BIFHSGO February Meeting - review

BIFHSGO members are a hardy lot. Despite an extreme cold warning, a temperature of -28.8C at 8 am with wind 33 Kph gusting to 44, about 100 people were gathered in the Chamber at Ben Franklin Place, Nepean by 9 am, to hear Rick Roberts speak on Family Tree Maker (FTM) is NOT Defunct! What do I do now?
His message was "don't panic."  You have plenty of time to decide on an alternate if it's needed. The decision by Software MacKiev to purchase FTM and continue to sell it was welcome although Rick had to field numerous question and comments from those concerned about the prospects. Mine was about the possibility that FTM might again become available through retailers, such as Global Genealogy, in much the same way that Microsoft Office 2013 has been sold through retailers. That would give purchasers a local resource for people sceptical about purchasing from a Ukraine-based company. There are already several Ontario-based retailers for other products of the company.
After the regular 30 minute break there were announcements by BIFHSGO President Barbara Tose including the news that the Maps and Mapping for 21st-Century Genealogists Workshop to be given by James F S Thomson is sold out.
The numbers has swelled considerably for the main presentation A Scandal in Battersea given by S Gail Roger. I always enjoy and learn from Gail's presentations as she researches her own family following every lead through a variety of well known and less-well-known resources. This time they included a search in the Black Sheep Index through the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. She gave a generous shout out to lessons learned from Chris Paton's courses at Pharos Teaching and Tutoring. Judging by the audience size, the enthusiastic reception and applause after the presentation I am not Gail's only fan.