FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What is the Travel Grant?

The Travel Grant is available to any TESOL Arabia member who has had a paper accepted at an international conference, such as TESOL International or IATEFL.

Who is on the Travel Grant Committee?

The Travel Grant Committee is chaired by the Vice President and will include one other Executive Committee member and three ordinary TESOL Arabia members co-opted by the Chair. The Committee will field all applications. All decisions made by the Committee are final.

How do I apply for the Travel Grant?

A TESOL Arabia Travel Grant Application form must be completed in full by members wishing to apply for the grant. Incomplete forms will not be considered, and neither will applicants who are not current members of TESOL Arabia. With the application, the following supporting documents must be attached:

• a statement of the member's service with TESOL Arabia
• a statement of the relevance of the conference and the member's attendance to TESOL Arabia
• confirmation that the member's presentation has been accepted from the conference organizers (if applicable)

Applications must be submitted to the Travel Grants Committee Chair at least two calendar months before the conference, so that the application can be processed. Late applications will not be considered.

To download the form, go to http://tesolarabia.org/grants/travelApp.pdf

How many grants are awarded each year?

The number of grants awarded each year will be determined by the Travel Grants Committee. It has never been the Travel Grant Committee's policy to fully cover the costs of any grantee. TESOL Arabia expects that the grantees will apply for other funds and use some of their own resources. This enables the allocated resources to benefit more members.

What are the criteria for awarding the Travel Grants?

The decision to award a grant is made by the Travel Grant Committee, and the amount decided upon takes into account a number of factors:

• active membership of TESOL Arabia for at least one year
• whether the applicant has received money from TESOL Arabia in the past - and how many times
• the country of residence of the applicant
• the relevance of the conference to TESOL Arabia
• whether the applicant has attended such a conference before
• funding received from other sources
• the relevance of the presentation or attendance at the conference to TESOL Arabia

The decision of the Travel Grant Committee is final and will neither be negotiated nor discussed.

What are the responsibilities of the grantee?

• The grantee must sign a disclaimer prior to attending the conference affirming his/her understanding of purposes for the money and how it is to be reimbursed.
• The grantee must attend the conference.
• The grantee is responsible upon completion of the course of submitting documents of successful course completion.
• The grantee must submit all original receipts - airline tickets, hotel bills, receipts for meals, etc, to the Travel Grant Chair within two weeks of the close of the conference attended.
• The grantee must feed back to TESOL Arabia the knowledge gained from the conference I attended by presenting a session at the annual conference or for one of the Chapter or SIG events, submitting a report of at least 500 words to be published in the TESOL Arabia newsletter, Perspectives; or completing another activity agreed with the PD Course Grant Committee.

Failure to fulfill Grantee responsibility will exclude a member from applying for a grant for four years.