Money will pay for professional development

It’s not always easy, though. Time and money are among the impediments to regular professional development.

It is “the very first thing [the state] cuts in tight budgets,” says Windsor, a member of the AFT’s Wisconsin Science Professionals who works for the state Department of Natural Resources in Black River
Falls.

Thanks to her local, however, Windsor gets 40 hours annually for professional development. The state pays for her time, but she’s got to pick up the costs of the education.

This year, however, Windsor is getting a little help from her national union, too. As one of nearly a dozen winners of the 2006 Robert G. Porter Scholars Program, Windsor received a $1,000 grant for professional development. A grateful Windsor says the grant will help pay her expenses to The Wildlife Society’s annual conference in September in Anchorage.

Windsor, who is president of the Wisconsin Chapter of The Wildlife Society, says the organization’s ­meetings— ­national, regional and state—offer biologists “cutting-edge information,” which is extremely important because wildlife biology “is such a dynamic field.”

“To get the opportunity to go to my national professional organization’s annual meeting and to get help in paying for it means a lot,” says Windsor, whose background is in big game management but through her work with the state she has to deal with “everything” from surveying species to habitat maintenance to trapping to predator prey ecology to testing for the Avian influenza.

The Robert G. Porter ­Scholars Program was established by AFT convention delegates in 1992 as a living memorial to the AFT’s beloved former secretary-treasurer Robert G. Porter.

The Scholars Program has two purposes: to encourage AFT members to pursue continuing education to further their careers and to help to grow the union; and to support AFT members’ dependents who wish to pursue a career in labor, education, healthcare or government service. Since its inception, 195 awards have been given.

Applications for the 2007 Robert G. Porter Scholars Program will be available this fall. For more information, visit www.aft.org.