Win $400 Toward the Seattle Meeting

As co-chair of the 2012 NPC I know there are a lot of people working hard to create great programs for the 2012 meeting.  Teresa and I and the rest of the NPC have compiled a great pool of potential speakers and the meeting is shaping up nicely.  It would be a real shame if you won’t be there to enjoy and learn with us.  But every year I hear more and more people on Medlib-l, other listservs, and in person complaining they don’t have the money to attend an MLA meeting because their institution won’t fund them. 

Well, I can’t force your institution to pay for you to go. However, I can give you some great ideas to try to persuade your administration to help pay for your meeting attendance and also provide an opportunity for you to win $400 towards the Seattle meeting. 

How?

The National Program Committee for the 2012 meeting in Seattle, WA has created a contest looking for the best methods librarians used to justify their attendance at a meeting and receive funding from their institution. There will be two $400 prizes to be used toward either registration or travel expenses to the 2012 meeting. The two prizes will be awarded to one hospital librarian and one academic medical librarian for the most original, funny, interesting, or best method for acquiring funding from their institution.

You’ve heard the slogan, “You’ve got to be in it to win it!”  Well that is true for this contest.  You must submit online your story of how you got funded by November 1, 2011. Winners will be notified by November 25, 2011 and will be listed in the January 2012 MLA News. To enter the contest go to: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2T8K9LJ, you must be an MLA member to win.

This contest serves two purposes. First, it helps two people attend the meeting.  Second, it provides a space to share successful stories so that all librarians can learn from them and use them to help secure institutional money to attend a meeting.  All submissions will be displayed online at http://mla2012contest.wikispaces.com/. Want to participate but  nervous about seeing your name in lights on how you got your institution to support your attendance? Don’t worry. We have set it up so that you can participate in the contest but your name will be withheld from the online public site and will only be known to contest judges.

Hurry up, go to the wiki to read some of the entries or to the contest and submit an entry.  The wiki is up-to-date (as of 7/14/11) so the entries you see are the ones submitted so far.  Right now odds are good if you want to enter to win.  You can’t win if you don’t enter!