For many societies, Offsite Members represent the majority
of their possible volunteer base. While these folks may not be able to act as
board members or bring snacks, they can contribute more to their societies than
just dues. While it might be obvious that Offsite Members are those people who
support your society from another state. A less obvious group includes those
members who are in your own back yard, but don’t attend meetings. Check out
these project ideas to get your creative juices flowing. By tailoring a few
volunteer opportunities to engage this large pool of supporters, you’ll build a
more vibrant society experience for all.
Conversion Projects
Last week, Amy Johnson Crow wrote a great article on how to
mine your old newsletters and publications for blog content. You can read
here if you haven’t
already. Accessing that older content can pose a challenge though. Let your
Offsite Members help you solve it.
Scanning old newsletters and publications converts your
physical content into a more usable digital form. In most instances, those
scanned documents will now also be search-able. For those few projects where a
scan won’t make an adequately search-able document, volunteers can transcribe
that material into a new usable format. Hosting this now searchable content on
your members only section of your website or converting it to sellable e-books
breathes new life into old content and has the potential to increase your revenue
streams.
Indexing projects are always a great way to convert existing
content into a more usable form. Your own collections are a wonderful place to
start but aren’t the only options. Free sites like FamilySearch.org and
BillionGraves.com have specific programs for indexing the digital material on
their site. Subscription services like Fold3.com allow users to annotate their
collections. Those annotations then become part of the searches returned for a
name. Your local library’s genealogical
section is full of unindexed material they could use your help with.
Enlisting Offsite Members for these kinds of projects offers
your society a much larger pool of volunteers to work with. This, in turn,
means each volunteer can be assigned a small, manageable part of the project. (I’ll
be writing more on Micro-volunteering later in the year.) Add a level of
competition or reward for project completion and you’ll see these types of
projects really work for your society.
Publications
Your newsletter editor is laboring every month to find enough
content. Yet many members write for their own blogs. All society members
represent a great source of written content. Most of them though, will need
encouragement to write the kind of full-length articles required for blogs and
newsletters alike. Instead of asking just one or a few members to produce
content for your publications, reach out to a variety of members for a
commitment of one article per year of membership. Out of state Offsite Members
have just as much genealogical information to share as the member who makes
every meeting. There are plenty of general interest topics that can be covered
regardless of where someone is located. But for the creative, those Offsite
Members have valuable information to share with your Onsite members as well. My
home state of South Carolina is a great example. It has experienced several major
out-migrations. I’d love to read an article from my fellow SCGS members from
Mississippi on how to find my South Carolina ancestors there.
Social Genealogy
Speaking of out-migration: your Offsite Members live in the
places your Onsite Members need research. The opportunity exists for creating
reciprocal look-ups that allow Offsite Members to contribute research where
they are located in return for research where you are located. Or even
contribute on a Random Acts basis. Instead of the usual inbound Query in your newsletter,
consider creating an outbound Query or “Can You Help” section focused on locals
seeking the assistance of the larger membership pool.
Ready to take on a larger project? We are genealogists so
naturally we love to do genealogy! With the proliferation of both free and
subscription genealogy on the web it is now easier than ever to work together
on genealogical problems from a variety of locations. The founding fathers of
your community came from somewhere, and likely left for somewhere as well. Take
the "mug book" idea to the next level with society projects based on the research
talents of all your members.
And So Much More
These are but a few ideas of projects you can use to engage
with your Offsite Members. They are a part of your community and deserve your
consideration. By creatively engaging their talents and
energy the whole society benefits.
