Hello SIGCIS Members, SIGCIS does not have membership dues, but if you have found our activities and resources useful over years then I hope you will consider making a donation to our Mahoney Fund. Details at www.sigcis.org/Mahoney. This message marks the public launch of Phase II of our fundraising, intended to support the launch of the Mahoney Prize: an annual article prize for an outstanding article on the history of information technology. The fund was set up in 2008 to honor that late Michael S. Mahoney, a Princeton professor and central figure in the history of computing community. It began with a five year pledge from Ann Johnson, one of Mahoney's students. Thanks to the generous support of our community by the end of 2012 we had accumulated $14,400 from donations and investment returns. We are treating this balance as a quasi-endowment to support the Michael S. Mahoney Travel Awards, of which six have so far been made to student presenters at the SIGCIS workshops. Our new goal is to grow the accumulated balance to at least $25,000 during the four year period 2013-2016. That will ensure that we can support the new Mahoney Award indefinitely without compromising our support for graduate students. Awards and prizes of this kind are probably the most cost effective investments possible in the future of our field as they help to build competitive resumes and integrate the winners into our scholarly community. Thus even a pledge at one of the lower levels could still make a real difference. This use of the fund's resources for an article prize seems particularly fitting as Mahoney made his own contribution to our field via a series of influential articles and book chapters. Over the past month I've made individual appeals to our existing donors to sign on as pre-launch supporters of the new campaign. I've been pleasantly surprised by their enthusiasm and generosity. Most of those I contacted made pledges of support, often within an hour or two of me clicking "send," and usually for a series of for annual contributions. I'd like to thank Joseph November, Thomas L. Drucker, James W. Cortada, Jonathan Coopersmith, Richard T. Snodgrass, Wendy Vogenitz Tinsley, Daniel J. Feldman, Angela Creager, Andrew Russell, Paul Ceruzzi and Burton Grad for their recently pledged donations. With their support we have moved towards our goal faster than I had dared to hope. However the current pledges will not, in themselves, be enough to reach the $25,000 goal. That is where you come in. All donations are managed and invested by SHOT, so you can be sure that the money will be treated responsibly and that you will receive the usual tax benefits for a charitable contribution (if you are a US taxpayer who can claim charitable contributions). SHOT strongly prefers donations to be made by check (details and address on the web at www.sigcis.org/Mahoney) but if you would like to contribute and do not have a U.S. checking account then contact me for alternative arrangements. An article prize is something we have been discussing since at least 2007 but have never secured the resources to endow. As you may remember, Andrew Russell will be taking over from me as SIGCIS chair at next year's SHOT meeting. I'd like to deliver the SIG in the best shape possible. Collecting enough pledges from our members to send a formal proposal for the new prize to SHOT's executive council would free Andy from having to begin his term dealing with unfinished business. Thanks again to all those who have given to SIGCIS over the years whether in response to my recent messages, over the first five years of the Mahoney Fund, or at our annual meeting events. Tom Haigh (SIGCIS Chair) www.tomandmaria.com/tom