Colleagues—

Attached here are the criteria and procedures to apply for the travel awards we voted on at our Chapter meeting last month. Please note that there are FOUR awards available, three funded by our Chapter and one by VRA’s Education Committee. Applications should be sent directly to Andrew Gessner at the e-mail address below, no later than January 15, 2006. Awards will be announced via e-mail on January 31, 2006. Please note that these are reimbursement awards; funding will be distributed after the conference for all four awards.

We are working on forming a 6-person duckpin bowling team to field at the Tansey fundraising event at the conference in Baltimore; if you are interested in playing with your Greater New York colleagues, please let me know. We will eventually need a theme for our team, and all suggestions are welcome.

In addition, we will again be making a Chapter-specific contribution to the VRAffle. In years past, we have collected goodies showing the Statue of Liberty, and the subway system. This year, it has been proposed that we collect items depicting the Empire State Building—and King Kong! If you have any ideas, or would be willing to coordinate our contribution effort, please let me know.

With all good wishes for very happy holidays,

Jenni Rodda, Chair, Greater New York Chapter

TRAVEL AWARDS AVAILABLE FOR GREATER NEW YORK CHAPTER MEMBERS

Four travel awards are available in support of local members' attendance at the VRA annual conference (Baltimore, March 6-11, 2006). Three awards are funded by the chapter, one by the VRA Education Committee:

$300.00 in support of a local member's general travel expenses;
$175.00 to defray the conference registration costs for a local member;
2 $55.00 awards (one from VRA/NY, one from VRA/EduComm) to underwrite the cost of workshop registration.

Applicants must:
* be members in good standing of VRA/NY for 2006;
* be members in good standing of VRA for 2006;
* have stated need for non-institutional funding.

How to apply:

Applications should be submitted by e-mail to Andrew.Gessner@Metmuseum.org no later than January 15, 2006. Applications must include the name, institution, position title, and contact information of the applicant; a statement explaining need. BRIEF IS GOOD, no more than 2 or 3 paragraphs are necessary. One person may apply for more than one award. Awards will be announced via e-mail on January 31, 2006. If no appropriate applications are received, awards will not be dispersed.

Things you should know:

The recipient of the VRA/EduComm workshop award is required to present a report on the workshop attended at the next convenient chapter meeting. Recipients of VRA/NY awards will need to submit appropriate receipts for reimbursement after the conference.