There are a couple of important updates to share from our annual conference. Some of this has been in the works for several months and some are new developments. Both will have bearing on the future success of the education offerings from the Association for Software Testing.

1 – AST does our yearly election for the Board of Directors at CAST, the annual conference for the Association For Software Testing. Immediately after the election results are announced, the existing board gathers to nominate and elect positions for the year. Namely positions of President, Vice President, Secretary, and so on. One result of that, is that I am president elect, meaning that when new board members are seated at the next meeting of the board, I will be seated as President for one year.

More importantly, this means I will have to step down from my role as Chair of the Education Committee. Michael Larsen and I spoke with Michael Corum while at CAST and offered to him the position of Chair of the Education Committee. He graciously accepted.

Michael will begin taking a larger role in the daily activities of BBST, WHOSE, and helping to develop a team interested in maintaining materials as well as possibly developing new classes. Michael Larsen and I will be supporting as much as Michael Corum would like us to.

We expect that Michael Corum will do a great job.

2 – For the past few months, Michael Larsen, the AST board, and I have been working on a plan to compensate BBST instructors for their time, and for their effort in instructing BBST classes. On average, BBST instructors have a life span of about two years. We want to create an incentive that helps BBST instructors to stick around longer, and also to keep high quality instruction in the program.

There are three possible categories of compensation for BBST instructors:

None:
An instructor may choose to abstain from compensation.

Monetary Compensation:
Instructors can be paid per class taught. An instructor will receive payment by sending an invoice containing your name, the class beginning and end date, and the class name and ID to treasurer@associationforsoftwaretesting.org.

This is the current compensation if you choose to be paid per class instructed.

Lead: $275.00
Instructor: $250.00
Coordinator: $50.00

AST Membership and CAST discounts
If the instructor or coordinator chooses to abstain from monetary compensation, they may apply the credit for equivalent value in AST membership and/or CAST entrance.

This is the current compensation if you choose to be compensated with AST membership or a CAST discount.
Discount towards CAST for 1 class: $250
Discount towards CAST for 2 classes: $500
Discount towards CAST for 3 classes: $750
Discount towards CAST for 4 classes: $1000
Discount toward AST Membership for one calendar year for 1 class: Full cost

For the past year or so, we ran an experiment in developing new assistant instructors by having 5 total instructors for each class — 1 lead, and 4 assistants. That experiment did not work out as well as we thought. We did not end up with a larger potential set of instructors.

This compensation plan is a new experiment, and part of that is reducing the number of assistants. Starting immediately, there will be one lead and three assistant instructors.

**Exception: We will honor classes that already have a lead and 4 assistants assigned.

This compensation plan begins immediately. To get compensation, you must create an invoice with your name, the class beginning and end date, and the class name and ID to
treasurer@associationforsoftwaretesting.org.

We will also be changing the BBST course pricing beginning 2016:
Foundations: $175.00
Bug Advocacy: $250.00
Test Design: $250.00