Well, I came out of it unscathed. No cuts. No bruises. No deals that dissolved in the final minute. No under my breath comments about programming chairs who ought to press the eject button!

"It" refers to the unpredictable nature of the annual chip auction at the AEJMC winter meeting. Kathy Bradshaw and I represented the Radio-Television Journalism Division at the meeting, which was held in early December in Atlanta.

I want to offer in these next few paragraphs some suggestions for all future vice-heads, who have the enjoyable and at times frustrating responsibility of preparing RTVJ's programming for the upcoming convention. I hope that you will find that these suggestions reduce your stress level as you complete this process.

First, remain in constant contact with the RTVJ head. He or she went through the same process one year before and will help you work through the inevitable moments that leave you wanting to scratch your head and throw your hands in the air, while wishing you had never volunteered for such duty. Moreover, he or she also worked with many of the same people with whom you are dealing; the division head can subtly (or not so subtly) tell you about divisions or interest groups that have consistently worked well (or not so well) with ours in the recent past.

Second, you must be pro-active. That means making the first contacts with every division that you are considering as possible co-sponsors and also regularly following up with them in advance of the conference. You will receive about four weeks before the conference a package containing the proposed panels submitted by every division and interest group. As soon as you get it, take an hour or two and examine every proposal with an eye for those that you think match well with something offered by RTVJ. Once that is finished, begin making those initial contacts. You should be cognizant that some divisions or interest groups are going to be hesitant to make deals and others are going to be excited about the prospect of securing co-sponsorships. Care to take a guess which one you want to work with?

A note from my experience in Atlanta: I was trying to finalize a time for a co-sponsored panel with one division programmer at the same time another division was talking to this same division about a potential panel. The somewhat ill-prepared programmer from this third division looked up and wondered how it was possible that I was talking times and he was talking deals. The reason was simple: I knew before I got to Atlanta that the particular person with whom I was speaking had already committed to co-sponsoring a panel. The only thing left for us to do was look at the AEJMC schedule and find a mutually agreeable time.

Third, do not feel obligated to schedule something into every possible day and time available to you. In other words, you should not feel guilty if you leave the table with a ½ or full chip still available to you. If you are relatively new to AEJMC, then you might not yet have heard the grumbling from people who believe that the convention is too long and leaves too little time for fun activities away from the convention hotel. If you are an AEJMC veteran, then you know of what I am referring. If you have the chance to build some breathing space into RTVJ's activities at the convention, the membership likely will appreciate it.

This piece of advice should not be taken to mean that you should decline quality co-sponsorship deals. It merely reflects that you should not force something onto the schedule simply because you have some chips remaining and want to use them.

The final piece of advice: Don't go to the conference ill. I left for Atlanta still battling the after-effects of the flu. I returned home coughing and getting ready to make a trip to the doctor. His diagnosis: Bronchitis.

Now, there is something you never want to schedule!!