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[monsterx]

Back in grad school, I chipped in a little for a couple of cheap conferences, before I knew how to play the game.  But I haven't paid travel costs since then, for anything, except when I forget to get a receipt or something, which happens a lot.  My current and past institutions always provided travel money for at least 2 conferences a year, sometimes I paid for more out of my research grants (or my advisor's when I was in grad school), and sometimes the conference organizers offered to pay my way to attend, if I was an invited speaker. 

In my view, it is a job related expense.  I don't expect to pay rent for my own office, and I don't pay my own conference travel. But then, usually I have the opportunity  to have my expenses paid to more conferences than I am willing to attend.  I have two young children at home and don't like to be away that much.  Using up all the conference travel funding my university offers has been a problem.

[aneumey]

I have sometimes had to chip in for a conference that I am simply attending if it is very expensive.  If I am on a panel, a committee, (co)presenting a paper, or (co)presenting a poster, I have never had to pay.  Also, if I can peg a session I am going to with something directly beneficial to the college, they always pay. 

[ucprof]

If there are no sources of funding you can probably deduct the expense on your income taxes so at least you are
getting a tax credit for the out of pocket expense.  Make sure you save all the receipts and read the IRS directions carefully about this sort of thing.  If you have side income for things like honoraria and so forth then this is where the expenses would go. I usually have a bit of income that gets files under this category - royalties on a book, such as they are, and so forth.  When I go to NSF for a panel they pay me a lump sum and expect me to fund my own hotel out of the lump sum, so it all goes on my tax return and I pay taxes only on the difference between the lump sum and my out of pocket expenses for the trip, including hotel, food etc.  There is one of the schedules on the IRS return where you declare all this stuff.  I can not remember which letter, but it should all be there in the instructions.
I have research grants that pay my regular conf travel so I have not filed that on the income tax, but I do put expenses for the NSF panel and any other out of pocket business expenses that are not being reimbursed, as long as they are bona fide business expenses.  Another example would be computer equipment I purchased out of pocket for outside consulting.

[compdoc]

Even when I worked in TT, I have always had to pay my own way for conferences. Presenting has never made any difference.

I think that it is worth going. I am often isolated by my working conditions (cross town adjunct, 2 schools, 1 is 70% adjuncts). Going to conferences gives me mental stimulation and academic interactions.

Yes, I think it is worth it to go. But I have financial help going because of my spouse's income.

[arty_]

I"m in the humanities, and my department provides zero funds for conferences, books, etc. There are no grants to apply for conferences. If I am presenting, I can apply for a very competitive travel grant from the dean, which maxes out at $1000, and as anyone knows, this will not pay to fly to a conference, stay in the conference hotel, meals, transportation.

Half our faculty won't go to conferences, because they resent the money coming out of their own pockets, and the other half goes, presents, networks.

Looking at my department, it is clear who makes the most progress in their careers here, or gets to leave for a better job.

[cranefly]

I'm sorry, but how can you possibly say there are no grants for the humanities? I'm in a humanities discipline, and there's plenty of grants. I've gotten 3 this year alone.

[spork]

Just curious, but in general, are these conferences important enough to your brain/career to pony-up the cash? I haven't been able to attend any, but want to. As an adjunct, it will of course be on my dime. What are the real advantages?

My personal opinion (I'm in the social sciences):  No. There are none.

[collegekidsmom]

We have minimal funding-almost nothing due to budget cuts. I pay for conferences and go to more than I should-just because I enjoy going to them so much. I do always try to do something more than just go-poster, presentation, meet with editors, boards, or have dinners with interesting people.  I really enjoy going but this year I am definitely going to cut back...

[clean]

We get funding if we present.  IF the conference is in a resort area or out of the country, then we only get partial reimbursement - if at all.

In my time here I have been partially funded for a professional (rather than academic) conference twice.  There are no paper presentation opportunities.  We offer a class that can be used to allow students to take the Certified Treasury Professional - Associate exam.  They waive the $1100 registration fee for attending and I have been able to convince the administration that if they are willing to fund that much, the university should fund the airfare and an off site hotel (like a La Quinta - $70 a night rather than the $200 a night conference one).  Even then I am out of pocket.

For academic conferences, no paper, no reimbursement. 

[higherandhigher]

I'm sorry, but how can you possibly say there are no grants for the humanities? I'm in a humanities discipline, and there's plenty of grants. I've gotten 3 this year alone.

There are grants in the humanities, but there aren't nearly as many large, all-encompassing grants in the humanities that provide funds that can be used for conference travel expenses as there are in some other disciplines. And, of course, it all depends on what part of the humanities one is in/what one researches. Funds are not evenly spread out over all humanities fields/subfields.

[thundering_m]

Just curious, but in general, are these conferences important enough to your brain/career to pony-up the cash? I haven't been able to attend any, but want to. As an adjunct, it will of course be on my dime. What are the real advantages?

My personal opinion (I'm in the social sciences):  No. There are none.

Gotta say that for the most part, I share Spork's opinion. The only advantage is networking, possibly developing some research collaborations. However, if you are not tenure track, it is unlikely that anyone will seriously follow up. Another reason to go is hero worship; I have chosen conferences and their sessions because iconic figures in my field would be participation. The best are when someone of stature decides to float some new ideas at a roundtable discussion. I've had very pleasant and even inspired conversations with several authors I greatly respect. They won't remember me from Adam, but it was a good experience for me.

At one conference I happened to strike up a conversation at a poster session with a project similar to my dissertation, and I was encouraged to apply at an institution where I was later hired. It happens. If you have a strong research agenda and become involved in a special interest group of an organization or are willing to volunteer your service, you can develop a sort of community network. But it will only last if you become known for your publications, not your service.  If you are serious about getting published, the process of proposing a topic and preparing a paper is valuable for developing a possible article to submit after getting feedback along the way.

If you are dead set on becoming a tenure track faculty, then conferences can be a way to interview, and perhaps connect with people. So that means you should attend their annual meetings. Smaller, regional conferences tend to be more interesting and meaningful because you're not spending your time going between hotels, juggling a schedule, and more people are likely to know each other. You should certainly have some memberships in professional organizations on your CV for hiring purposes, as an indication that you are remaining current in the field by reading their publications. If you are geographically bound then you should certainly attend all posible conferences within the region in which you must remain.

If flights are involved, I find I have to budget at least $1000, maybe more. I go to about five a year, so that means teaching a summer course to cover my out of pocket travel expenses, and teaching another course or two to stretch over the summer months. 

[spork]

To follow up on TM's comments:

Probably the only utility of conferences for me is the deadlines imposed for submitting papers.  I get a paper written in time to present it, and then I can send it off to a journal for review.

Service for a national association, like being on an organizing committee?  No one on the tenure review committee cares about that -- they look at publications and teaching evaluations.

I too only attend the occasional regional or specialized conference.  I've never been to my association's national conference and probably never will.  The data show that attendees go to less than 3 panels per conference, on average.  To me that means that most people find most of the content at these conferences to be completely irrelevant.  Maybe they go sightseeing instead, on the university's dime.

Also, and I realize this is N=1, but I've always managed to get phone and campus interviews from search committees who interviewed at conferences that I did not attend.

[mad_doctor]

If the conference is important enough to your research and career, then you should definitely consider paying out-of-pocket if your school won't fund your travel.  I have done this myself as recently as last year when my previous university cut travel funding on account of the financial crisis.  I did it once before when I used up my travel funds for the year and the Dean either didn't have any more or wouldn't fund any more (he liked to travel a lot himself).  You just need to decide how important it is for your research and career and plan accordingly.

[neutralname]

I'm thinking of going to a couple of conferences in the UK next year on my own dime.  They would be interesting for me, at at least one I would know many people there, and I get some feedback on my current research project.  I can visit family and friends before and after, and my travel expenses become tax deductable.

[monsterx]

Alright--I'll admit it. I'm becoming sick with envy reading all of these posts from people who can't manage to use up their travel money, or who never have to worry about funding travel. Am I to understand that some of you get funded even (gasp) when you're not presenting? I know they hate it over at the one-off fora when people say they threw up a little in their mouths, but there we go.

I'm not--I repeat, not--hoping someone asks you obnoxious and unanswerable questions at your next conference presentation. I'm not, really I'm not, in the words of Thomas Beger, thinking bad thoughts for you.

Sorry about that :)  I wouldn't mind a hard grilling at my next conference, it would better than the tepid disinterest my work receives most of the time. So go ahead and think those thoughts. Amazing that universities seem willing to fly me around the world so that I can drone on and on to an audience of a few people who seem accidentally to have wandered into the wrong room and then, finding they could no longer make a graceful exit, fallen asleep. But as long as the food is good, and there is a open bar, then I figure its ok.  I hate conferences where you have to pay for booze at the reception.

This is just going to irritate you even more, but I used to have a job where I got 3000 per year for books and conferences, no questions asked, so I could go even if I wasn't presenting.  I never did, though I almost did once.  There was a seminar for a closed network on a topic I was interested in going on close by.  So I called the organizer and asked if I could come to sit in.  He asked if I could present, so I said yes and he paid my travel out of his conference organizing grant.  But normally, I don't go to conferences if I am not presenting, regardless of who pays.  Unless they are in town, of course.  Why go and not present?  It seems only logical, if you are spending all that time, to get your work a little exposure.   Or in my case a very very little exposure. Of course, sometimes if you miss the deadline and really want to go, maybe it makes sense to go anyway.

Nowadays, at my current university, I get two conferences a year, if they are on the same continent, or one if not, and I have to present. Furthermore, some secretary decides if my expenses look legit.  Expensive restaurants and bar tabs generally don't, for me.  Creeping faciscm.  First they came for the bar tabs.  Important people in the department, however, get those things paid, so this is just a measure of my unimportance.