August Webinar: What's Your Education Plan?

The Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) is pleased to announce the August 2018 webinar, "Building an Education Plan for Your Society," presented by Cari A. Taplin.

Most genealogical societies foster education in the field of genealogy. Having an education program outside of the monthly meeting can build membership, develop volunteer relationships, and give greater educational opportunities to members. This lecture will share ideas on developing a strong education program for societies.

This webinar will be held on Thursday, August 16, 2018, at 7:00 p.m. Central Time, and will be recorded for viewing on the FGS website shortly after its conclusion. Please register in advance.

Please register in advance here. 

About the Speaker

Cari A. Taplin is related to Roy Rogers. Or at least that’s what her family told her. As a result, finding her true heritage has been her focus since the year 2000. She is a native of Wood County, Ohio, but migrated to Wyoming, Colorado, and now Pflugerville, Texas, near Austin. Cari holds the Certified Genealogist® credential and has served in a wide variety of volunteer and leadership positions for state, local, and national societies. She currently serves on the boards of the Association for Professional Genealogists and the Federation of Genealogical Societies. As the owner of GenealogyPANTS, she provides speaking, research, and consultation services. Cari focuses on Midwestern and Great Lakes states, and methodology. When she’s not working on her genealogy, she is a wife and mother of two teenagers.

Coming Up Next Month

Our September webinar will feature Patricia Stamm who will present “Using Classes and Research Trips to Expand Your Membership.” 

About the Webinar Series

Each month, the FGS Webinar Series features a new and interesting topic, ranging from recruitment and volunteer management to technology, publications, and working with your local tourism board.

Webinars are held on the 3rd Thursday of the month at 7:00 p.m. Central Time. The webinars are free to watch live, but advance registration is required. Regular updates will be shared via the FGS Voice blog, FGS Voice Newsletter, and social media.

Speakers interested in presenting topics should contact Jen Baldwin, Education Chair, at education@fgs.org.

Are you looking for a rewarding and beneficial way to volunteer? The Education Committee at FGS could use your expertise! Please contact us at education@fgs.org.

Society Outreach: Helping Your Community Trace the History of Their Homes

Creative Commons-licensed photo from Wikimedia Commons.

In my day job as the Marketing Librarian at a university, I frequently troll the internet for good marketing examples from other libraries. This short YouTube video by the Hennepin County (Minnesota) Library (HCPL) caught my eye this week. HCPL found a creative way to market the research services and materials available in their special collections department--through the eyes of a young couple interested in finding out the history of their old house.

 

The Learning Experience

What did these homeowners learn through this example project?

• That genealogy records, search techniques, and subject experts can be useful outside of the context of "genealogy."
• How to locate and evaluate property records, city directories, and census records.
• How to use the research services available from their local library.
• They also learned biographical details about the people who previously lived at that address.

How Might Your Society Help? 

Consider hosting a public workshop, or series of workshops on how to conduct research on homes. But don't just go it alone. This type of event cries out for collaboration! Approach your local historical society, preservation society, public library, city or county historical commission, or chamber of commerce about partnering together on a program.

What can your society specifically bring to the table? Genealogists focus on the human element of research. We do not tell the story of a building. We tell stories about the people and generations who called that building home. Helping homeowners learn about the people who previously called their address home could very well generate interest in researching their own family histories.

While not hosted by genealogical societies, here are a few examples of organizations who have conducted these types of workshops.

• Des Moines Historical Society and the Des Moines Rehabbers Club.
• Edgewater Historical Society.
• Jersey City Free Public Library and the Jersey City Landmarks Conservancy.
• Living Room Realty.
• Preservation Louisville, Metro Louisville Historic Landmarks Commission, and the Kentucky Heritage Council/State Historic Preservation Office.
• Veterans Park Neighborhood Association and the City of Boise.

---

Colleen Greene, MLIS

Co-Chair, FGS Outreach Committee

So Your Speaker Cancelled, Now What?

Photo credit: pixgood.com

As Program or Education chair of your society, you’ve spent hours carefully crafting a speaker roster for lectures, webinars and special events. But rest assured, it will happen. A speaker will cancel. It might be as mundane as car trouble. Or as recent events have shown, it might be as significant as a political boycott campaign.  

Be Prepared

In the immortal words of the Boy Scout slogan: Be Prepared. Speaker cancellations are a risk for any type of event. In the case of advance notice, it may be a simple matter of asking a future speaker to move their scheduled topic to your open slot. It also offers the opportunity to give a new speaker or unusual topic a try. For those societies fortunate enough to have talented speakers as society members, you may be able to solicit one of them to keep a stock presentation at the ready for a short notice fill in.

Timing is Everything

Last minute cancellations are the most challenging to replace. Audience expectations are set. Some members may have made a special trip just for a particular speaker or topic. For onsite lectures and events, having a back up plan already determined and communicated to potential participants is key. Here are a few options to get your creative gears turning:

• Host a reddit style "Ask Me Anything" session with the society president or board members present.
• Host a panel discussion featuring the professional genealogists or repository staff in your society.
• In the case of an event, host a panel discussion with available speakers.
• Create your own genealogy game show in the vein of Craig R. Scott's "Last Genealogist Standing."
• Offer a brick wall brainstorming session.

No Substitute

Unfortunately, for some cancellations there is no substitute. Webinars are particularly susceptible to this problem. Though not impossible, it is very difficult to replace a webinar with a nationally recognized speaker at the last minute to the audience’s satisfaction. Map out in advance an apology strategy and how you will communicate to the audience any rescheduling of an event.

By taking the time to address the possibility of cancelations in advance, you’ll be able to seamlessly transition speakers or present your members with a fun and satisfying alternative event. And in the event no alternative can be arranged, you’ll have a strategy in place for preserving your member’s goodwill.

We’d love to hear from you! What strategies has your society employed to cover speaker cancellations? What was the best off-the-cuff cancellation replacement you ever attended?

Roundtable Programs for Your Genealogy Society

While you're working on your program schedule for the new year, consider this: with a little pre-planning, you can provide a unique interactive educational opportunity for your members without having to wait for a conference or webinar. 

Join guest John Sabol, author and lecturer on Slovak genealogy, as he discusses what he calls "speed dating for genealogists." These are roundtable programs that allows your society members to connect with an experienced researcher for a specific record group, locality, ethnic group, or any other topic.

These discussions can be spread out over an entire day or just for a couple of hours. It all depends on how many people are participating. There are so many different ways to facilitate this type of program, the possibilities are endless!

(Not to mention that discovering which topics have the most interest can help your program chair provide more relevant speakers and topics for your regular society programs AND your newsletter or journal editors to provide more relevant articles for your members).

Listen to the archived broadcast of "Roundtable Programs for Your Genealogy Society" on the blogtalkradio My Society channel by FGS, or you can listen below:

Check Out History Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with mysociety on BlogTalkRadio

For more information, check out these articles from our Society Strategy Series:

Seasonal Program Ideas
Multi-Track Programs
Perfecting the Art of Planning a Local Seminar

FGS 2015 Program Spotlight: Focus on Societies Day

FGS 2015 Program Spotlight: Focus on Societies Day

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

FGS conferences kick-off with a day devoted to societies. While sessions on Thursday through Saturday are geared toward individual genealogists and family historians, Wednesday is the day for society leaders, society members, and those interested in learning more about societies to discover innovative ways to manage and grow societies, adapt changing technology to meet society needs, and become more involved with societies.

Focus on Societies Day at FGS 2015 begins with Successfully Embracing the Future. This opening session features three segments presented by three speakers explaining how your genealogical society can both adjust to and embrace change:

• "...Courage to Change the Things I Can..." Being a Successful Change Agent by Curt Witcher, MLS, FUGA, IGSF 
• Applying TLC to Create New Growth by Deena Coutant
• Being More than "Social" on Social Media by Jen Baldwin.  

The rest of the day features 30 sessions in six tracks. A few of those are highlighted below, but you'll find the entire program on the FGS 2015 Conference website.

Benefits and Projects

• Education is the core of our societies, and a seminar could bring new members, volunteers, and funding for projects. Paula Stuart-Warren, CG, FMGS, FUGA, explains how to be successful financially without much effort in Your Society Can't Afford to Do a Seminar? Here's How!
• A society project can be a daunting task. C. Ann Staley, CG, CGL, explains how to manage a society-wide project from start to completion with Organizing and Carrying Out a Society Project.

Communication for Today

• Jordon Jones explains how to evaluate the plethora of internal and external communication technical solutions available to your society with High Tech Communication Solutions for Societies.
• Learn strategies for making the most of social media for community engagement especially given the limits of volunteer resources from Rorey Cathcart in Social Media for Societies: It's Not a Bandwagon, It's a Freight Train!

Genealogical Society Leaders and Visionaries

• Change is our only constant. Curt Witcher, MLS, FUGA, IGSF, discusses and demonstrates ways to make technology and social changes work for our societies in Connecting, Exploring, Refreshing: Marshaling Change in Your Society.
• In Agents of Change: Genealogy Societies Today, Kris W. Rzepczynski, MLS, MA, looks at the impact genealogical societies can have on records, libraries and archives, and the research community.

Recruiting & Engaging

• We have all been the new kid in our societies at one time. D. Joshua Taylor, MA, MLS, discusses ways to welcome new officers, committee members, board members, and others to your society in New Kid on the Block: Embracing Your Society's New Volunteers.
• Learn how successful membership organizations increase participation in their societies with 7 Sure Fire Ways to Involve Elroy Jetson (& others) in Your Genealogical Society from J. Mark Lowe, CG, FUGA.

Technology for the Future

• Thomas MacEntee gives an overview of current technology resources available to be leveraged by any genealogical society in an easy-to-understand, non-techie format in Technology Initiatives for Genealogy Societies.
• Make your society website more than just a cookie-cutter version of all the others. Cyndi Ingle shares Tips for Robust Society Web Site, which include unique content and information to boost membership.

The 21st Century Genealogical Society for Today & Tomorrow

• Genealogy societies benefit by attracting new and younger members. Creating a DNA Interest Group is one way your society can do just that. CeCe Moore covers Bringing Your Society Into the 21st Century with a DNA Interest Group.
• Explore a variety of techniques to assist your society in finding stable ground within the fast-paced world of technology with D. Joshua Taylor, MA, MLS in Tradition and Technology: Finding Your Society's Balance.

Focus on Societies Day will allow you to connect with other society leaders; will allow you to explore those challenges you face today as a society leader; and will refresh and motivate you to help make your society even better.

Register today for FGS 2015.

Who Do You Think You Are? Events for Genealogy Societies

Who Do You Think You Are? Events for Genealogy Societies

Well, season 5 of TLC's Who Do You Think You Are? is over. Before your society members start experiencing withdrawals, check out this archived broadcast of the FGS Radio - My Society!

Rebecca Hill, head librarian for the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center in Fremont, Ohio, shares how to put on a (modified) local version of the show for some folks in the community ... on a small society budget.

Several positive results from the programs include increased attendance at their monthly meetings and an increase in membership! (The fact that, as program chair, Becky didn't have to find a program for those three months didn't hurt either).

You will also learn how they were subsequently able to turn the modified program into a fantastic fundraiser for the society.

Listen to the archived broadcast of "Who Do You Think You Are? Events for Genealogy Societies" on the blogtalkradio My Society channel by FGS, or you can listen below:

 Current History Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with mysociety on BlogTalkRadio

Societies: Selecting and Hiring a Genealogy Speaker

Societies: Selecting and Hiring a Genealogy Speaker

Maybe your society is hosting a workshop or conference.  Maybe your program chair has run out of ideas for the monthly meetings.  Have you considered hiring a genealogy speaker? 

Jean Hibben, CG, member of the Genealogical Speakers Guild discusses the ins and outs of finding and hiring the perfect speaker for your event. She also provides valuable insight into what it’s like to BE a speaker and the different things a speaker must consider when booking a speaking engagement (which - coincidentally - are things which a society should also consider when looking for a speaker!).

Tune in to get answers to these questions and more:

• How far in advance should you book a speaker?
• Should you require a contract?
• What happens if your event gets canceled?
• Who is responsible for the technology required for the speaker?

Listen to the archived broadcast of “Selecting and Hiring a Genealogy Speaker” on the BlogTalkRadio My Society channel by FGS or you can listen below:

Current History Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with mysociety on BlogTalkRadio