conference travel

[travel]

With the ASA just after the summer, I wanted to check other faculty's experience with regards to travel funding.
- Does your institution pay for travel, or do you have to have your own grants for that?
- If so, is it enough to go to multiple conferences a year, or just one?
- If just one, do you prefer the ASA or smaller/specialized conferences?

[woes of working at a CC]

Well, technically my institution pays for travel.... but only about $400 per year. I guess it's enough for a regional conference. I have to use my own grants or pay out of pocket for national conferences and/or to attend more than one. I know many (most?) CCs don't require research, but mine requires both conference presentations and publications for tenure so the faculty aren't too thrilled with the limited funding for research.

[Masters-Only Directional]

We receive about 1500 per year for conference travel which is almost enough to attend a national conference and small regional in the US. I usually end up paying about 400+ from my own pocket/grants. I usually attend 2-4 conferences a year (always ASA).

[MA directional too]

We get about $800 a year for conference travel, though you can complement it with internal or external grants. I generally prefer to go to smaller conferences, for two reasons:
- Internal grants generally come a little later in the year, so I can't use those for ASA travel.
- Working at a no-name institution, I actually have limited networking opportunities at ASA. I've found that unless I already know someone, it is hard to grab the attention or have face time with people I may want to talk to. Smaller conferences allow for greater interactions and getting to know more/newer people. My personal favorite is the Sunbelt conference, which is great if you are into social network analysis. Really great work at a smaller conference where you can really get feedback and talk to everyone.

[trulydisenchanted]

I'm in a very lucky situation where my school strongly encourages us to get out there and present. There is no stated cap to how much money we can request, but it all has to be "reasonable." I believe this is quite uncommon, especially because we can request funds just to attend conferences without presenting as well as go to any relevant professional development workshops.

So, I go to a couple of regional conferences per year to present and one professional development workshop. With a full teaching load, that whole "actually have the paper finished before you submit it" thing always seems to hinder my good intentions to get back to ASA.

[anon prof]

I don't go to ASA every year, but when I do, I decide about 2 years in advance, and use the deadline as a way to finish a first draft of a manuscript that I can then immediately send out for peer review.