The Purpose of TCMA Conferences

TCMA conferences have two purposes - to enable professional development and to provide opportunities for networking between chaplains. Thus, the programme always contains keynote speakers and workshops led by practising chaplains to facilitate professional development as well as social activities and free time to facilitate networking. Since the first global tertiary chaplains' conference in 2000, the TCMA has organised conferences in Australia for three years in every four, and has encouraged members to attend the international conference in the fourth year. The venue for local conferences varies from year to year as groups of chaplains in particular locations volunteer to organise a particular conference.

Past, Present and Future

This year, TCMA will not be conducting an annual conference. Instead, members are being encouraged to attend the global conference:

Past conference websites still available are:

Conferences of Other Tertiary Chaplains Associations

Australian chaplains are also made welcome at the conferences of chaplains'/campus ministers' associations in other countries. In particular, TCMA members often attend Aotearoa/New Zealand Tertiary Chaplains Association (ANZTCA) conferences and vice versa.

Subsidies

The TCMA is aware that while some chaplains are paid for by either their religious body or their university to attend conferences, others are not able to access this kind of financial support. Subsidies are therefore made available to help those who cannot afford to attend. We provided five subsidies for members to attend the 2008 Global Conference. Information is made available before each conference through the TCMA email list and on this website.

Hosting a TCMA Conference

For those who have agreed to be part of a conference planning team, a range of useful information will soon be available.