--- Jay Heuman <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > It is my belief that more museums ought to permit > employees more administrative (paid) leave for continued > education and related professional activities (such as > attendance at conferences, symposia, etc.). The fees for > such opportunities, unless budgeted by the museum AND a > requirement of the job (specified in the job description), > ought to be the responsibility of the employee. This means > the museum has no direct pay out of monies not already > budgeted. While I agree with you on the paid leave, I don't on the last statement that conference fees should be the responsibility of the employee. Museums should try and pay for these things and put them in the budget. If they are never budgeted then you will never have the chance to get the money for them. I believe that no museum is so strapped for a few hundred dollars that it can't pay at least registration fees. If you are that strapped, then you really need to take a good hard look at your budget and where money is going. It might be a good idea at the beginning of the year to get all the staff together and go over all the applicable conferences/workshops that are coming up and see who wants to attend what. Tally the registration fees, lodging, per diem and travel costs and see what you can afford. This is where compromises come in. Are you going to foot the bill for one person and all of their expenses or just cover registration for everyone? Are you going to set a rotating schedule to who gets to go each year? Since annual events are usually planned out a few years in advance, maybe you can negotiate what year people go. As for personal expenses, two words - TAX DEDUCTION. Please people, if you aren't itemizing these expenses that you pay out of pocket you are robbing yourself. Keep your receipts for EVERYTHING. Visit a museum on vacation - deduct the entrance fee. It's research and can be counted as a business expense. Get a new book related to your job? Again, another business expense. Dues to professional organizations, magazine subscriptions, or other professional related services are tax deductable. Run errands for the museum using your car and don't get mileage from the museum for it? Mileage to ANYTHING not too and from your usual job site is deductable. It all adds up, sometimes to hundreds or thousands per year. AAM and IPS for me are $100 per year alone. Talk to an accountant if you aren't sure what you can count or not. If you have to pay to talk to someone, that's deductable as well. For those who work for local, state or federal institutions, ask for government rates. Those can make a BIG difference. Sometimes state and local governments aren't counted as the government rate or get different ones than the Federal rate but it usually ends up to be cheaper than the rack or even conference rate. For example, at a conference in Worchester, MA that i'm attending in May, the conference rate is $130 per night. Since I work for the SI, I asked for the govie rate and go $79/night. What a difference. Also, get on any travel frequent flyer/rental/hotel stay plan you can. It too adds up. With the competition now, most airline and car rentals offer the same or matching rates so it pays to stick with one company. Marriott rewards is excellent and covers their cheaper line of hotels like Courtyard and Residence Inns. I have a United credit card which gets me miles and a Marriott card which converts to miles as well. After about 5 years of having it, I have enough for a free trip to Australia in business class. For North America flights, it's only about 25,000 miles for a free ticket. With all the booster miles and promotions, you can easily earn it within a couple of years. And credit cards now have balance transfer interest rates of 5% or less so you might as well charge your expenses and pay them off gradually. $1000 in total expenses for a conference isn't a huge price to pay if it lands you a better job or greatly enhances your work. And if you prove that conferences are worth going to, maybe your museum will help chip in for expenses next year. So be resourceful and get out there!! Deb __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax http://taxes.yahoo.com/ ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).