Please read carefully and then sign petition. But hurry, the comments have to be in by 9 Sep. Thanks, Sharon > Subject: Petition on reduction in hours for National Archives > > > In late July, the National Archives announced they were planning to cut > back > the hours of the Washington DC area facilities of the archives. This > would > eliminate all evening and Saturday hours and greatly harm the ability of > the > average genealogist to access the records. For full details, see > http://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2006/nr06-125.html > > While the Archivist of the United States was at the FGS conference he > reported that they had received very little feedback from the country's > genealogists asking for reconsideration. He was also presented with a > request from the chair of the FGS Records Preservation Committee to > consider > some alternatives and a petition was started to allow genealogists to > express their disagreement with the changes and to endorse alternatives > that > will allow the evening and Saturday hours to continue. > > You can see more details about that in Dick Eastman's weekly newsletter > at: > http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2006/09/quick_please_jo.html > > The petition can be signed at: http://www.petitiononline.com/FGS2006 > > I would encourage each of you, as board members of The USGenWeb Project to > use your influence to publicize this information throughout the project. > Note that the deadline for receiving comments on the proposed changes by > the > archives is September 9, so there isn't much time. And I suspect that if > they succeed in reducing the Washington hours, the regional archives will > be > soon to follow. > > I appreciate all that each of you do in support of the project membership > and all genealogists with US ancestry. I believe that a little effort in > support of this effort by FGS will pay off long term in enhancing our > ability to deliver free information to our clients - genealogists > everywhere.