Hi Anne,
I believe that some ARLIS/NA members have
always ‘felt the pinch!’ I’ve never received full
funding from my employers to attend an ARLIS/NA conference, but have been
fortunate to work where time off to attend conferences was always granted.
I figured that it was up to me to try to pay for some professional expenses out
of my salary, since networking in person with my colleagues has always been
important to me (as is viewing vendor exhibits). When I started to itemize
deductions on my taxes, I found that the unfunded part of my conference
attendance was deductible (meals are only partly deductible, but then we have
to eat no matter where we are don’t we!), so that’s been a help.
There have been times when I’ve shared a room with three others (sharing
a bed with a colleague) in order to be able to attend the entire conference: that
turned out to be a great way to develop close friendships!; sometimes another
option was to have a third roommate on a roll-away bed. I’ve been
known to bring granola bars, peanut butter, crackers, & fruit with me in
order to cut down on meal expenses. And don’t forget to investigate
opportunities to apply for travel awards.
By the way, I know of at least one colleague
that did not even get paid time off to attend the ARLIS/NA conference, so he
took his personal vacation time in order to attend. It was that important
to him.
I think that our conference planners
always try to do everything they can to keep the conference costs down---and
they are to be commended for that. I look at registration costs for other
professional association conferences and still think that we’re getting a
bargain!
Best,
Architecture, Design, and Digital Services
Librarian
UCLA Arts Library
1400
office: 310-206-4587
fax: 310-825-1303
From: ART LIBRARIES
SOCIETY DISCUSSION LIST [mailto:
Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2009
12:37 PM
To:
Subject: [ARLIS-L] Conference
I am reading with envy all the
postings about the conference, and was wondering about folks’ ability to
go this year in light of all the financial woes of so many colleges---we were
told ‘no conferences’ for the most part...
Just wondering how many of you were feeling the pinch!
Best,
Anne
Anne B. Haas
Art Librarian
9300
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