Our Aims and Objectives
We are the UK association for all those who research, study and teach global development issues
Find Out MoreAs a study group convenor, we need your help to keep track of where DSA funding is going. So we ask you to fill in three forms – which we keep as short as possible. Your forms are:
You must read these convenor guidelines (PDF) – which were updated in 2017.
If you have a specialist question on running your study group just ask our Study Group Co-ordinator:
Dr Naila Kabeer – [email protected]
General DSA enquiries: [email protected]
It all depends on what activities you organise. We expect you to hold at least one meeting a year, though many groups hold more than that. Some groups work through email discussion lists, and some even collect together papers and publish books. What you do is very much up to you, but we will help wherever we can.
Usually prospective members will email you. Just add them to your email list (or other records). Some convenors set up a standard email reply as a response – this might be handy if you would like to send new members information about the group, or if you email the list quite infrequently. If you would like any advice on filtering emails automatically into a study group email folder or managing email distribution lists, you can always contact the DSA Administration for help – we can suggest ways to streamline your admin.
Anybody can join any number of study groups. Please do help us by encouraging people to join the DSA. If somebody contacts you asking to join DSA, please point them here. We do, however, expect the Convenor(s) to be an individual member of the DSA, unless their institution has an institutional membership with the DSA. In that scenario, convenors do not need to take out individual memberships of the DSA. If you are unsure if your institution is a DSA member, you can email membershipadmin(at)devstud.org.uk to find out. You can use the members directory to see if somebody is already a member.
DSA income largely comes from membership fees, and as these membership fees help fund study group activities, we are keen that paid-up members feel the full benefit – rather than subsidising non-members.
Yes. Most SGs have a mailing list for informing SG members of events and for discussion within the SG, but you can reach the entire DSA membership by adding your group’s news to our website. Email [email protected] to share your news at any time.
If you’ve just taken over running a study group, you should inherit an email list from the previous convenor. If not, contact the DSA administrator. If you are convening a new group, we can help you set up an email list up. If you are a new convenor, you should read the study group guidelines (PDF).
All study groups have a page on the DSA website. You might like to use your web page to inform members about recent events, upcoming events, papers from meetings – they can download from the website, links to topic-specific research. To update your pages email [email protected].
Your web page can help you simplify your email messages – just include a link to your web page rather than sending large attachments to a big list.
DSA funds study group activities to help you organise events and refund expenses. Study group funding is decided at the start of each financial year. For 2018/2019 this was £500 per group though we will consider higher requests, if a case can be made.
Budget protocol form – complete this before your meeting and send it to the Study Group Co-ordinator. If you forget to do this, we may not be able to refund your costs.
Study group expense claim form (Word doc) – to reclaim your expenses. Just complete and sign this form and return it to the DSA Secretariat, with the original receipts. First you will need to get us to sign off all your group’s planned expenses. We will only refund current DSA members. We refund travel expenses aat the lowest cost available, and we prioritise students or people who can’t get their organisation to pay.
To check how much funding your group has left, contact the DSA Administration.
Policy workshops, or dissemination workshops are one-day events to look at a particular topic in detail. They tend to be slightly larger-scale than typical study group meetings, and you can get extra DSA funds for them. Contact the study group co-ordinator for more details.