By Stephanie Afful, 2025 STP President
This month’s presidential column is brought to you by Jordan Troisi, our Vice President for Programming. I want to extend an extra dose of gratitude to both Jordan and our ACT Director, Garth Neufeld, for their continuous work to find the best balance between our financial needs and our members’ needs. As always, please reach out to any of us with questions or concerns.
***
As announced in our March Letter from the President, the STP Executive Committee is reevaluating the organization’s budget, financial philosophy, and policies. Over the years, the organization’s expenses have increased substantially but our income has not kept pace.
Most attendees at the in-person Annual Conference on Teaching are probably unaware of the many financial obligations of hosting the conference. However, to put it succinctly, STP has incurred significant financial losses when hosting this conference. The average registration rate paid by an ACT in-person attendee does not even cover the conference meals they are provided, let alone the many other expenses associated with putting on the conference (e.g., AV costs, WIFI costs, poster board rentals). This is in contrast to the model used by many other professional societies, where conference registration is a major source of income for the society. Though we would love to continue to subsidize registration to support as many possible attendees as possible at ACT, it is no longer fiscally possible.
STP’s Executive Committee has approved new conference registration rates, which will be updated on the ACT webpage soon. The rate increases will help the in-person ACT get closer to breaking even across revenues and expenses. In keeping with STP’s Mission, we have endeavored to adjust these rates equitably. Specifically, the largest increase in rates will be borne by full-time faculty member attendees, whereas student rates have only gone up slightly.
Though we know an increase in conference expenses is never the most welcome news, we hope these adjustments will allow STP to continue providing an outstanding ACT in-person experience for the years to come.
