Sure, we can talk whenever you want (if we set up a time so I'll remember
to be here).  My partner Marcia Landen and I also do some jam up good
one-day workshops on sponsor searching and proposal prep.  I've found that
faculties will respond MUCH better to outsiders than to the locals.  If you
would like to have some kind of "kick-off" workshop to get this series
started, we could discuss that.  The latter doesn't not preclude the
former, of course.

The kind of brown bag thing you are considering often starts off with a big
group and dwindles pretty quickly.  People dont' feel individually served
adn talking general principles week after week loses some of its charm.
It's also hard to work with a hetereogenous group and have each of them
feel served (or to have each of them think you know enough about TEH most
important topic in the world-- theirs)-- your alloted time is short.  You
might need to plan/program for special interests, departments, or based
around types of sponsors, initiatives etc.  Doing soemthing introductory
then forming working groups so that you can teach as they make a proposal
might be another idea.  The working groups might give you a chance to get
some seinior facutly to mentor, too.

It's funny, when I looked at your address, I though "UNO!  Marcia and I
will be in New Orleans in January."  Wrong UNO.  Different weather in
January, too.

Anyway, we can talk sometime-- topics, activities, stuff like that.  What's
your target start date?  When do you want to visit?

Spanky

>Spanky,
>We are in the process of developing (slowly) some grant writing training
>courses for our faculty at UNO.  (Many of our faculty are relatively new to
>the grant game.)  Our plan is to develop short topic mini courses that can
>be presented in about an hour ("brown bags").  Faculty can pick and choose
>which sessions are of interest, and not necessarily attend each session.
>Our faculty are very supportive and I think "hungry" for some good
>training.  Many NCURA members have mentioned that you have a great deal of
>knowledge and experience in this area.  I was wondering if you might be
>willing to share thoughts, ideas, curriculum, etc. with poor little ol' us
>at UNO.  I'll look forward to hearing from you.
>Thanks,
>Mary Laura
>
>Mary Laura Farnham, Director
>Office of Sponsored Programs & Research
>University of Nebraska at Omaha
>EAB 202, 6001 Dodge Street,  Omaha, NE  68182-0210
>xxxxxx@unomaha.edu
>Office: (402) 554-2286   FAX:  (402) 554-3698
>http://www.unomaha.edu/~wwwspr/osp.html
>
>Please use the address form xxxxxx@unomaha.edu for all mailings.
>Addressing my mail to xxxxxx@unocdc.unomaha.edu will soon result in a
>failure to deliver because UNO is moving to a new email system.
>
>
>=============================================================================

Mike (Spanky) McCallister, Ph. D.
Director, Research and Sponsored programs
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
2801 S. University Drive
Little Rock, AR 72204-1099
501-569-8657 (v)
501-569-3039 (f)

 ============================================================================