Saturday at Quinte Branch of OGS

I had a quick trip to Trenton, Ontario, on Saturday to give my Family Secrets Revealed by DNA Analysis talk to the Quinte Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society. Beth and Bill Campbell, organized the meeting and had invited me -- Bill had previously heard the talk at last September's BIFHSGO annual conference.

The venue was a treat. A new building houses the municipal offices and library, situated on the lake shore of the Bay of Quinte with a magnificent vista of the Bay greeting you as you enter the library. You never saw such a contrast to cubicle land.

There were about 40 people at the meeting including several visitors and guests attracted by the topic. They had to bring in extra chairs. Amongst the pre-presentation announcements was a report from Nancy Trimble, the representative for that OGS region, read by a member. She mentioned the new format of Families including a colour cover, and that OGS was talking with Revenue Canada to examine the extent to which they can offer benefits only to members and still provide them a receipt for tax purposes. That deliberation will interest other Canadian genealogical, and likely other types of societies. BIFHSGO stopped issues tax receipts a few years ago when we determined that doing so was inconsistent with giving discounts to members for our events and publications.

Being a new facility the room came with a built in LCD projector, and was small enough that I didn't require a microphone. A few shorter people at the back did have to bob their heads up every now and again to see the bottom of the screen. I enjoyed the facility and felt the presentation went well. Others seemed to enjoy it -- there were lots of questions after the talk and one-on-one during the refreshments at the end.

I'd like to thank Bill and Beth, and the folks at Quinte Branch for inviting me to what is clearly an active OGS branch full of friendly folks. I'd happily speak there again -- hint intended!