Scholarship Offer: An Announcement and Clarification

[womzilla]

[I just posted this on behalf of all three of us to the IAFA mailing list. Since the original announcement was made here on LJ, I thought the clarification should be, as well.]

As some of you have probably already heard, the three of us -- Arthur Hlavaty, Bernadette Bosky, and Kevin Maroney -- are offering a scholarship to this year's ICFA for a person of color who would otherwise not be able to attend. The offer originally published on Arthur's Livejournal, at http://supergee.livejournal.com/1969375.html; it has been reprinted in several places.

We are making this offer as a family that has, separately and collectively, a long and happy history with the Conference. We're amazed by the quality of the people who have e-mailed and expect that next week we will be able to announce a beneficiary who will bring a great deal to the Conference.

There has been some confusion about the sponsorship of this scholarship. We wish to stress that it is completely the responsibility of the three of us. Neither the Conference nor the Association are involved with the administration nor funding of the scholarship in any way. It is a scholarship *to* the Conference, not *from* the Conference.

Also, we wish to apologize for the lack of official communication with the conference before last night. The circumstances which lead to us being able to make this offer came about very suddenly, and when we realized we could do this, we rushed the
announcement out, because we knew that the formal deadline for papers, panels, and other Conference activities had passed. We wanted to give the recipient the best chance of being able to participate fully in the Conference. In our haste, we didn't think to notify any of the members of the Conference Board of our plans; the first any of them -- any of you -- heard about it was when the offer had already been made. This was, literally, thoughtless, and we are sorry for any inconvenience, confusion,
or upset the oversight has caused.

Thanks for reading. Please pass this announcement along to any person or venue where you think it might be of interest, and we will see you all in Orlando in the year and years to come.

Comments

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

There has been some confusion about the sponsorship of this scholarship. ... It is a scholarship *to* the Conference, not *from* the Conference.

I don't understand how anyone could have read the initial announcement otherwise. It never crossed my mind, in reading it, that this was anything other than your family's private scholarship offer. That seemed completely clear. (I suppose that someone could literally not imagine such a generous private offer, and therefore conclude that it was otherwise.)

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

Anything that is written, can be misread. This is not limited to any topic, or any venue; it's just a universal truth.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

Yes, I know that it can be, theoretically; I just don't understand--I, myself, cannot see it--how this particular thing could be misread (in good faith) in that particular way. Probably a failure of my imagination.