Reader Poll: Genealogy Facebook Groups

About how many genealogy-related Facebook
groups are you a member of?

Reader Poll

About how many genealogy-related Facebook Groups are you a member of?

Answer here.

(Please participate even if you are not a member of a genealogy-related Facebook Group or even if you are not on Facebook at all.)

Results will be in the next issue of The Voice e-newsletter. Not a subscriber? Subscribe now.

Be a Savvy Genealogist!

The FGS Voice Newsletter is a free monthly electronic publication with news, links, and information about the genealogical community delivered directly to your inbox. It includes recent announcements and posts from the FGS Voice Blog, the FGS Conference News Blog, and the Records Preservation and Access Blog. 

Thomas MacEntee Joins the FGS Voice Team

FGS is proud to announce that Thomas MacEntee, social media and technology expert in the genealogy community, will be bringing his talents and ideas to the FGS table beginning 1 December 2010. Thomas is the National Publicity Chair for the FGS 2011 conference “Pathways to the Heartland." He will also assist FGS in marketing its services, publications, educational offerings, and events to genealogical societies and to individual genealogists. Look for new FGS social media initiatives in the upcoming weeks including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media applications. Thomas is the author of GeneaBloggers (http://www.geneabloggers.com) and the principal of High-Definition Genealogy, a company providing services to the genealogy and family history community including market research, consulting, education, and more.

We’re very pleased to have Thomas on the FGS team!

Post Your Society's Event in the FGS Calendar

Did you know that the Federation of Genealogical Societies maintains a calendar? Yes indeed! It's another way for your genealogical society to advertise its all-day or multiple day events. Visit the FGS Calendar of Events website at fgs.org/calendar. You may submit your events in several ways. First, you can use the online form. Second, submissions may also be mailed to Ann L. Wells at FGS Calendar, PO Box 672, Crystal Lake, IL 60039-0672. You may also email sumissions to calendar@fgs.org. Include name and description of event, date, place, contact name and address, phone or fax number, or email.

What's even better is that your event will gain even better exposure through the FGS FORUM electronic magazine and in the FGS Voice electronic newsletter. Submit your event online (not by mail or email) in time to meet the publication deadline for the FGS FORUM (January 1 for mid-April; April 1 for mid-July; July 1 for mid-October; October 1 for mid-January) and your event will be included in the quarterly electronic magazine. The FGS Voice newsletter is produced at the end of every month. Information is taken from the FGS Voice blog throughout the month and the editor also gathers upcoming calendar information for inclusion in the newsletter.

This is a terrific way to extend the exposure of your society's conferences, symposia, and other all-day or multi-day events to the rest of the genealogical community. And it's FREE!

Check the FGS Events Calendar and see how many societies have been missing the boat advertising their events. Postings are open to both FGS member societies and non members!

FGS Society Hall is Coming Back Soon!

The Federation of Genealogical Societies is pleased to announce that it will be relaunching its Society Hall site later this month at the FGS website at www.fgs.org. FGS Society Hall is a Web-based information facility that was graciously hosted by Ancestry.com at its FamilyHistory.com site for a number of years. However, we decided to move it to the FGS website and to substantially update the contents available there.

Society Hall allows FGS member societies to create and maintain a substantial informational listing in a central location that allows people to search for and access details about their society. Information that can be included are name, incorporation date, website, email and telephone contact information, officers, FGS delegate name, membership dues, publications, a calendar of events, and more.

We will be loading information from the FGS membership database into the new Society Hall, and will notify our current member societies via email of their login ID and password so that they can access and update their information.

At the same time, we will be changing the login ID and password to access the Members Only area of the FGS website. We will make the login access to that area identical to Society Hall, thus eliminating the need to keep track of multiple login information!

We will also be publishing an instructional handbook about effectively updating and using Society Hall. It will be placed in the Members Only area as a PDF file, and member societies can download and print a copy.

We're very excited to be reinstating and updating Society Hall! Look for an announcement in the FGS Voice blog and in the FGS Voice newsletter. If you don't get the Voice newsletter, everyone can subscribe. Simply send an email to fgsvoice@fgs.org. You'll receive an invitation email. Just reply to confirm your invitation and you'll start receiving the newsletter the next time it is published.

We're working hard to add more value to your membership!