Listers, If you subscribe to various newsletters, as I and many others do, you get a perspective on genealogy and all its facets that you cannot find elsewhere. I subscribe to Canadian and American newsletters just to keep up with new happenings and to find out what in the world is going on. This mornings email brought two excellent articles I hope you will find interesting and informative. Today's issue of Eastmans' Geneaolgy Newsletter has an excellent article on copyright and ethics - Ethics in Publishing Family Histories. Take a look at: http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/ The National Genealogy Society of the United States is undergoing an organizational upheaval at this time. This article, in my opinion, can apply to both Canadian and American societies, organizations and even small facilities such as ours. Good words to heed! Pam p.s. if you haven't joined a society yet, you may want to consider it - Simcoe Branch of the OGS welcomes new members and a nicer and more helpful group of people you will not find anywhere. UpFront with NGS The Online Newsletter of the National Genealogical Society Volume 7, Number 8-1 August 2007 What Kind of Society Member are You? by Chuck Mason, CG If you are on any major e-mail list, I am sure you have read about the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society's recent proposal to eliminate their members' right to vote on society elections and other issues. The board of directors would make all decisions, including who would serve on the board in the future. [Editor's note: This proposal became a reality at the NYG&B July 19 meeting.] As you can imagine, this has stirred up a lot of controversy. It also prompts me to ask the question, "What kind of society member are you?" Many of us join societies where we live and also ones in an area where our ancestor's live. We join a local society because they usually offer educational opportunities in the form of programs, educational classes, and seminars. They also may have a research facility that we use for our research. We join a society where our ancestor's lived because they have something that we want to use for our research. It may be their newsletter or journal, their library; research services for members, or another service that will be helpful to our long distance research needs, like online databases. We may have an opportunity to visit their library, but more likely, we are looking for what services we can use from our own homes. Regardless of whether you are a member of a local society or one in another area, almost all societies depend on volunteers to do most of the work. Some societies do have some paid staff members, like NGS does, but it is normally the volunteers that perform the majority of the work. As a ten-year plus volunteer at NGS, I know that it would be impossible for the staff to do all the work the volunteers do. If we were to pay the staff to do all the work the volunteers do, we would need a lot more staff, and dues would probably be several hundred dollars a year. On the other hand, the staff we have has been a great group of people to work with and very supportive of the volunteers. The work done by volunteers varies greatly from one society to another. However, there are some common things each society needs, and here is where you can do your part. Support the society by volunteering some of your time. We cannot all volunteer as much time as the most active volunteers, but there is usually something that each of us can do to help support the societies we join. I know that I am more of an exception, and I probably volunteer more time than the average person. Because of the many volunteer jobs I have held recently, I have a few suggestions for you to be a better society member. Many societies do surveys or ask their members for suggestions for programs, activities, classes, etc. Fill out the survey or express your suggestions. If you do not let your wishes be known, you do not have a right to complain about the activities of the society. You may not be able to serve as an officer or committee chair, but often there are small jobs that you can do to support your society leaders. Does your society meet in a place that needs the chairs and other equipment set up or taken down for meeting? Is your society working on a project that you could assist with on your own time at home, like an indexing project? Does the newsletter editor need assistance with getting the newsletter mailed out? My list of suggestions could go on for many pages. Certainly there is some job that you could assist with that would help lighten the load for the leaders. One of my pet gripes as a society volunteer has to do with the selection of society leaders. Over the last six or seven years, I have served on the nominating committee of several genealogical organizations, both locally and nationally. Every organization has announced the nominating committee and asked the members to recommend people to stand for election. Almost no one came forward with suggestions. And once the slate has been selected, VOTE! If we do not take an active interest in the societies we join, we may see those organizations make decisions that we are not pleased with. If we do not take an active interest in the societies we join, they may not be there to meet our needs someday. If we do not take an active interest in the societies we join, we have lost our right to complain when we are unhappy with the way the organization is being run. What kind of society member will you be in the future?