Auction in action

There are approximately 10,000 items up for bid at the silent auction -- or at least it looks that way. The Florida folks did an amazing job rounding up goodies, including some high-ticket items like tuition to a couple of Poynter News U courses and two pairs of airline tickets on AirTran.

And then there's the glass water pitcher from the hotel. Oh, it may look like an ordiary (albeit stylish) pitcher, but there's a story.

Merrill Perlman loves these pitchers; they're at the water stations in all the meeting rooms, and she wants one. So, I called our event rep and asked if by any chance they'd be willing to give us one -- or maybe we could buy one -- to donate to our auction. After a long pause, she said she'd have to ask her director. A few minutes later, my hotel buddy John, who's in charge of setting up all the meeting rooms and everything, shows up with a brand-new, right out of the box pitcher.

So, said pitcher is now up for bid at the silent auction. Merrill, if you see this before you go in, just a heads-up: there are already three bids for it...