Week 3 Reaction Post - Publishing 2 -MAEA?

I just found out something quite exciting. One place I could possibly present my action research is at the Michigan Art Education Association annual conference. The conference will be coming soon to Mt. Pleasant. I work for Mt Pleasant schools and live just 20 minutes outside of the city now. The great thing about that is, I didn’t know of any appropriate arts conferences I could present at besides this one. The cost of presenting out of my area would be too much. Last year the district paid for my conference attendance from money set aside for mentors and mentees. My mentee experience ended last year, so that $250 wasn’t available this year, and certainly won’t be next year. With the cost of all the fees associated with the conference, the $250 wouldn’t have been enough to pay for the fees and the additional hotel stay for last year’s conference, but luckily, the conference was held in Grand Rapids and my parents lived nearby. So I was able to afford the conference because the district was paying for the fees, and having someone to stay with made the conference affordable.

Having the conference within traveling distance should allow me to be able to afford to attend the conference. The only unfortunate thing is that even if you present at the conference (instead of attend as a participant), you still have to pay the same amount for the conference. I think if you present, you should either not have to pay at all, or get a reduced fee. But that’s just my personal gripe.

The only other hiccup I foresee is that I would miss two school days for the conference, and I might have to pay for my subs out of pocket. As districts are crunching the numbers and reducing and cutting, I know one reduction they keep making in our district is to cut our coverage by subs. If you’ll be out for any reason other than illness or bereavement, getting subs paid for by the district becomes an issue of late.

Other than some financial concerns, having the conference in my city of employment is very exciting, and will make my decision and process for publication so much easier.