Convention Attendance
All active ATA members who work for public, separate or francophone school divisions in the province have legal and professional obligations to attend their assigned teachers’ conventions. In some cases, members can request to be released from their convention attendance obligations.
Please review the information below and call 1-800-232-7208 to speak to an ATA Professional Development duty officer if you have any questions.
Protocol for Convention Attendance
- All active members of the Alberta Teachers’ Association under contract to public, separate and francophone school divisions have legal as well as professional obligations to attend the annual teachers’ convention to which they are assigned.Specific information about convention attendance requirements for full-time teachers, part-time teachers, substitute teachers, part-time teachers, and teachers who work in central office can be found here.
- Members are expected to consider their convention dates as a professional priority when planning for the school year and as an essential component of their ongoing professional development.
- School divisions, Association subgroups, school staff and individual teachers shall not organize any activities on convention dates that conflict with members’ obligations to attend their assigned convention. Any activities so scheduled may be contrary to the Education Act.
- No person at the school or division level has the authority to direct a member to not attend their assigned convention. Requests from members regarding the use of negotiated leave provisions may be approved only by those personnel specified in the member’s collective agreement. All other requests concerning convention attendance must be made to the Association.
- Although worthy enterprises, the following are not sufficient reasons for requesting to be absent from convention:
- Attendance at Alberta PD events not explicitly authorized or provided by the Association including sessions outside conventions offered by the Alberta Regional Professional Development Consortium or the College of Alberta School Superintendents
- Travel for school, division or government meetings or events
- Supervision of school field trips, activities or exchanges
- Volunteering or other employment
- Personal meetings, events, travel or recreation
- Self-directed study, university classes, coursework or research
- Individual or group planning, marking, or administrative work
- Diploma exam marking or provincial curriculum writing
- In exceptional circumstances, members may contact the Association to request release from their convention attendance obligations or to seek permission to attend a convention other than the one to which they are assigned. Requests will only be considered from those members who meet all eligibility criteria and application deadlines.More information about requesting release from part or all of your assigned convention, attending an alternate professional development event during your assigned convention, or attending an alternate teachers’ convention can be found here.
- For the purposes of defining convention attendance in relation to negotiated assignable time limits, Joint Interpretation Bulletin No 1 – 2017 (August 25, 2017) between the Association and the Teachers’ Employer Bargaining Association (TEBA) states, “Six (6) hours are allotted to each day of Teachers’ Convention.”
- Any active member who fails to attend their assigned convention without appropriate release may be subject to employment sanctions from their school division and possible professional discipline administered by the Alberta Teaching Profession Commission.