Kate Theimer has a wonderful idea to start a scholarship fund to help fellow professionals by paying the registration fee for SAA’s annual conference. The conference can be such a great learning and networking experience for a new archivist. It can also be an expensive endeavor, especially for someone just starting out or is currently un- or under-employed. So far in my young career I have been lucky enough to have generous support from my employers. However, not enough of us are this lucky. SAA currently has one scholarship to help students travel to it’s annual conference. It is fantastic that Kate’s idea will expand the number of professionals that will receive assistance.
Now, as great as her idea is, the idea alone is not enough. The pot of money used for these scholarships will be funded by us, other archivists. See Kate’s post for more details on the scholarships, how to contribute, and how to apply (application deadline is midnight on Friday, July 8th). She has made it nice and easy, so please give what you can and help to support a fellow archivist.
UPDATE: Kate has posted that she extended the donation deadline and she will keep sponsoring conference fees until the fund is dry. The deadline to apply remains the same. Also, archivists on Twitter f-ing rule!!!!
New Archivist 
Hi Lance,
Thanks for your help in getting the word out. Just a correction–the Donald Peterson Student Travel Award scholarship is actually also available to “recent graduates from graduate archival programs within North America.” So the name is a bit misleading. There is also the Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award (http://www2.archivists.org/governance/handbook/section12-pinkett) which supports travel to the annual meeting. The Oliver Wendell Holmes award also supports travel but only for “overseas archivists, who are already in the United States or Canada for training, to augment their experience by traveling to the Annual Meeting of the Society of American Archivists.” I think that’s it, so yes, I think there’s only one SAA award that’s open to all students and recent graduates. And with what we’re doing, you don’t even have to be a recent graduate. It’s open to anyone who needs help.
And, yes, I am planning on doing this again next year. But with more notice and proper planning.
Cheers,
Kate
Thanks for the clarification Kate, and thanks even more for doing this. It is a great idea!
Hear, hear! Great idea.
Also, thanks for linking to my blog on the left there. Much obliged.