sections of the “Seminar/Conference/Workshop Authorization Form”. First obtain your immediate supervisor’s signature and subsequently approval of your VP or AVP, who will authorize the funding amount.
- Each Immediate Supervisor, VP or AVP will review/approve and then authorize the maximum dollars available per request.
- This fully authorized form must be attached to all purchase requisitions and vouchers for payment to the vendor or reimbursement of self-paid funds to the employee.
- Update your supervisor on the conference content upon your return from the conference.
Administration’s Responseto FSDC/Executive Committee Conference Funding Recommendations
- FSDC- In collaboration with each other, the VPs develop a procedure that clearly explains the process to be followed by the faculty and staff of each administrative area of the college to apply for conference funding. While the procedure within each administrative area may not be exactly the same, in some general sense there should be consistency.
Admin- The process for all faculty and staff is completion of the “Seminar/Conference/Workshop Authorization Form”. A consolidated, streamlined form will be developed and available for Spring 2016. Beginning 2016-2017 academic year documents will be posted to the portal because some people have expressed they are unable to access the P drive on different devices/locations. The form and step by step instructions can be found on the “P” drive in the VP for Administration and Finance folder. The completed form must be submitted to the immediate supervisor for approval and then forwarded to the appropriate VP or AVP for authorization. This process has been in effect for several years and works well allowing those with budgetary responsibilities for conference funds to authorize the amount of support available. The amount available each budget year is dependent on economic realities affecting the college budget.
- FSDC- At the start of each academic year, each VP communicates the following to FSDC Chair and the faculty and staff in his/her area:
a.)FSDC- The amount of money available to the faculty and staff in their area, including any allocations and/or priorities given for awarding funds. (This may include, but is not limited to things such as: in Academic Affairs identify the amount that is available to each academic division. Identify if there is a certain amount available for those attending a conference and a certain amount available for those presenting at a conference, identify if money is awarded on a first come-first serve basis, by seniority, etc.; identify if some money is allocated for the fall semester and some for the spring semester, etc.).
Admin- Each VP and AVP will announce at the start of the academic year, the amount of moneyallocated in their budget for departmental conference use and will detail special requirements, if any, for requesting funds. These administratively allocated professional development funds vary by year depending on the financial needs of the College budget and totaled only $26,500 across the college in FY15-16.
These budget funds supplement the “Professional Development Funds” contractually negotiated and paid to faculty and staff once each semester. The Professional development rate is 1.95% of the full-time base salary (effective with the 2014-15 year). Self-directed professional development funds that are being distributed directly to employees in FY15-16 total $703,000.
Beginning with the 2016-17 fiscal cycle, administration will publish in the Employee Grapevine the summed all-college allocation as soon as possible after the budget is approved. Please note that the Grapevine communication will occur as soon as possible after the budget is deemed official and approved on or after September 1. As soon as sub-allocation determinations are made following establishment of the overall budget, Vice Presidents or their designees shall communicate divisional allocations via common, accepted, means of information distribution such as announcement at an all-division meeting (if the meeting date is timely) or an all-division email. Administration requires this limited ambiguity in mode of communication to be able to best select mode of communication in response to unpredictable variance in budget approval dates.
b.)FSDC- The process for applying for the available conference funding.
Admin- The process for all faculty and staff is completion of the “Seminar/Conference/Workshop Authorization Form and submission to one’s immediate supervisor. Subsequently, the immediate supervisor’s signature is necessary prior to proceeding to the next level for the approval of the VP or AVP.
c.)FSDC- The criteria used in making a decision as to whether an applicant will receive the funding requested.
Admin- Given the paucity of the administratively allocated professional development funds, the consensus of all VPs is that these funds will be used primarily for conferences related to regulatory and compliance changes, and secondarily for conferences that support the College Strategic Plan and the SUNY Excels initiatives. Administration anticipates faculty and staff are using their self-directed/contractual funds for professional development within their disciplines/jobs.
- FSDC- Post conference requires the faculty or staff member who attended or presented at a conference to fill out a standard form (see attached “Conference Report Template Example”) and submit it to their VP. The VP then forwards a copy of the form to the CTL. This would allow the CTL to see what type of conferences are being attended, if they were good or not, if we could offer similar classes, what the interests are in certain areas, and be able to share the information that the person, who attended the conference, with other employees who may be interested in similar topics.
FSDC- It is important that the update received by the VP is in writing. We urge that a standard form is used. The advantage of a standard form or something in writing allows for a permanent record, makes it accessible to all and provides value for everyone who finds interest in the topic. It is mentioned that the information will be “shared with affected groups”. We respectfully request that the information be shared with the entire college community, including the CTL. You never know who could benefit from a course. CTL would like to use this information to share as well as use ideas from the courses taken to strengthen what is currently done. We would like to know where the information will be shared. It would be great if it was on the portal or if it was submitted directly to CTL.
Admin- Each VP will receive an update from the conference attendee or attendee’s supervisor. If the conference information is of a regulatory or compliance nature, the information will be shared with all groups affected. Academic conference information that relates to the College Strategic Plan or the SUNY Excel Initiative will be shared with the CTL if it appears relevant for a wider audience. While administration appreciates the spirit of the recommendation, administration feels strongly this recommendation would create unintended and unwarranted barriers to professional development, something we wish was even more accessible. We reassert our original response that organic debriefing with the supervisor will trigger any needed formal and/or larger-scale sharing and communication. We additionally underscore that some professional development may be targeted and specific to a particular employee and we wish to respect the employee’s opportunity for individual and professional growth without them feeling responsible for expanding the scope of the experience. It is likely that the suggested standard form would not capture every type of professional development experience in a way that would be meaningful for its intended audiences. Organic conversations and subsequent implementation of ideas by excited, renewed professionals returning to our campuses is our favored way of getting the “return on investment” and accountability we believe FSDC seeks in its recommendation.