PEW MIDSTATES SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS CONSORTIUM

 

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Faculty Development Workshop Preparation Timeline

At least three months before the workshop:

  • Discuss workshop possibilities with Pew staff (director or program coordinator)
  • Assess potential interest in the workshop with colleagues in the consortium
  • Submit proposal to Pew staff for review by the Pew steering committee
  • See attached guidelines for workshop proposal
  • Ask the Pew program assistant for a copy of past successful proposals.

At least two months before the workshop:

  • Reserve hotel space
  • Make budget arrangements
  • Are the funds transferred to your institution? If so, an account needs to be set up and supervised
  • If funds are not transferred, you need to discover what monies must be spent in
    advance and what monies can be billed.
  • Contact invited speakers.
  • Know dates, travel reimbursement, and honorarium.
  • Create an electronic flyer advertising the workshop and distribute this through the Pew consortium, with a link to the Pew workshop webpage (developed with the Pew program assistant).
  • The flyer and webpage need to highlight the purpose of the workshop & the invited speakers
  • Provide complete contact information (name, mailing address, fax, phone, e-mail)
  • Make it clear whether or not participants will be able to make presentations/ bring posters. (Some participants use these workshops as opportunities for
    dissemination.)
  • Provide detailed travel information (both for those flying and those driving)
  • Provide detailed information on making room reservations
  • Provide an on-line registration form with the help of the Pew program assistant
  • Ask for contact information.
  • Ask participants to describe their own experience with the conference topic
    (this will help you plan the appropriate level of information)
  • Ask participants why they are interested in this conference (or what they
    expect to learn from the conference). This also helps you plan a better
    conference.

At least one month before the workshop:

  • Invite appropriate administrator to "welcome" the participants
  • Make arrangements for the meals.
  • Be sure to have vegetarian options
  • Try to utilize at least one local restaurant
  • Reserve meeting rooms
  • Contact invited speakers about audio-visual needs and hand-outs they wish to have distributed prior to the conference

At least two weeks before the conference:

  • Mail the schedule, detailed program, and area maps to participants. Include any handouts you wish them to read before the conference.
  • Include campus maps as well as city maps
  • Include parking information
  • Contact participants for flight information and arrange shuttle service from and to the airport.
  • Order conference supplies (yellow pads, pens, name tags, overheads, college
    information, folders, flyer with local information)

At least one week before the conference:

  • Remind local colleagues of the conference
  • Confirm the numbers for meals with the planned food service.
  • Arrange audio-visual needs (computer hook-up, software, flip charts, overheads, etc)
  • Confirm the arrangement for the meeting rooms (arrangement of tables, etc)
  • Copy materials you plan to use
  • List of participants (with contact information)
  • Revised schedule
  • Handouts used during the conference
  • List of local attractions and restaurants
  • Map of the area
  • Form for reimbursement of expenses
  • Evaluation of conference
  • Send e-mail to all the participants confirming arrival and departure times and giving directions for meeting the shuttle (if flying)

The week before the conference:

  • Put together the packet for each participant (folder, pad of paper, pen, nametag, list of participants, revised schedule, handouts, local information, reimbursement form, evaluation form, map)
  • Confirm airport shuttle service
  • Put together an "emergency kit" (include masking tape, markers, pens, extra forms, paper, blank overheads, overhead pens, thumb tacks, post-it notes)

During the conference:

  • Set up a table for registration
  • Make sure all the audio-visual equipment is working correctly
  • Be sure that participants can find you if something comes up. Give participants your home phone number.
  • Have extra supplies available at all times (see emergency kit in the previous category)
  • Participate!
  • Be sure that rooms are appropriately clean at the end of each day.

The week after the conference:

  • Send thank-you notes
  • Send honorarium checks to invited speakers
  • Process any other necessary expenses
  • Write a final report (including the budget and results of the evaluation forms)
  • If appropriate, create a participant distribution list so the discussion can continue.
  • Make notes of what you will do differently next time as well as what went particularly well

Hints and Suggestions

Hire students workers!! Have students help put together packets, work during registration and trouble-shoot as needed. Be sure to provide appropriate compensation for these students.

People enjoy seeing local attractions, scenery, and restaurants. Try to include this in your planning. Is there a special campus event (concert, play, etc) that you can attend as a group?
Be sure that at least one meal is off-campus.

People like e-mail access. Try to provide this and include the information in their packet.

Give participants a chance to present. At the minimum, have participants introduce themselves and say why they are at the conference on the first day.

Include variety in your conference. At least some of the time should be discussion (small or large group). One of the main benefits from conferences is networking - be sure participants feel that they've had a chance to do this. Participants also like to be active participants - not just sit for the entire conference.

Give participants a chance to reach conclusions and list suggestions (such as a "plan of action"). Think about inviting an "outsider" to the conference to give observations at the end of the conference.

Work closely with the Pew staff - the program assistant, program coordinator and director can help make your work go much more smoothly if you keep them informed.

 

 

 

 

Contact Pew at: Janet Andersen, Hope College Mathematics Department, 27 Graves Place, VanderWerf Hall, Holland, MI 49423, pewscimath@hope.edu, Phone: 616-395-7909, Fax: 616-395-7123