Hi BGSA!

The BGSA is considering making changes to the delivery of the BGSA Travel Grant, resulting from discussions at the September 2014 General Assembly.

For those of you unfamiliar with the BGSA Travel Grant, it is an award of $400 to be used by a member of the BGSA to travel to a conference. The grant application process begins in March, and can be used retroactively. All BGSA members are eligible for the award (including post docs) and the winner is picked by random draw.

This year, questions have arisen about the usefulness of the award. The following are points that were brought up at the most recent General Assembly:

• Is $400 enough to make the difference for a student to attend a conference? (I.e., student would not be able to attend the conference without obtaining the BGSA award)
• Should the decision be based on more than random draw?
• Can we make it a needs-based award? If so, how do we determine need?
• Could this money be used elsewhere?
• There are other more lucrative travel awards that are available (E.g., The Graduate Training Committee GREAT Award, see details here

In light of this, we propose 3 options:

1. Keep the travel grant as is.
2. Change the travel grant to a needs-based system. (How to determine “need”?)
3. Abolish the travel grant, and put the money towards other BGSA activities.

Ultimately, we will put this to a vote to all BGSA members at the next General Assembly in November or create a voting system online. Before this, we would like to consider your opinion before we formulate the question. Specifically, we are interested in hearing:

If you or a co-worker/friend benefited from the award and it allowed you to travel to a conference Any arguments for or against the above 3 options Any ideas on (1) how to determine need in option 2, and (2) how would you rather see this money used in option 3?

PLEASE SEND YOUR FEEDBACK BY EMAIL TO mcgillbgsa(at)gmail{dot}com BY FRIDAY NOVEMBER 14, 2014.

Thanks BGSA and I hope to hear from you soon!

Your BGSA Execs