----- Original Message ----- From: Mike St. Clair/TT Sent: Monday, September 04, 2006 10:55 AM 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. Mike St. Clair