‘Fashionably Late:’ The Last of our Grant Recipients

The last of our seven grant recipients checks in with info. He poked a little fun at himself in his e-mail to me, calling himself “fashionably late.” He makes up for it with a truly impressive bio and proposal. Take it away….

Meet the Mini-Grant Recipients, Part IV

The latest in our intro series features two more grant recipients, Karen Wehrstein and Michael Pollock. Ladies first….

Mini-Grant Recipients: Part III

You’ve probably figured out by now that I’m posting the new grant recipients’ intros as I get them e-mailed to me. Batting fourth and posting under the moniker “River Ledger,” I’ll let him speak for himself from here on out.

Meet the Grant Recipients, Part II

Today we have the next of our recipients to take a bow. I’ll reprint what she sent me for posting:

Yvonne Shine (HC username 99 Percent Pure) is a freelance researcher/writer living in Los Angeles. Yvonne will be documenting the Events Leading Up to and Contributing to the Current Financial Crisis. Yvonne’s first timeline post, Royal Bank of Scotland Warns of Global Stock and Credit Crash can be viewed under the 2008 Credit Crisis timeline.

We’re glad that Yvonne chose to share her talents for investigation and writing with us. Keep an eye on the Credit Crisis timeline for more of her work.

Meet the Grant Recipients, Part I

We have seven new members who were selected to receive mini-grants from the History Commons for their excellent proposals. Let’s meet two of them now.

MiniGrants: We Have Winners!

Quite a few of them, actually. Later on, we’ll trumpet the names of the winners (or their monikers at least) in the pages of this blog, but for now we’re e-mailing the applicants personal e-mails to let them know of the final decision.

Again, the quality of applications was beyond outstanding. The committee had its toughest time deciding how best to split the (quite limited) funds to ensure that the most qualified applicants receive a grant, and the most qualified applicants receive substantial amounts equal to the depth and breadth of their proposal. As we should have anticipated, there were a couple of applicants who didn’t make the last and final cut, but should have. We hated to cut them. It was a painful decision.

To everyone who applied: thank you. We are humbled and gratified at the tremendous response.

Writing Entries for ‘Dummies’

With the prospect of several new contributors coming on board in the next few days or weeks, I’m thinking we need to write a more user-friendly supplement to our style manual. What do you guys think? I’d like to hear what the users think, and hopefully someone who is already a veteran contributor will step up and help me put this together.

Edit: The official page for this guide is here:

Contributors’ Guide

The unofficial but more currently updated page for this guide is here:

Unofficial Version

and has just been updated again.

It will be a week or so before the official page catches up with the unofficial version. Until then, you should visit and comment on the unofficial version. Thanks.

Final Decision on MiniGrants

The final decision for the History Commons mini-grants will be made on or before December 1. We are doing an initial sort of the applicants now. I am not at liberty to say anything specific, but I will note two things:

1. The roster of applicants is VERY strong.
2. If you feel you ought to submit supplementary sample entries (not generic writing samples) to strengthen your application, then by all means do so NOW. We may ask individual applicants to submit further sample entries as well.

We will inform each applicant as soon as a decision is reached. Thanks for everyone’s patience!

MiniGrant Application Deadline

The deadline for the mini-grant applications has now passed. Thanks to everyone who applied. We have some tremendous submissions, and it will take us some time to sort everything out and make some decisions. If you’re waiting to find out whether or not you’ve been approved, just hang loose, we will inform each of you as to the status of your application. Thanks again!

Mini-Grants–Apply NOW!

Okay, researchers, writers, and citizen journalists. The History Commons is offering you money on the barrelhead to write for us.

The deadline is November 15. If you’re going to apply, do it now!