By Mike Conway

One of my lasting memories of AJHA happened at my first conference in Billings, Montana, 20 years ago.  Somebody walked up to me on the last night of the conference and nonchalantly handed me an envelope with my name on it.  I opened it up and it was a check. 

All these years later, I don’t remember the amount of that check. But as a graduate student stressing over mounting student loan debt, any amount was helpful, and the money wasn’t as important to me as the gesture. 

So much of the academic structure seems designed to remind graduate students of their place in the hierarchy.  But in this case, these people were handing me money and making sure I had it before I left for home.

As I’m writing this, acceptance emails are going out for our Columbus conference in September. I’ve had a sneak peek at who will be on the program, but I need to keep that quiet for now. I will just say that several graduate students will be receiving that check (or some more modern monetary transaction) when we meet in Columbus in September.

I want to remind you that we have two ways of raising money for the Michael Sweeney Graduate Student Travel Stipend. First, you can donate directly on our website. The more festive option though is our AJHA auction. The auction was revived by popular demand last year, and Jon Marshall volunteered to organize this fundraiser and is waiting for your media history items for the auction. 

All you have to do is find something interesting or cool that people will want to bid on. Then you take a picture of it and fill out this form.  You will bring the item to Columbus, and we’ll put it out on display so people can see the item both online and in-person. The bidding will end on the Friday night of the conference, and we’ll give you your winning goodies at the Saturday business meeting. The catch is you need to be attending the conference to donate or bid on auction items. (Unless you can bribe someone to bring or retrieve auction items for you.)        

What to donate? Traditionally, we have focused on cool media history items. Old newspapers, magazines, books, coffee cups, glasses, and other promotional material.  Right above my desk are a couple of 1940s-era Erie Dispatch newspaper calendars I bought at a previous auction to remind me of my time working in that city. 

You can also donate non-media related items that you think people would like, such as a unique product from your part of the country. Carolyn Sweeney, widow of Mike Sweeney, has once again donated a few of Mike’s original paintings for the auction. 

We have found that the most successful donations tend to be very rare publications or a collection of items under a specific theme. AJHA First Vice President Tracy Lucht has set a high bar this year with her “Nevertheless, She Persisted” auction package. That has me scrambling through bins and boxes in my basement to come up with my own interesting collection.

The size of next year’s Sweeney Stipend check depends on how many items we have in the auction this year and how much we all bid on those items.

If you have any questions, contact Jon Marshall at j-marshall@northwestern.edu.