The Travel Advisory Committee allocates money for travel to professional meetings and conferences to library personnel requesting support.  Members this year included JoAnn Sears, Karla Davis, and Carole Covington, Chair.

Last year’s goals of clarifying, standardizing, and publicizing procedures received further emphasis.  The Committee continued use of its web site, which was refined, updated, and expanded to include links to airlines and even suggestions on saving travel money. We surveyed the faculty and staff twice during the year to determine funding needs, and used the survey results to budget our expenditures. 

A development affecting the work of the TAC was the use by the Dean’s office of an administrative credit card to charge airline tickets and registration costs.  This allowed greater flexibility in the pre-payment of registration and reduced the need for travelers to deal with travel agencies.

The Committee attempted to encourage the use of University vans by groups attending the same meetings.  These efforts were unsuccessful due to the difficulties travelers experienced in coordinating schedules.

The Committee experienced a fiscal “roller coaster” effect this year.  By March, the committee had received 128% more requests for funding than had been received by the same date the previous year.  By careful budgeting, we had funded these requests with 75% more money than had been awarded by the same date the previous year. Responses to a travel-needs survey indicated significant future stress on our funds.  For these reasons, we submitted a second quarter report explaining our situation to the Dean, who was willing to make extra funding available, should continued consistent use of our careful disbursement procedures not cover future requests in a reasonable manner. 

During the third quarter, the number of requests for funding decreased significantly, and some awardees returned funds to the committee.  Therefore, we were able to issue a third quarter report stating that we would not need extra funds and that our original $18,000 would cover our responsibilities through the end of the fiscal year. During the fourth quarter, the small number of requests submitted combined with the return of some awarded funds to produce the ending balance. 

The Committee received 74 requests for funding, a 25 % increase over last year. The total amount of funds requested was $31,066.47.  The Committee again received a starting budget of $18,000; the year-end balance was $811.55.  The amount of $2756.53 in awarded funding was returned to the committee at various times, due to cancellation of meetings, cancellation of attendance because of personal or family illness, or situations in which funding given exceeded actual expenses. 

The Committee wishes to extend appreciation to Dean Bentley for her strong support, and to Judy Robinson, Jeanne Amling, and Victor Bankston for procedural guidance.