Last semester, we submitted a request for funding to the Doctoral Student’s Council (DSC) (this was to fund the talks for the Spring semester).  This was our first time submiting to the Grants Committee and I think we were a little too ambitious and ambiguous.  I attended the committee meeting and explained the GEOS program to the members and tried to justify our budget, but in the end they decided not to approve it. Fortunately, they also didn’t reject it; they gave me some feedback and requested that we ‘revise and resubmit’.  So I did that, and Friday night was when our grant came up before the committee again.

I attended the meeting again also. Last time there were a handful of groups applying for support, this time there was more than a dozen. When it was GEOS’s turn, I explained the changes, and they were concerned that we were requesting too much still for printing.  Luckily, rather than reject the entire application, they struck the printing as a line item and approved the rest of the grant.

So this is great, we have a stable set of funding already approved for our talks. We don’t have to worry about funding now and can focus on the important stuff, like, you know, the talks themselves. 

Between having certified funding and a nearly full roster of speakers (we only have one slot to fill), this should be a successful year. In fact we’re already starting to make plans for next year.