1. Faculty and staff submit proposals using the Individual Staff Development Activity Form and a travel request if necessary. Submit the completed form and travel request to your supervisor/dean for review and approval. The proposal must be submitted to the appropriate manager, allowing time, so that it may be process in the Staff Development Office seven working days in advance of the schedule Staff Development meeting time.

2. If the supervisor approves and signs your proposal, the Vice President, Student learning, or Chief Operating Officer in charge of your area, must next review and sign the proposal. When there is an intermediate supervisor, he/she should forward the proposal to the VP or COO. If either the supervisor or the Vice President denies the proposal, it will be returned to you with an explanation.

3. Administrators identify proposals as vital or valuable to the institution (page 3 of proposal form.)

4. The committee sorts proposals according to the classification (vital or valuable) and first considers proposals classified as vital.

3. Sources of funding other than Staff Development should be investigated and exhausted prior to submitting a proposal. Sources of funding that can be used in addition to Staff Development funds are identified and confirmed. To date, the department from which the proposal originates has been asked to fund a minimum of 25% of the proposal.

4. In some cases, proposals identified as vital could be fully funded. Proposals identified as valuable were also generally fully funded.

After evaluating past practices, the following guidelines were agreed upon to improve the allocation of next year’s Staff Development funds for individual proposals:

1. Acknowledging the limits of the one-time $6,858.15 roll-over for the entire college staff, and recognizing that other funds are available for activities, the committee designated a maximum amount for each individual proposal and delineated the criteria for evaluation proposals and specifying amounts.

a. $700 is the maximum amount of SD dollars allowed for a proposal.

b. Every attempt will be made to allocate the maximum amount to proposals designated as vital by an administrator.

c. The committee will consider the following when reviewing proposals for funding:

• the number of proposals being considered
• relative weight of one proposal over another, as determined by administrative evaluation
• the individual’s previous use of Staff Development funds
• the amount requested
• the time of year and the amount of money remaining in the budget

2. Administrators will continue to evaluate proposals as either vital or valuable to the institution. Administrators will be informed of the change in policy and expectations. Administrators who review and designate SD proposals as vital to the institution should know that the maximum amount available from SD funds will be $700, and that if additional funding is necessary, it will be their responsibility to locate and designate such funding for the proposal. Proposals designated as vital will not automatically be funded at $700. The allocation will be determined by the above evaluation criteria.

3. When noting an account number on travel requests, a maximum amount for reimbursement will be identified. Staff will be informed that costs which exceed the amount funded will be their responsibility.

4. Staff will be notified at the beginning of each semester if there are any changes in policy.

5. Proposal forms will be modified to reflect changes in policy, should it be necessary.