Friday, August 20, 2010

Back to School

Ah, summer in Seattle.
Now that the temperatures have dropped 40 degrees, it's time to think about back to school....and school supplies.
Need any supplies for you genealogy research and organizing? Now's the time to buy them. Some of the deals are incredible.
I'm one of those who makes folders for every trip I take. I've seen the 2-pocket folders for as little as 10 cents a piece lately. Sure beats paying 89 cents each.
Notebooks, pens, pencils, paper, paper clips--everything's on sale right now.
Are you putting more of your genealogy records on your computer? You can pick up a pocket-sized back-up drive that holds 500 gigabytes for $50-$60.
Thumb or jump drives--the little backup drives you pop into a USB port--are way down in price. I picked up three 4 GB drives today for $24.
The deals are everywhere. Just check the pull-out ads in Sunday's newspaper.

Friday, August 13, 2010

Outreach at SGS

Last Friday evening SGS held our second Open House this calendar year. We invited anyone to stop by between 5 and 9 PM and learn about SGS. Each hour an "Intro to Genealogy Research" class was taught; we did census look-ups for all participants; we offered library tours; and we held a book sale outside. Unfortunately, we didn't have the turnout we did in March--only 12 people attended the classes this time. But we did have some great conversations and at least one attendee has decided to join SGS.
Jean Roth, Director of Education, gave a talk on Scottish Genealogy at the Highland Games this year. She also taught a class on Irish Genealogy during the Irish Week celebrations back in March. I've given talks on "Getting Started with Your Family History" to a number of groups, and am always looking for more.
Do you have ideas for other ways to "spread the word" about genealogy in general and SGS in particular? Should we develop outreach efforts to retirment communities? ...community groups? Which ones? How do we find them?
Please share your ideas by leaving a comment below or emailing me at sgspresident@gmail.com

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Summertme at SGS

Once summer finally arrived in Seattle in mid-July, activity at the SGS Library really started heating up.
On July 12th and 17th, we had two great talks by local professional genealogists Evelyn Roehl and Sarah Thorson Little [see previous post].
On July 19th, BYUTV spent most of the day at SGS filming scenes for a future show in their Generations Project series. I've posted a few photos on our new SGS facebook page. You can check out other shows in the series on their website at http://www.byutv.org/thegenerationsproject/
On July 21st, our new Director of Library, Mary Alice Sanguinetti, began work on a complete SGS library inventory. THANK YOU to all of the great volunteers who have been helping in this effort. It's great to see so many new faces coming to help out. There's lots more work to do, as after the card file is brought up-to-date, we'll need to update our digital catalogue.
On July 26th, the SGS Board held a 5-hour session, combining our regular Board meeting with a mini "retreat" to get ourselves organized for a great year.
On July 31st and August 1st, Director of Education Jean Roth led a group of SGS volunteers to the Highland Games where SGS sponsored a genealogy booth. THANK YOU to our members who helped staff this booth through the weekend.
This week our library inventory has continued AND we have our second OPEN HOUSE scheduled for this Friday, August 6th, from 5:00 to 9:00 pm. New Director of Volunteers Becky Kaufman has been doing a great job of getting more SGS members involved in helping with SGS events. As Becky says, we've got a wide range of volunteer opportunites available--something for everyone!