Dear friends and fellow researchers, Important event! PRESERVING ALABAMA'S CEMETERIES - WORKSHOP AND CONFERENCE! Subjects covered: "Effective Cemetery Laws and Legal Actions" Cemetery Workshop and Conference - Nov. 1, 2003 Alabama Cemetery Preservation Alliance (ACPA) Membership ACPA Web Site - NEW! Become an ACPA County Representative! Please read this entire message - there is important information all the way to the bottom for everyone! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Effective Cemetery Laws and Legal Actions" and Cemetery Workshop Sponsored by: The Alabama Cemetery Preservation Alliance The Alabama Historical Commission The Montgomery Genealogical Society, Inc The Alabama Preservation Alliance Date: Saturday November 1, 2003 Time: 9:30a.m. -3:30p.m. Place: Alabama Archives Auditorium 624 Washington Avenue Montgomery, Alabama Important Event: If you missed the cemetery workshop last November, don't overlook this important follow-up event!! Preservationists, historians, genealogists, legal advisors, county and state officials are scheduled to participate in workshop presentations and panels on Alabama cemetery laws and legal actions that YOU can take to preserve your family, town or county cemetery. Help us improve and enforce the laws - attend the workshop, join the ACPA and show your support. Also on the workshop agenda (not to be missed) - a Monument Repair Specialist will answer your questions about what to do and NOT to do in repairing your ancestors' broken markers. Photographs of "before" and "after" work conducted in both remote rural sites and city cemeteries will be shown. Registration: Cemetery Workshop with lunch-$25, without lunch $20. ACPA members Cemetery Workshop with lunch-$15, without lunch-$10. Fee includes a box lunch, complimentary morning refreshments, door prizes and more. County/cemetery/history/genealogy books will be available for purchase during workshop (inquire if you would like space for your society or books). You'll even have time for research in the reference room before the Archives closes at 5:00 p.m. Send registration and check payable to: ACPA Cemetery Workshop, P. O. Box 230194, Montgomery, AL 36123-0194 (or pay by PayPal). For further information, email Joyce Nicoll, the President of ACPA: Email: alabama79@att.net REGISTRATION DEADLINE: October 24, 2003. PAYPAL NOW AVAILABLE: If you would like to register and pay by credit card, the ACPA is now set up to receive Cemetery Workshop Conference fees, and ACPA Membership dues through PayPal. If you are already familiar with PayPal and wish to make use of this convenient service when sending in your Conference fees and/or ACPA Membership fees, please email me directly and I will send you brief and easy instructions (my email address are at the bottom of the page). PayPal is one of the most secure methods of making credit card payments over the Internet and accepts several different cards (MasterCard/Visa, AmX, Discover and eCHECK). If you have not used PayPal before and would like to check it out, please go to http://www.paypal.com. (There is no cost to you to sign up.) Then email me for the PayPal account info to make a payment. If you would like me to send you a flyer all about the Cemetery Workshop Conference (PDF), and/or an ACPA Membership form (PDF) (no obligation to join if you wish to receive the form), (see bottom of page for may email addresses). If you do not have the ability to read a PDF file, you can download a FREE Acrobat Reader to view PDF's for either PC or MAC from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html You may also send in membership fees through PayPal and mail in a print-out copy of the completed form (address is on the form). We are working on an on-line membership form that can be completed and sent in over the Internet, but it is not quite ready. ACPA WEB SITE! We are in the process of building a wonderful web site for the ACPA, which will debut in a presentation at the Cemetery Workshop/Conference on Nov. 1. This site will be dedicated to sharing all kinds of material on PRESERVING, RESTORING AND CONSERVING Alabama Cemeteries. It is CHOCK-FULL of all kinds of GREAT things. Many of Alabama's cemeteries are being lost to the elements of mother nature, neglect and vandalism. The ACPA is working "hand in hand" with the Alabama Historical Commission to make sure that you have all the information you need to help preserve Alabama's Cemetery Heritage. One of the main missions of the ACPA is to encourage individuals, families and community groups to ADOPT a cemetery and take steps to help restore and preserve it. Issues on monument theft and vandalism are covered, as well as steps to take to ADOPT a cemetery. The site will have articles and "step by step" instructions, not only on the techniques of preserving and repairing cemeteries and grave markers, but also on the processes of establishing a non-profit Cemetery Association in Alabama, including by-laws, Articles of Association, and how and who to submit these to, so you can preserve your cemeteries for all time. Much of this information may be adapted to cemetery plights throughout the nation. Also a section on the Alabama Legal Code pertaining to laws that address the protection of cemeteries. AND VERY IMPORTANTLY, the ACPA has established an on-line CEMETERY REGISTER - A method/form for you to REGISTER cemeteries and burial surveys with the ACPA ON-LINE!. These REGISTERED Cemeteries will be recorded in the ACPA database, not only as a method to document them, but will be accompanied by a searchable database, so the guests to the ACPA web site may search cemeteries by name and county. It is the goal of the ACPA to REGISTER every cemetery in the state of Alabama. Once you register a cemetery, you may return to your original registration and up-date it with additional information as you discover it. We will also have a BURIAL LISTING database that will allow individuals to submit their cemetery burial surveys, also searchable by name, cemetery and county. ALL OF THIS will be presented at the Alabama Cemetery Workshop Conference on Nov. 1. Meanwhile, please visit the site and sign our GUESTBOOK to be notified when the full site will be fully operable and to receive further information about the Conference and ACPA Membership. http://www.alabama-cemetery-preservation.com or http://www.alcpa.net LAST BUT NOT LEAST! become an ACPA COUNTY REPRESENTATIVE! The ACPA is establishing a County Representative to act as a liaison for the ACPA in each County. We have JUST opened these volunteer positions up and they are GOING FAST! If you have Internet access and email and live in an Alabama county that you would like to represent, and are interested in preserving and recording the cemeteries in your county and would like to know more about this very important volunteer position, please contact me, or the ACPA County Coordinator, Ted Urquhart. Ted's ACPA County Coordinator email address is: fixingraves@alabama-cemetery-preservation.com My email addresses are: bamahart@airmail.net or my ACPA Web Master address is: alabamaangel@alabama-cemetery-preservation.net. Thank You, Cynthia Sims Kirkland (ACPA Web Master) and Ted Urquhart (ACPA Vice President and County Coordinator) P.S. Hope to see you there! Please pass this on! -- Alabama Cemetery Preservation Alliance (ACPA) "Preserve, Restore and Venerate." Saving Alabama Cemeteries http://www.alabama-cemetery-preservation.com Please visit and sign the Guest Book.