By Steven Chappell, CMA Treasurer 

For all of us, it has been a challenging year, and that's no different for CMA. Traditionally, our Day of Giving has been on our organization's birthday in November, but because COVID-19 disrupted our fall semesters in ways none of us foresaw, and we had to adapt to so many changes, we pushed it to the end of the spring semester. And with that push comes other changes.

This year, there are no incentives, bids or gifts to encourage you to give. We just want you to help CMA continue to do what it does best -- support and train journalism educators and budding journalists. This year, the fundraising committee is simply asking for a small dollar donation -- $5 or $10 -- from each member. If every member of CMA did that, we would blow our previous Day of Giving donations out of the water!

While I have special motivation to reach that goal as CMA's treasurer, I would want to reach that goal regardless of my role in CMA. CMA Is special to me. For 28 years, I have been a member, using this listserv and our conventions and workshops and membership of experts to learn and grow as a media educator. But it's also saved my job. Twice administrators have threatened my employment over First Amendment issues, and twice CMA has come to my defense with letters of support that forced them to back off. Without that support, I don't know my job would have been saved.

CMA matters to each of us. With some luck, you will never need it to come to your defense to save your job. But isn't it nice to know it will?

So, please just take a few seconds to click the link below and give $5 or $10 to CMA today to help us keep educating not just the journalists of tomorrow, but the administrators of today.

And, if you can't give (or even if you can), let's do something positive this week by sharing on the listserv how CMA has enriched our lives. As the semester winds down, I'm sure we could all use a bit of uplifting, and what better way than to share how this group has done that for each of us!

Donate to CMA

Finally, a special thanks to Tamara Zellers Buck and her student Tanner Voss for designing the logo!