Expanding the Reach of Genealogy Societies and Conferences

WARNING: This article contains personal opinions. The intended audience for this article is the members and officers of genealogy societies.

There are two contradictory "facts" floating around among genealogy societies, points that I hear discussed at almost all the genealogy conferences and meetings that I attend:

Fact #1: Genealogy is more popular today than ever before. It is the second or third or fourth most popular topic on the Web, depending upon whose sources you care to cite.

Fact #2: Attendance at all genealogy venues is down. The average attendance at genealogy conferences is declining. (Note that I wrote "average." There are some notable exceptions.) Membership in genealogy societies is also declining. Finally, the number of visitors to most major genealogy libraries reportedly is declining.

Is it just me, or does anyone else see a contradiction in these two "facts?" If interest in genealogy is growing, why aren't we seeing more and more people at conferences, libraries, and society meetings?

I would like to offer some possible solutions to this quandary.

In the past few years, I have attended dozens genealogy conferences in three different countries. I have attended two genealogy and heritage conferences that have attracted more than 12,000 attendees each, although with a very different format from the typical genealogy conference. I also was a visitor a few months ago at a non-genealogy event where five or six genealogy societies had booths and talked to hundreds of non-genealogists.

Over the past twenty years I have attended perhaps 100 regional, national, and international genealogy conferences and have visited several dozen genealogy societies. I have seen some ideas that worked well, some that did not work so well, and a few that totally fizzled. I am not sure if I am an expert in the topic of shrinking attendance, but a few observations do stand out in my mind.

First of all, genealogy societies need to grow in order to succeed. To be sure, some societies have existed for years with a more or less stable number of members, or even with declining membership numbers. However, the societies that seem to succeed in producing new services and publications are those that are growing. Constant growth means new people joining with new ideas and invigorated interest levels. Newcomers soon gain experience and then become the "movers and shakers" within the genealogy community. Those who have been around for a number of years, conversing with the same people time after time, tend to settle in and enjoy the social aspects of the local society, but they do not strike out with new ideas and new energy levels. The genealogy societies with declining memberships rarely produce new and innovative products and services.

Next, when we (the long-term the members of genealogy societies) go to genealogy conventions to advertise our services and products, we are "preaching to the choir." Who goes to genealogy conventions? The long-time genealogists who already know about our products and services! Yes, the attendees at genealogy conferences typically are those who have been researching their family trees for some time. They probably already know about your society and made a determination some time ago whether or not to join. The bigger the conference and the more people attracted, the truer this seems to be.

For instance, I have attended twenty of the last twenty-one annual national conferences of the U.S. National Genealogical Society. I have also attended about two-thirds of the Federation of Genealogical Society's national conferences in the past twenty years, as well as every single GENTECH conference ever held. You know who I saw at this year's conferences? Mostly the same people that I saw last year and the year before. Some of those faces look very familiar; in many cases I think I have been seeing the same faces for twenty years! These are people who already know about the services of your society. Exhibiting at national and local genealogical conferences may be a desirable thing, but it does not attract many new members!

What we need is new blood. We need those mysterious people who are buying the software and surfing the web's genealogy pages and newsgroups. These people are in "stealth” mode; we know they are lurking out there someplace, but we have difficulty locating them. We need to attract these people to both local and national genealogy conferences. If they could become "hooked" at the conferences, I bet a significant number of them would join local and ethnic genealogy societies. Yes, they could energize societies as we watch membership begin to increase. I bet they would also attend conferences.

So, how do we find and interest these people? We (the old-time members of the societies) cannot wait for them to come to us. Instead, we have to go to the potential newcomers. We cannot go to genealogy conferences that keep attracting the same crowd year after year and expect our membership numbers to grow as a result. We have to seek out potential newcomers wherever they are. And I assure you that is not at genealogy conferences.

Several years ago I spent several days working in a genealogy society's booth at the Eastern States Exposition, an event locally referred to as "The Big E." This Exposition is similar to a state fair, except that it covers all six New England states. It was an eye-opening experience. More than one million people attended this 17-day event, and an estimated 750,000 of those people walked by the genealogy booth where I worked. To be sure, not all of the attendees stopped to talk, but thousands did. Yes, thousands. I think we (the society) talked with more people at this one 17-day event than we do the rest of the year at all the genealogy events combined.

Talking with the general public is a fascinating experience. To be sure, the conversations mostly were at an introductory level since most of these people had no idea who their great-grandparents were. We had a high-speed Internet connection in the booth and spent many hours looking at Social Security Death Index records, as well as a variety of Web sites in addition to our own. We handed out blank pedigree charts by the thousands, along with some advertising materials.

Not all of these people went home and started looking up their family trees that evening or the next day; but, a significant number did. I also believe that we planted many "genealogy seeds" that may not sprout for months or perhaps years. What we did do well is that we got many of these people to start thinking about their family heritage, people who would not have started that thought process if we only exhibited at genealogy events. I believe that some number of these people will join a genealogy society in the coming weeks, months, and years. Admittedly, I do not have an accurate yardstick to measure the success of our efforts at this non-genealogy event. All I have is intuition and some one-on-one feedback from individuals. Yet every staff member and volunteer who worked in the genealogy booth at this event expressed satisfaction with our efforts and believes that we "did good."

Other venues that would seem suitable for a genealogy society's booth would include:

Any event that celebrates history, such as "Old Time Days"
Any ethnic heritage events, such as St. Patrick's Day celebrations
State, county and local agricultural fairs
Civil War re-enactments
Revolutionary War re-enactments
Highland games associations' events
Antique auto shows
Steam engine and old gasoline engine meets

I am sure that you can add to the above list. You can probably find other potential events within the next year in your vicinity.

In short, I would urge you and every other genealogy society member to creatively find new places in which to advertise your society's products and services. While it is good to advertise to genealogists, it is even more important to generate publicity among those who never heard of your organization. In short, you need to advertise to the general public. The only way to do this is to go out and find the general public at the places where the public gathers. It works best if the people you talk to have at least a casual interest in history and/or heritage, such as the people who attend the types of events I listed above.

I am reminded of a very old joke that has been told millions of times. Many years ago, a shoe manufacturer felt they had saturated the U.S., Canadian, and European markets. They already sold millions of pairs of shoes every year but wanted to increase those sales even further. Seeking new markets, they sent a salesman to darkest Africa where there were no shoe manufacturers.

The salesman wired back to the home office, "The people here do not wear shoes. There is no opportunity to sell shoes. I am returning home rather than wasting my time any further."

Undaunted, the home office sent another salesman known to have a unique way of looking at sales situations. A few days later he wired back, "The people here do not wear shoes. The potential market is unlimited! Please send all the shoes you can spare, I am going to stay and make a fortune!"

The joke is an old one, but perhaps it does point out that new viewpoints and new approaches are needed. I would suggest that it is time to throw away some of the ideas we have held for years.

How does your genealogy society "sell" its services and products? Are you seeking new members/customers in markets that are already saturated? Or are you seeking opportunities in places where genealogy is unknown? Where are you most likely to find new members?

Has your genealogy or local history society had any success publicizing its efforts and attracting new members via nontraditional methods? If so, would you mind sharing your success stories so that others could benefit from your ideas? Please post your stories and comments at the end of this article in the comments section. Please tell what your society did, along with any description possible of the benefits derived. Other newsletter readers can see your comments immediately on the Web site and benefit from them, and you may get ideas to further your own efforts as well.

Let’s all share some ideas.

Comments

[Kathryn Doyle]

Dick,
The Livermore-Amador Genealogical Society in California has sponsored a genealogy booth in the technology section of the Alameda County Fair the last few years. It is exactly the type of outreach you describe. You can read Lorna's Report here:
http://calgensoc.blogspot.com/2008/07/lornas-report-from-alameda-county-fair.html

[Paula Hinkel]

The Southern California Genealogical Society has participated in a couple of interesting events. The first is the annual "LA as Subject" event which showcases the many archives and repositories in Los Angeles County. The clientele is a great fit for genealogy. http://www.usc.edu/libraries/archives/arc/lasubject/

The second is the annual Festival of Books sponsored by the Los Angeles Times and held on the UCLA campus. Last year's event drew 140,000 attendees. http://www.latimes.com/extras/festivalofbooks/

At each event, we did free lookups from the 1930 Census. We took a large monitor and turned it toward the guest, and used a laptop to do the lookups. The most rewarding aspect is watching the faces of our guests as they watch the ancestor's name appear on the monitor. It gives me goose bumps to remember the reactions.

We can tell you from our experience that interest in genealogy spans generations, spans ethnicity and spans economic status. We had enthusiastic guests use their cell phone to gather information from family members. We "introduced" a young woman to the grandparents whose names she did not know. From our guests, there are tears, laughter, shock, delight -- all of the emotions that we have experienced ourselves.

In conjunction with our Genealogy Jamboree, we create opportunities to involve non-genealogists. We offered classes for beginning genealogy and held a special session of our Kids' Genealogy Camp.

[Sheryl]

There is a big difference, financially and time-wise, to do family history at home with software and the internet in “stealth mode” than going to the trouble of going to a conference. Instead of genealogy conferences, I would be more interested in paying for access to local genealogy societies who put actual local documents on the internet. I paid for Newspaper Archive because they had newspapers for my locality. I also would be interested in paying for web space linked to that society’s web site to put scanned documents and photos of families from the society’s area. It would be nice too if they also had a comments section like this one. And that the information contributed would not be sold to a big corporation, so that you felt like your information was not being used for anyone's profit except for the local society. Too bad the initial start up of web sites with gigabytes of information is so expensive.

[Mike More]

Perhaps too many of the stealth mode genealogists are sitting at home waiting for somebody else to put the local documents on the web. Somebody has to do the work and, with the formal organizations declining in numbers, there are fewer people to do this while the rest sit at home surfing the Internet all the time. If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.

[Ann]

It is my opinion that alot of the people who make genealogy the 2nd or 3rd most popular topic on the web are people who "cherry-pick" names to add to their family without doing any actual family research. One person puts information on a website and others just follow like lemmings off the cliff. It is very discouraging.

[Bob Larson]

Dick,

I'm the Newsletter Editor and Education Chair for Larimer County Genealogical Society at Fort Collins in Northern Colorado. Our society has grown about 10 to 15% annually and currently has 150 members. We lose about 5 to 10% members annually, but interestingly, our society meetings steadily increases with about 50% attendance betweeen existing members and new visitors, depending on what subject is discussed at our meetings.

We get at least two to ten visitors coming to our monthly general meetings through local advertising or word of mouth from our members. About 50% of visitors join our society after attending one or two meetings.

Our Education Committee promotes a dozen free classes annually taught by various experienced people at four major libraries within our county on various genealogy related subjects. We advertise the classes to attract visitors with the help of the libraries and our website. We started video taping several classes this year and have those videos available on our website for new and existing members and visitors.

I also teach Family Tree Maker genealogy classes through our FTM Users Group, which 60% of our members belong to. About ten to thirty members and general public attend our free monthly classes. I teach the classes nine months every year. Our FTM webpage is very popular with many hits on a monthly basis.

We also promote and participate in several outside events annually to attract new members such as the annual Cemetery Stroll this year with the DAR, which many societies have done. This year we participated in a Victorian Sunday event sponsored by our local library district. We seem to get about 10% of visitors to attend our meetings.

By exchanging newsletters with other local or regional societies, we get new ideas on attracting new members and trying new things such as promoting our third annual Girl Scout Heritage Badge program.

Our website at www.lcgsco.org is updated monthly with all sorts of information and databases. I've noticed many societies only update their website on a quarterly basis or longer. Since we live in an Internet world, societies should take advantage of this technology. Our society monitors what webpages are being viewed from monthly stats we get from our server and get feedback from our members and the public. We get over 200 hits on a monthly basis from our members and general public, which helps to attract new members.

Most of the new members feel our society is worth joining with the amount of great services that our society provides to genelaogists.

There are many more things our Board does to attract and involve our members, but this should give you an idea of what we do. Sorry this is a lengthy memo, but I wanted to let your viewers know what our society does to attract members.

I've heard about other societies losing membership or disbanding, but I believe the Board of any society is probably the reason why any society has growth or not!

[Marnie Oakes]

Partnering with the library benefits both the library and the society....a no-cost program for the library and promotion for the society.
Hold demonstration days at your local library to hook folks for your workshops and meetings.
- People will stop by to learn a little when they can just drop in.
- Libraries have a regular stream of traffic year-round so you don't have to wait for a "fair".
- The library staff will know of people you can specfically invite who are researching, but don't necessarily know about societies and their benefits. [Our very small library has had 2 beginning researchers in the last 2 weeks.]
- Libraries have the Internet connections - many WiFi - so the society doesn't have to worry about the technology. Many libraries also have subscriptions/memberships to commercial databases. The library may also have a computer lab.
- A society or library staff member can introduce visitors to the library collection.
- The lookups mentioned above are real attention getters.

[Barbara]

As a researcher of some years, using libraries, court houses, etc. as well as the internet, I've found that all these are more welcoming and helpful than any of the genealogical societies in my area. I've tried attending a few meetings, but found they were mostly social events of long-timers talking to long-timers and difficult for a newcomer to break into. Self-introductions were gennerally met with blank stares; after one general introduction session where newcomers were asked to describe their projects, the only one who expessed any real interest was the guest speaker. I was not able to get any information about projects they might have had underway or how I might be able to help with them. In contrast, the forums, user groups and individuals I've met over the internet have generally been friendly, generous with their suggestions, appreciative of the work you have done, grateful for what you have to share and regretful if a connection doesn't work out. It's a real joy to help someone --in, for example, Germany-- find a relative in my local church records, and in exchange get some knowledgeable advice about researching in an old duchy, compared to the feeling of being an intruder among flesh-and-blood people in a local society. So spending my time volunteering with online projects and my money on online databases seems more productive overall.

[Brian Holder]

The problem that I have is the feeling that my local genealogical society just does not appear to be interested in what I am researching. I am a transplanted Ohioan living in California. My family has lived in PA, Ohio, and Indiana for at least the last seven generations. I belong to four genealogical societies back home and they are quite helpful whenever I need assistance. But when I go to the local society here in California, the information I am looking for is just not available. They have many areas in which they specialize, and for those who are looking for those records, it would be a gold mine, but just not me. So why join if they can't help me?

[Joanne Politano]

Our society usually has the same few members attending meetings. The ones that are doing any work with records are always the same ones. We have started a website - hopefully to gain new members. The gasoline situation has caused adrop in attendance too. There are plenty of county records to be digitilized but no one wants to do the work.

Joanne

[Joyce]

Being a hobby genealogist myself, and having been bitten by the bug (and now working full-time at a society), I fully agree that we need to come up with ways to reach out to the average person who might be very interested in family history, but may not be aware of how to tap into the genealogy world.

There's a whole population of potential genealogists out there (30s and younger), and reaching out to them through blogs like yours, podcasts, online video like rootstelevision.com is, to me, the best way to go. I also think societies offering the basic "how to get started" course frequently, and promoting it in all sorts of places (city blogs, alternative newsweeklies, etc.) is a great way to draw people in and get people hooked.

We're working on more ideas(preparing for FGS has certainly been a crash course), and I'm looking forward to the continuing challenge!

[Lona Engle]

FYI - There is a Delaware Valley Genealogy Conference being held on September 20, 2008, in Broomall, PA. It is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of LDS and the Genealogical Society of PA. Visit www.dvgenealogy.org for details. This conference promises to focus on using technology to discover our past and pass it on. Thanks for all you do to keep us informed.

[J. Mark Lowe]

Amen! While a President of the Southern Kentucky Genealogical Society, we gained membership and participation in research activities when we exhibited at local and regional fairs and offered introductory courses. International Festivals, State Fairs, and Business Associations were prime markets for new membership and leadership.
I look forward to this discussion continuing and hope that I can have a small part in implementing great ideas in reaching our potential audience.

[Kristy Gravlin]

In response to Brian's comment about "living here and researching there," one solution is to have "special interest groups". The Portland OR society began with one or two. The Illinois Interest Group, for example, is now going on twelve (or is it thirteen?) years of monthly meetings where "how to research in Illinois" topics are offered. We quickly expanded to "how is it in Illinois" when we realized that those who have never been there do not know about IRADs, and "square townships with roads ever mile" and such things. They make a difference to researching and to understanding what one reads. This wouldn't be as successful in a small group as it takes a certain number to get a conversation going. We have anywhere from 5 to 35 attend, depending on topic, weather, other events, etc. And now the society has other choices too... Irish, British, DNA, Jewish, Computers, Brick Walls, etc, etc...I think there are a dozen in total. It can be done. But it does take volunteers!

[Kim]

I agree with Sheryl. I belong to 3 societies. Two local and one from a city where most of my maternal grandparents are from. I have not attended any conferences due to the cost. There's the cost of the conference, then on top of it tansportation, hotels, and meals. No one in my family is interested in genealogy which means no splitting costs for the above. I would not feel comfortable sharing a room with another member that I really don't know more than seeing at a meeting every now and then. Maybe when I'm through paying college bills for my two kids I will be able to attend something. I love the idea of a genealogy cruise.

[Concetta]

I'm with Kim on the costs. There are very few people in my family interested in genealogy in my family, and they are *very* far spread out. (I'm talking about me in Illinois, one in rural Canada, another in England, and another in the deep South).

I have belonged to societies in the past, sometimes with benefit, sometimes not. I enjoyed my time in each but felt that nothing was getting done to promote the society or get members that were below the age of 40 in one, and the other, well, they didn't have a great amount of resources for someone out of state.

I am part of that "under 30" crowd that has a rare interest in genealogy. Most of the time, I prefer to pay my student loan bills rather than pay $1000 for a seminar/conference. Even when conferences are near me, I haven't seen one that was under $300. That's a lot of money these days.

I do go to the seminars my local FHC puts on. I do go to ILGS meetings on occasion when they have a topic that's interesting to me.

What I wish genealogy conferences would do is have seminars a la carte. I don't want to pay $300-$1000 for many, many seminars I have no interest in. I would rather pay $45-$65 for a seminar I very much wanted to learn about.

Plus, many seminars are not in-depth enough to really learn something. These conferences put large amounts of "beginner" content into their schedule, and their target market doesn't need to know that content - in most cases, by the time you're interested in attending a conference, you're not a "beginner" anymore. If there were targeted seminars in a conference on areas I would like to know about that did more than just hand out a sheet of paper with the generals on it, I would be *very* interested.

[Lynn]

Dick - Sounds to me the ole shoe needs some repairing & polishing. First off, rather than saying Old-timer Genealogists, I'd rather say something like a long-term experienced genealogist. Today's newer genealogist and family historian is quite different from the former. The latter's approach to doing things is much different than former. Many don't even go shopping in the malls or do banking in town. It's much easier to do shopping or banking online, and so this is the concept with today's genealogy as well.

And we have fed into this by providing everything on the internet from "How-to"s, document research, online networking trees, and everything in-between. We have been spoon-feeding the newer genealogist because this is what they want and we have provided it to them, with no end in site. Us more experienced genealogists say the computer is a "tool", but the new generation totally disagrees. There is no longer an incentive to go a seminar, conference, or even a genealogy class, unless it's really special to their research situation that can't be resolved on the internet (yet). Family Reunions are too time consuming, vacations are designed for adventure, not to meet new cousins - there's the email and the iPhone for that.

I have been teaching and lecturing on all phases of Genealogy for over 10 years. In the beginning everyone thought the mouse was going to bite back. As the internet grew, a new type of students began arriving, "the genealogy surfer". In the last year, my classes declined again and this time I used Ancestry Publishing as my rescue -and classes are full again. In my recent surveys, I found most experienced and the newcomer genealogists have mastered the internet and not just want "more", but new stuff they can do with it, primarily ways to share and find other others of common interest in the modern world of technology. For me, I'm discovering "scrapbooking" popular this year, but next year, interest will change to something new - I'm still working on that

Like presenting something old in the "new light"of technology - otherwise add new polish to thee ole resoled shoe. The interest is there & growing, and the old ways have met with the new. New ways to do old things.

[Seth Bookey]

Everyone wants everything to be on the Internet, and nobody wants to be taught anything, even if it will ultimately help them. And they want it free.

And they don't want it on microfilm.

A few incidents as a genealogy librarian comes to mind...

A woman made a trip to NYC for the express purpose of looking up information at our Library. The information she needed--NYS census records, could only be found by looking up addresses in the city directory, and then figuring out the AD and ED, and then reading the census records on microfilm. She kept insisting "it must be on the Internet!" and LEFT THE LIBRARY without her information because she refused to touch microfilm.

And even when something is on the Internet, it cannot be found all the time unless you understand the databases and how they work. Time after time, people visiting the library asked about census records on Ancestry Library Edition. When I asked them about 1910, they would always say how they did it at home and could not find it. Well, imagine their surprise when I found their grandparents' records for 1910 immediately. Why? Because as a trained professional, I know that Ancestry's indexing of the 1910 census in particular is dreadful and that first-name searches using locations will yield a find that will be lost when including last names.

Truncation? No average patron even knows what that means.

We also ran several seminars and library tours, and it astounded me how often people refused to listen to our professional advice. For example, why do people keep insisting that we have death certificates for New York City when we keep telling people in a variety of ways that all we have are index numbers to those records before 1949?

So it's a bad marriage of "wanting it now" and "wanting it online while working in my PJs" while REFUSING to learn how different databases work.

While searching for my own grandparents in the 1930 census, I couldn't find them. But I knew the address, so I went through the "backdoor" and sought the record via the ED, and voila! And why is it that for another census year, where there were 7 pages of records in Heritage Quest, there were only THREE in Ancestry Library? These are the pitfalls amateurs will encounter if they refuse to learn. I found the 1930 census records by ED because I know about EDs, and because that's how I did it for the NYS census years ago in the mid-90s when I did all this research the old-fashioned way.

People need to learn the basics that go behind the Internet searches and CD-ROMs. That's why there are societies and libraries. I am confounded that people would make a special trip to find their ancestors and then refuse to listen to professional advice.

[Mike More]

It seems that the majority of the writers complain that they don't join societies or attend conferences because they don't get enough out of it. Very few have talked about what they could contribute, even as a new member. I don't live where may ancestors did either, but I am active with my local genealogical group, partly to help contribute something here in the hopes that somebody will have a similar idea in my "home" location. But also to network with others who have been around longer, so that I can learn from their mistakes.

Our group regularly has a booth at the local heritage events. I can't count the number of times somebody has paused but as soon as we speak to them reply with "My genealogy is done" or words to that effect. My usual response is to invite them out to a meeting so that they can help those of us who are still struggling to find our roots. I have yet to have one show up.

Dick has some good ideas but if the current batch of genealogists are going to sit at home and suck in everything that they can without returning anything to the hobby, no amount of advertising outside the box will help.

[Brian Holder]

I have to tell you that I consider myself to be one of your "ghost mode" genealogists. I am 38 years old and have been researching for over 13 years. In those years, I have learned quite a bit (with still more to learn). I have taken online classes, subscribed to various genealogical websites, listened to podcasts, read lots of internet genalogical newsletters, and read books on genealogy "how to's..". If there is information out there on the web, I feel confident that I can find it and then drill down from there. I have learned to access records at the National, State, and Local levels from the ease of my computer, telephone, or sometimes mail. When I do take a trip for genealogical research, I have learned what the different records are, what information they may contain, and where I can access them. All of this I learned from the internet.

As far as the human aspect; I correspond, through email, with fellow Holder researchers quite regularly. If one comes by information it can quickly be put in a file and distributed almost immediately. I keep in contact with relatives who tell me the stories behind the photographs. These are then written down electronically and will be put in a Family book that I am trying to write. I try to involve my immediate family so one day they might catch the bug and continue my research. How do I know how to do this? From online classes on how to organize and record family history.

There is so much information out there that is to be had and learned, that once you get ahold of it you almost feel self sufficient. I think that is the problem, because up until I read Kristy and Mike's post, not once in 13 years did I once think, "What can I give back, or how can I help?". Thank you both! Guess it time to figure out a way to do just that.

[Chris]

I became addicted to genealogy when at my local public library and I saw a class being offered. We took a 'field trip' to the local Genealogy Society. (Some of us need our hands held to get involved especially when we are working alone.)

Another idea is to hook up with school teachers. As a public school teacher I passed out pedigree charts and assigned my students to take it home and get as much filled out as possible. Most came back with at least 3 generations. A couple with just the child and one parent. One had genealogists in the family and had a complete chart. My wish is that my students keep their charts until they are grown and possibly get interested in genealogy themselves. My father died when I was very young. I would have loved having had a chart to have given me a jump start in my searches.

Thank you, Dick, for all of your ideas!

[Barbara]

Two years ago I was elected to a two-year term to a county genealogical society. At the time the same dozen so so people attended meetings. One never knew whether or not there would be a program. I was a recent recruit the the society, and was told I was asked to be president to bring in new ideas.

I worked hard to come up with programs for a year. These programs followed a theme, and were printed in a brochure for local libraries and other hand-outs. My speakers were experts in their fields, not just representatives of local historic sites. I wrote a regular column for the newsletter and instituted a questionnaire to see what types of articles members would like to see, writing or getting writers for each category on the questionnaire.

The end result: I was openly chastised (a polite way to say screamed at) in front of a speaker with a national reputation, told that they "let me have my brochure," then continued on and on with complaints. I had at least doubled the meeting attendance, but was told it didn't count as the new attendees were members of a society in a neighboring county. For obvious reasons, it was my last meeting.

Did this society want to grow and improve? Obviously not. Despite verbiage to the contrary, they clearly were happy with their own little private club. I have seen the same thing happen at other local genealogy societies lip service to expansion and new ideas, but really happy with a private club.

I learned an important though painful lesson: we may think all clubs want to increase their membership and become more active, but
before putting your heart and soul and hundreds of hours into helping the club grow, be sure that that is really the goal of the those who regularly attend.

[Bruce Johnson]

I think genealogical societies need help in staying current with constantly developing web technologies. Wiki sites where members are constantly communicating and sharing are used in other organizations but don't seemed to have made much progress in the genealogical world. Genealogical Societies will have to reinvent themselves and adapt to social networking technologies in order to grow. The days of the once a month speaker for the 25 persons that live in the long time "meeting city" are numbered. Local societies have much to offer in terms of making local collections available to members but it needs to be done in a "web way" with obvious advantages for the members over nonmembers. I'm seeing this approach work in other societies I belong to and hope that it will soon be coming to local genealogical societies. If not than all we will have in the future is Footnote and Ancestry - and maybe any enterprise risking to challenge them. The key here is technological help for the local genealogical societies. Who can do this?

[Karen]

How can you get the area newspapers to publish info about upcoming meetings, etc. In years past we always had a good turnout for meetings when interesting speakers were publisized. Often people would join our local chapter after attending several presentations - they got interested in what we had to offer after being exposed to it. Now we can't seem to get any info published, they repeatedly tell us "if they have space" yet they never seem to find any. Since several of the town newspapers are owned by the same publishing company we get nowhere. We are a rural county so we don't have a major newspaper, just weekly or monthly editions of the area town's publications. It almost seems like they have a vendetta or something against us. How do we solve this problem? Even regular members tend to forget about the meetings or don't attend because they don't know what our program is going to be that month.

[Frederick Kull]

As a volunteer at an LDS FHC I have noticed a substantial reduction in participation in the sessions, and in the way patrons are researching. Many are using the internet on personal computers much more for their searches. When they need a film, they come into the FHC with film number and description, and stay long enough to order it. When they are notified that the film has arrived they come in to get the information from it. Those who come in fairly regularly have been doing their searches at the FHC for several years.
When new patrons come to the FHC and we take them through the orientation and help them get started, including using the internet, we see them for one or two sessions, then not until they come back to order films and view them.
I believe the increased availability of information, particularly digitalized information, via the internet is a major factor both at the FHC and at society meetings and conferences.
Financial conditions with higher travel costs is another factor. Attendance at my family national reunion last year was down. However when I saw the total cost to me for 5 days, I could understand why. Some can not spend that kind of money on a genealogy conference.
Time also may be a factor, particularly if they are working. Taking a week off to attend a conference may be difficult or impossible. We old retirees are much more able to take a vacation trip to participate in a conference.

[Robin Boswell]

Our society gets in the local newspaper as often as we are abel as well as our meeting dates each time. Our speakers have been great as we are a very small society. We are averaging 20 pluss each time. Many senior citizens will not drive at night. We have ourselves on line also. Our total membership is over 100, great for a three year old society. We do get out into the community with the county fair, an event every year at the Villiage Green that is well attended. There are others in the County we are looking into. Our largest project has been taking pictures of every cemetery and tomb stone we hear about which has been going on for three years now. Great response has been created from that. The information is on line also. We have done over 130 cemeterys so far with more yet to do. I do agree it is hard to get people to help with some things. Many of our members belong to other societies and attend some of their meeting. We are near DC so we are able to get around to many others also as well as workshops.

[Kristy]

One thing that seems to keep our group feeling "together" even tho we see each other only once a month... and sometimes less... is our mail system. A member who enjoys the task has subscribed to a number of lists (not the paid kind, forwarding them would seem like "cheating" to many of us). Then she reads the mail that comes in and, when she finds a note with information that could be helpful to a number of people, she forwards it. Sometimes it goes to the whole group. Sometimes it goes to those researching a particular county. It could be sent to someone working on a time period or a surname. The process involves getting people to sign up in one, or all, of the categories one is willing to watch. Group mailing lists are formed. It means all the reader must do is click on 'forward' and type in a few letters to identify the group... off it goes and someone has a new thought to consider. Of course, not every note sent will help every member of the particular group. But it will help some. And the others just hit delete and wait for 'their turn' to come another day. This has led to a secondary event: sometimes someone will have a question...a "how to", or a "what do you know about?" That is posted to all... the answers come in... and are sent out to the entire group. We get some really good discussions and information that way. It might be worth the while to see if you have a reader who would be glad to watch for a number of needs and do the emailing necessary to spread the news.

[Kathy]

Ensure your provincial or state tourism department is provided with contact information for your genealogical association. I work at a provincial tourism department. You'd be surprised at how many people contact a tourism office first when they begin exploring their family's roots.

[J. H. Fonkert]

Your commentary reminds me that societies need to do at least two things to prosper:

- provide benefits (research resources, education, social networks) to members in exchange for their financial support.
- equally importantly, promote genealogy and family history as an interesting and fun past-time for people who are yet in the fold.

A public radio classical feature (Composers' Notebook)uses the tagline: "All music was once new." Similarly, all experienced genealogists were was beginners. We need a constant influx of beginners, and they need to be recruited from outside the existing genealogical community.

In the past, the Minnesota Genealogical Society has had an exhibit at the MN State Fair (1.3 million attendance), but dropped it due to cost and volunteer time requirements. We are thinking of going back with a more up-to-date exhibit such as others have described. We are also attending the large Minnesota Education Association teacher's conference this Fall.

[Bob Emnett]

Dick articulately puts forth positions that others have made and we welcome completely the discussion. I am the Research Director and a Board member of the St. Louis Genealogical Society (StLGS). Although I believe the opinion content in what follows to be widely held within the Society, they are mine and not an official Society statement.

The Society is over 40 years old. We, as have many other societies, have been grappling with the dichotomy Dick raises for a number of years. We recognized – prompted by both our own leaders and other genealogists – the conflict he identifies and the potential benefits of expanding our offerings and venues. Unlike another society reporting on this forum, we have not grown by that commendable "10 to 15% annually" but we are a bit larger than that organization – with a current membership of over 2,000 individuals and about 150 organizations. We significantly reversed a declining membership several years ago.

There are many contributions to that reversal. We expanded our participation venues to community and ethnic "festivals" with mixed results. Participation in a local Strassenfest did not yield much benefit – the participants seemed more interested in the music and liquid refreshments than our information-oriented booth – and we dropped that particular endeavor. However, we continue participation in other community events and keep on the lookout for additional opportunities.

We have long emphasized our role as an educational Society. In additional to our monthly general meetings, we sponsor an annual Family History Conference (FHC) with multiple lecture tracks, nationally renowned speakers, and an extensive vendor area; a topic-focused one-day speaker event (generally also featuring a recognized speaker); six ethnic Special Interest Groups; an annual professional-genealogist-led trip to the LDS library in Salt Lake City, and other annual events. Our FHC attendance has trended down somewhat, but the other activities have maintained or increased attendance. In recent years, we have greatly expanded our class offerings. Over the last 12 months, we offered 29 classes, with the introduction to genealogy class always free to members. We offer member discounts to all events and products. We continue to offer a variety of products containing vital records of St. Louis ancestors and other products.

However, perhaps the two most important strengths of StLGS are an active volunteer base and our website. We are an all-volunteer organization, operate out of a 5,000 sq. ft. office with an extensive computer network to host our classes and support our volunteers and guests, and have partnered contractually with the St. Louis County Library to house most of our research collection. I would love to report that all those 2,000-plus members are active volunteers, but we are no different than most other societies in that we always need more volunteers. We have members in all but two states and 11 in foreign countries (some of whom volunteer in our data entry and proofreading activities!).

A few years ago, we made a conscious decision to expand the orientation of our website from mainly topical to include vital record information. We consider that decision and the general improvement of that website, including the introduction of e-commerce supporting our products and event registration, to be the major reason for our membership increase especially in attracting out-of-state members. As noted by others, it is important to attract those who are content to 'search from home.' Our website, www.stlgs.org, currently has over 500,000 names in a variety of records and is updated daily. Most of those records are available to the general public although we do have plans to expand our members-only data. The website supports our e-commerce – membership, event registration, and product purchase.

I, as many of our most active volunteers, am retired. I, and my wife, were interested in genealogy for many years, but really could not practically devote serious time to it until we retired. We were fortunate enough to do so at a relatively early age. I believe – and do not think I am alone in this – that there are two major challenges for societies:
(1) To convey the certainly-true message that as much as one would like to believe it, one cannot REALLY do genealogy exclusively on the Internet (if you are serious); and
(2) To find ways to more involve younger people – especially those who must work – in their efforts. Other comments have addressed this. The challenge I see is how to help those interested to balance their responsibilities to their growing families and the ability to support the efforts of their local genealogical societies. I greatly wish I had an answer to this; but know that I volunteered as a scout leader, sport coach, and in other roles when my children were young. This was certainly (I hope, and have had positive feedback) valuable to them. I can only wonder if an understanding of their heritage would be of equal or greater value.

[Kristy]

Today's thought: What is it that a genealogy society can do that they internet cannot do? It may be able to let you hold in your hands written documentation. That's pretty nice. But there are really only two important things that come to me this morning:
1. It will supply real, living, people who can help you when you are stuck. There will be someone out there who has had a similar problem, and has discovered some methods that will be helpful. And they will be willing to share, since they were once helped too.
2. It will supply real, living, people who will rejoice with you when you have a discovery. One of my groups was "founded" for that very reason. We all had immediate family... and they all glazed over when we said, "Look what I found!" But the little group that met at the library would all but dance on the table top. Fifteen years later we still announce our wonderful finds to each other. As the ad says, "'Priceless!"

[Tonya Cate]

Speaking as someone who lurks in "stealth-mode", I love finding clues on the Internet. Notice I said clues. Not all of us are lemmings. If someone posts information on a website, I might make a note of it, but that doesn't mean I take it solely on face value. I don't just plug it in to my family tree. I don't just "let others do the work for me."
I'm the kind of person who wants to see it for myself, and I'm not alone. If you say Joe Bob Smith married Mary Sue Jones in 1856, in Cut and Shoot, Texas, great! Now I have an idea of where to look for my own copy of the marriage certificate.
As for conferences and seminars, some of us live out in the middle of nowhere. I'd love to attend a genealogy conference, but unless it's a webcast, then I'm afraid it's out of reach for me. And genealogy societies? I've been told by some that they "are no longer acccepting new members at this time". Can't give 'em new blood if they refuse the transfusion.
Just because I like to surf in my PJs, or conduct research with my laptop while curled up in my favorite chair, doesn't mean that I don't contribute in some way. I am more than willing to do lookups in anything I might have access to. There are quite a few cemeteries around here, and I've walked every one that was accessible to the public (and a couple that weren't) for anyone that asked.
I make weekly trips to the local library to help those that are less technologically inclined than myself. I teach them how to use their genealogy programs, and how to access databases on the Internet.
Having said my piece, I'll return to the shadows, and continue to explore the mysteries that are my ancestors.

Oh yeah, one more thing. I do most certainly know the meaning of the word, "truncation". I didn't even have to look it up on the Internet.

[David Reed]

I am active in the society where I live, though I have no genealogical interest in this area. It is my way of thanking all those volunteers in the areas I am researching for their efforts.

I am a strong believer in joining the socities in areas where you are researching and in the area where you live.

[pfletch]

I, too, am in "stealth mode." I live 1500-2500+ miles from where my ancestors roamed. One year, i was able to afford to visit courthouses and libraries where each set of grandparents lived. I joined the societies in my father's stomping grounds but not those in my mother's. Why the discrimination? Three organizations offered lifetime membership at a reasonable multiplier of the annual rate, the others didn't.

As for my local software genealogical society, their meeting time is too late for me to go and return before my granddaughter gets out of school. I would love to attend their meetings -- as i used to at my previous home 50 miles away -- but current family comes before my ancestors.

Yes, i know i can't find everything on the 'Net. I frequent my local FHC and write to request anything i can't find on the web or microfilm. But there are some things that are only available if i search through court records in small rural counties. For those, i must depend on the kindness of others.

[Tex Crawfordd]

Hi Dick! We met a few years ago at a conference at BYU. We had a new idea but the time was not right. Look for a new and exciting idea coming out by the first of next year. I won't tell you more at this point except to say that I began to believe that most folks attended family history fairs to be entertained. Sure there were a lot at the various conferences that were true searchers. I fell head over heals for genealogy and family history myself prior to attending any conferences. I do not have near the experience that the instructers at these fairs have but I and my partners may have a new twist that will entergize lots of people. Of course time will tell. Regards, Tex

[Melinda Pitts]

I have been researching my own family tree since 1983 in the pre-historic days of genealogy. I am facinated by all the website full of useful information on the internet. I am interested in genealogy but my spouse is not. I have three children and lack the time and money to attend these conferences. Its really not a question of money but more of a time issue. My husband gets 2 weeks vacation per year and he will not go to a conference on his vacation time. The beach is more his style. Conferences are out for me since I have no one to watch my children even for a few days. Even when I retire, I still can't see my husband attending so I'll probably be solo. I've joined DAR, the meetings are long and boring so I guess I expect the conferences to be the same even though I've never attended one. I'd rather buy research materials online. I believe most everyone else has the same issues that I have with TIME ISSUES. I am a member of one surname society and very active and did attend the one meeting this year but my spouse did not. I would like to subscribe to some historical societies but I think my money is more well spent on ancestry and footnote subscriptions. I'm actually thinking about dropping DAR as it does not assist with my genealogy research. Well, that's my opinion and thoughts on the matter.

[Gary]

Excellent article and excellent, thoughtful comments by readers.
An example of how societies tend to focus inward, and forget about the questions, uncertainties & needs of "newbies" is the difficulty aspiring genealogists have in learning about and comparing genealogy database programs before selecting one. I have had a devil of a time doing this, first foolishly adopting one that was outdated & far too basic (PAF), then holding off for years because of fear of making another similar mistake and again wasting many many hours of inputs. When I found Mr. Mumford's excellent, comprehensive online "Report Card," sponsored by the National Genealogical Society (NGS), I felt "Finally!," only to discover that Mr. Mumford's duties as software reviewer for NGS had ceased, and thus he no longer had access to recent editions of various software programs. [NGS still maintains a link to this old 2000 Report Card, partially updated in 2005! It still has some value, but SHAME on NGS for not ensuring it is kept current! Possibly some companies pressured NGS to stop reviewing their programs?] The ordinary genealogist is generally left with outdated reviews or with reviews of only one or a few programs at a time, or reviews that are superficial [such as TopTenReviews.com]. Providing objective, wise, comparative reviews of genealogy software is a valuable service that national or large regional genealogy societies [or even vigorous local ones] should provide on an ongoing basis, but they don't.

[Marge Stefanski]

Wow, What great ideas. I am past president of our local Polish Genealogical Socierty in Tol, OH. During my term in office we published a Polish cookbook and Toledo Polonia book featuring the Polish people in two rival neighborhoods. The book had an authors signing at Barnes and Noble and has been very successful. We participate in the annual Polish street festival, have monthly meetings, guest speakers and have collected a lot of information that we have put on CD's for members to research. We average about 30 members monthly to our meetings, and our membership includes researchers from numerous other states. We advertise our meetings in parish bulletins, a local neighborhood paper and The Blade. We do have a website and even tried our hand at selling our books on E-Bay. Always looking for new members.