03 May 2015

Food for Thought for Genealogy Societies

In An Open Letter to Genealogy Societies blogger Susan Petersen vents on seven frustrations with some of our organizations. Hopefully not all apply to any one society.

Have you been driven to quit a society because of one of these? What about other reasons. I've quit when membership had served its purpose after I joined for a specific purpose such as in conjunction with a conference discount. I've also quit because the society didn't give value for money to remote members.
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5 comments:

  1. Mike More03 May, 2015 09:11

    John, everybody has great ideas about how to make things right but very few are willing to actually make it happen. These are good ideas but I have yet to find the magic potion that makes them miraculously appear. Ask not what your Society can do for you, ask what you can do for your Society. Now I will sit back and wait for the volunteers to pour in. :-)

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  2. Susan03 May, 2015 15:22

    Mike Moore, I agree there is no magic potion. Have you experienced point #5? Any ideas what can be done when the volunteers do coming knocking at the door and they won't be let in?

    #5. You need fresh blood. Some of my societies have been recycling the same board members over and over for years. The societies operate from "we've always done it this way" rather than seeking new and innovative ideas.

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  3. Gail B03 May, 2015 19:02

    indeed. A good article. Have belonged (do belong to many societies and FHS for decades. Given some up for the reasons this article states. And yes, the recycling of the Board members is a problem for many societies (#5). Also the endless family stories with vast footnotes in Provincial quarterlies. Who cares? Not me. Give us tips, help, new fresh ideas for older, been-around-the-block genealogists. Gail B

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  4. Mike More03 May, 2015 19:27

    Susaan, I cannot answer as we have never turned down a volunteer. Most of us would be more than happy to retire and get back to our own genealogy but that's hard to do when half the positions on the board are not filled. We re-cycle or the positions are vacant.

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  5. Paul Jones03 May, 2015 21:24

    Non-volunteers moaning about societies is similar to non-voters denouncing the government: interesting, but unlikely to change anything.

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