• Faculty Travel Request Form (2 pages in .DOC format)

In order to encourage as many faculty as possible to participate in academic and professional conferences, to distribute faculty professional development funds equitably, and to derive the most benefit from conferences attended, RVCC offers the following policy for supporting faculty participation in professional conferences:
 

• Faculty may request College support either to attend or to present at a conference.
   
• Requests for conference expenses must be approved in advance by the faculty member’s Department Chair and the Dean of Faculty.  The College will not reimburse faculty for conference expenses that have not been pre-approved. 
   
• Faculty development funds for conference expenses will be pooled college-wide, rather than allocated to individual departments.  The Dean of Faculty will monitor the budget for conference expenses.  This budget is determined for each academic year, and College support for conference expenses ends when all the money has been allocated for the year.
   
• Faculty who have received approval to attend or present at conferences are eligible to be reimbursed for expenses up to a maximum of $1,000 over the academic year.
   
• Any unused conference funds will be distributed equitably at the end of the year among individuals whose expenses exceeded the $1,000 yearly limit.  
   
• Faculty are strongly encouraged to plan for professional conferences well in advance and choose arrangements that make best use of College travel funds.  For example, faculty should plan to participate first in College, local and regional conferences, to attend national conferences when they are hosted in nearby cities, to share accommodations, to carpool, etc.  
   
• Faculty who have received support to attend a conference shall submit, along with their personal expense voucher, a summary report about the conference with suggestions for how the College may benefit from it.
   
• Faculty who have received support to attend a conference shall report to their departmental colleagues on how the conference may benefit the department and disseminate useful materials or information from the conference to interested individuals.
   
• For conferences of college-wide interest forums will be made available for faculty to report back to the wider College community.  One Faculty Development Workshop session each spring will be devoted to faculty conference reports. 
   
• Forms for conference pre-approval, reimbursement, and summary report will be periodically reviewed and updated to make the request process more convenient for faculty.  Links to the forms will be posted on the CAITL Webpage. 
   
• RVCC’s Policy for Supporting Faculty Participation in Professional Conferences will be evaluated and revised as needed after one year.

T. Valasek
July 2008