Save Our (Local Genealogical) Societies

Comment

Comment by Sally Nelson on October 3, 2010 at 2:32pm

How many groups take advantage of vendor tables at local conferences? The past summer our electric cooperative offered free tables at their annual meeting. We talked to at least 300 people that day. We have no way of knowing if any of them joined one of the groups in our area, but we got their names out. An amazing number of people said they were interested in learning more about their family histories.

Comment by Sally Nelson on October 3, 2010 at 2:19pm

Do your meetings have an "annual meeting" or a special event-type meeting? Every May we wrap up our year with a "Show and Tell" where members can bring in items they have found, family heirlooms, or tell something about their current research. As part of this meeting, I prepare a PowerPoint program to run showing members, programs given over our histor, special moments, etc. The members seem to enjoy seeing how we have grown.

Comment by Sally Nelson on October 3, 2010 at 2:16pm

I like Ellen's ideas of posting speaker's hand outs on the web site (if you have a members only section). We are not ready to do the vocals, but that sounds like a good thing--especially if you have someone who is sight challenged.

I also like the idea of having free pamphlets from NARA available to members.

Comment by Sally Nelson on October 3, 2010 at 2:14pm

We have found the "corporate" papers are reluctant to print community news and many of our community papers are being bought out by the larger ones. We have more luck sending our meeting announcements to the social columnists in the community papers. We also put our info on the rootsweb group that covers our area. We also send out a reminder via e-mail to our members.

Comment by Ellen Healy on October 3, 2010 at 1:55pm

After all of that, ( and then some), I have to admit that I am running out of ideas. So I am very glad to see this discussion group, and look forward to other suggestions. Another thing we do recently has been sharing information about speakers with neighboring groups and clubs.

Comment by Ellen Healy on October 3, 2010 at 1:53pm

I post our meetings on our county message boards and mailing lists on Rootsweb, and I send to the local libraries and aske them to post the notice for their patrons. I put one notice in our local LDS center each month, and send a notice to our members two weeks before the meeting, asking them to pass it to their friends and local libraries, too. Our youngest member is 13 years old; she comes with her mom to the meeting, and so I try and have handouts and printouts that appeal to both the older members and to the younger one, too. We order free pamphlets from NARA; we share gen magazines, and favorite websites.

Comment by Ellen Healy on October 3, 2010 at 1:49pm

Hello, all, I am with a Gen Society that is starting it's 4 season this month. So far we have been very lucky in the line-up of speakers. Our board meeting 4 times a year, and we try to meet about an hour before our general meeting to just bring everyone up to date. We have an excellent webmaster, who audio records our speakers (with their permission) and then posts the lecture and handouts (again, with the speakers permission) on our website. That way, even our out of state members can hear the leacture and receive the handouts. Our business at the start of the meeting takes about 10 to 15 minutes- we had voted earlier on to dispense with the reading of the minutes: they and the treasurers' report are posted in the minutes on our website, and then we ask at the next meeting if there are andy questions or changes required. We have a hospitality committee and members bring snack, we provide the coffee and tea, and a lot of chatting is accomplished both before and after our meetings. This year we are going to try and incorporate more "Rountable Meetings" back and forth conversations among our members every other month, and see how that goes.

Comment by James P. LaLone on September 28, 2010 at 9:59am

UPCOMING events in Michigan:
http://mimgc.org/calendar.html

Comment by James P. LaLone on September 28, 2010 at 9:41am

We did place a display ad in our community paper (tabloid size, not the regular newspaper) and got about 4 non-members show up for our talk. It is expensive though, and cannot be a monthly deal. We are doing 4 ads over the year which gives a discount break, as well as we are a non-profit group (another discount). We hope getting our name out to the general public more might eventually increase our membership (fingers crossed).

Comment by Sally Nelson on September 13, 2010 at 2:50pm

Thanks, James. That is an article I definetly want to read

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