Would it be possible for you to post the following announcement on your list - I do not know if some of your members might be interested in South African Genealogy: *********** It is with great pleasure that we announce the dawning of a new era in South African genealogy. After lengthy discussions involving people interested in promoting South African genealogy, ideas and plans came together to make it possible for the Genealogical Society of South Africa (GSSA) to open a virtual branch. This branch is known as eGSSA. For many years there have been people who, for various reasons, could not join a regular GSSA branch. Some of these reasons include living too far from a branch or living outside South Africa. These people still have a need to belong to a branch and to enjoy the benefits of GSSA membership, such as receiving GSSA's flagship quarterly journal, Familia. GSSA has been established to meet these needs. We plan for members of eGSSA to be able to hold virtual meetings in the future, either via streaming technology or in a chat room a-la-MSN. . It is also planned that eGSSA will make some of the GSSA products available electronically, and that some databases could be placed on the Internet for search purposes. This all depends on the availability of storage capacity. eGSSA's website is currently hosted at http://www.ggsa.info/eggsa The management eGSSA team is as follows: Branch Chairperson: Colin Pretorius (based in Australia) Secretary: Anne Lehmkuhl (based in Canada) Technical services: Richard Ball (based in the UK) Ex Officio: Martin Zöllner (based in South Africa) Regional representatives: Australia/NZ/Oceania/Asia: André van Rensburg (based in Australia) North & South America: Anne Lehmkuhl (based in Canada) Europe & the UK: Richard Ball (based in the UK) Africa & the Middle East: Daan Hamman (based in South Africa) The membership fees given below include an electronic copy of Familia, the Society's quarterly journal, as well as the virtual branch's own quarterly newsletter/journal, called genesis. Other benefits include discounts on some CD products. South Africa R115 ( R90 per annum GSSA fee & R25 eGSSA fee) . Rest of Africa and Middle East : US $ 22 North and South America US $22 United Kingdom GBP 11 Europe Euro 18 Aus/NZ/Oceania/Asia Aus $ 25 Payments for residents IN south Africa can be done via Absa, while payment for residents OUTSIDE South Africa will be done via Paypal (Australian and NZ prospective subscribers can contact Colin Pretorius for additional options) For those people who are not currently GSSA members, or cannot join a current branch, this is an ideal opportunity to become part of GSSA and to step into this exciting era. The contact email address is eggsa@fmxau.com