Proposing a seminar, reading group, or special event

Any member of the School can propose a seminar, a reading group, or a special event. You write the proposal on the site, save it while it takes shape, and submit it when it is ready. The Program Committee reviews it and, if approved, the site creates the event from what you wrote. Teaching an approved seminar makes you faculty on it; you do not need to be faculty to propose.

Where to start

Open your avatar menu (top right), then My LSP, then Proposals. That tab lists everything you have saved or submitted, with its status, and a New proposal button. The form adapts to the type you pick.

What the form asks

All three types

• Type and title.
• Description, about 250 words. It introduces the central focus and the topics to be covered, and the Program Committee reads it to assess the proposal’s relevance to the Mission of the School. Include a clear rationale for how you are engaging Freudian and Lacanian clinical technique and theory, and an overview of the format: open-ended discussion, lecture, presentations, and so on.
• Where it meets: the site’s own video room, an external link such as Zoom, in person, or hybrid, plus the address or link if you have it. The site’s room is the recommendation for most meetings, with breakout groups the stated exception. See Running a seminar or reading group for what each choice gives you.
• Contact: how registrants reach you.
• Conveners or co-faculty: other members who will run it with you.
• Fee: free, a fixed amount, or a sliding scale with a floor and a ceiling. Whether tuition covers it for tuition-paying members. The fee you propose becomes the listed price if approved; only the Program Committee can change it afterwards.
• CE credits, if you offer them, with the number and the basis. The accreditation itself is yours to arrange with an accrediting organization, an APA-approved sponsor or another accreditor; send the Program Committee the approval when you have it.
• Readings, one citation per line. They appear on the event page as a reading list.

Seminars and reading groups also ask for the start and end dates of the term and a meeting schedule: weekly or monthly, on which days, at what time. You can mark the schedule TBD and settle it later; the dates themselves are needed before you submit. Either can be marked as continuing an existing seminar or reading group, so the new term joins that group’s Workspace rather than starting a fresh one.

Special events ask for a date and time (or TBD), the external speakers with a short bio each, the speaker arrangement, and an honoraria estimate.

Saving and submitting

Save for later keeps a draft. It can be incomplete, and nobody sees it but you. Come back to it from your Proposals tab as often as you like.

Submit for review sends it to the Program Committee. A submission needs the term dates, or for a special event a date or a TBD mark; everything else can still be refined. You can keep editing a submitted proposal until the Committee decides, and you can delete anything that has not been approved.

What happens next

The Program Committee reads submitted proposals in its own queue. The site does not yet email you when they decide, so check your Proposals tab.

• Approved. The site creates the event from your proposal. A seminar or reading group goes onto the program for the academic year your dates fall in, and the Committee publishes that program when it is ready. A special event is set up by the Committee and published once it has a date. Your Proposals tab links to the event, and its Workspace appears under My LSP, Groups.
• Declined. It comes back with the Committee’s note. Edit it and press Resubmit for review.

Once an event exists, most of it is yours to edit from its page. Changing the title, description, readings, or fee note of an approved offering goes through a short review dialog, described in Running a seminar or reading group.

Who to ask

• Program Committee: whether a proposal fits the coming program, the deadline for proposals, fees and dates after approval.
• Anything about the form, or something that looks broken: website@lacanschool.org.