D-OGS members, As everyone knows, I have been moderating the CIG for ~six years and have absolutely enjoyed every meeting. I can't tell you how much I have learned from all of you who have participated and I use that information daily as I do my research. Earlier this year I indicated that I was going to be stepping aside from the role of moderator and there were a number of suggestions made as to how we might proceed in the future to be able to continue meeting. A suggestion made by several people was to sign up for one meeting each so that we would have a monthly topic moderated by one individual. That has not been a fully successful plan as scheduling an outside speaker to fill in a gap was complicated and disrupted the schedule as we had tried to plan it. Even when someone signs up for a month, the matter of communicating with the monthly presenter still remains, as does getting the agenda and summary to Richard for the newsletter. Another item that requires attention is collecting the URLs of current interest that we request from all D-OGS members and CIG attendees in particular. Our monthly agenda has depended upon that participation, and recently the number of URLs sent to me has dwindled, but I still have to collect them as there must be a central email address to send them to. Attendance has been low during the summer time as usual, but overall our numbers have been fairly consistent. I know that everyone has an individual schedule to meet and that is understandable, but that fact contributes to the difficulty in keeping in touch with everyone regarding the plans for the CIG. In other words, more time spent at my computer corresponding with the group members. Now the Chapel Hill Library is undergoing renovation and will be unavailable for 18 months and none of the available spaces that we could get in line for in other sites has a projector - a critical item for a computer interest group. Changing sites every month or so has the unwanted side effect of draining attendance as well, another unfortunate occurrence. So far, we do not have a topic for the November meeting, just a name of the person who signed up for that meeting. I have heard nothing about the topic for that meeting. I am forced to conclude that the prospect of a November meeting is dim. I would of course welcome any person to reply here to say that they will take on the role of moderating the group for a one year period to get us through this complex set of circumstances, but as I have little confidence in that's happening I am suggesting today that the CIG suspend its activities until such time as someone who is not worn out with it will guide us through this difficult time. I welcome any comments on the subject, especially for the benefit of those who are "regulars" and would clearly like to continue the CIG. These community based activities take time, energy, interest, and the desire to help others in the genealogy community find a more efficient and interesting path through their research. The benefits outweigh the difficulties in reasonable time spans. But six years is enough. Carol Boggs

Carol, I'm sorry I didn't respond quicker to your call for a projector. I bought one earlier this year and it could be used. However, as you know I travel and make only about half of the meetings. If I can be of any help for the CIG meetings, let me know. I'm headed out of town next week for an indefinite amount of time. It's a crazy way to live but it has to be this way for a while. I do hope the group doesn't disband as I have learned a lot from it. I don't do much Internet researching and poking around these days so I cannot add too much to the group's Internet listings. Things will be changing in the future. June -----Original Message----- From: HubbellGen@aol.com To: ncdogs@rootsweb.com Sent: Fri, Oct 15, 2010 11:18 am Subject: [NCDOGS] D-OGS Computer Interest Group (CIG) D-OGS members, As everyone knows, I have been moderating the CIG for ~six years and have absolutely enjoyed every meeting. I can't tell you how much I have learned from all of you who have participated and I use that information daily as I do my research. Earlier this year I indicated that I was going to be stepping aside from the role of moderator and there were a number of suggestions made as to how we might proceed in the future to be able to continue meeting. A suggestion made by several people was to sign up for one meeting each so that we would have a monthly topic moderated by one individual. That has not been a fully successful plan as scheduling an outside speaker to fill in a gap was complicated and disrupted the schedule as we had tried to plan it. Even when someone signs up for a month, the matter of communicating with the monthly presenter still remains, as does getting the agenda and summary to Richard for the newsletter. Another item that requires attention is collecting the URLs of current interest that we request from all D-OGS members and CIG attendees in particular. Our monthly agenda has depended upon that participation, and recently the number of URLs sent to me has dwindled, but I still have to collect them as there must be a central email address to send them to. Attendance has been low during the summer time as usual, but overall our numbers have been fairly consistent. I know that everyone has an individual schedule to meet and that is understandable, but that fact contributes to the difficulty in keeping in touch with everyone regarding the plans for the CIG. In other words, more time spent at my computer corresponding with the group members. Now the Chapel Hill Library is undergoing renovation and will be unavailable for 18 months and none of the available spaces that we could get in line for in other sites has a projector - a critical item for a computer interest group. Changing sites every month or so has the unwanted side effect of draining attendance as well, another unfortunate occurrence. So far, we do not have a topic for the November meeting, just a name of the person who signed up for that meeting. I have heard nothing about the topic for that meeting. I am forced to conclude that the prospect of a November meeting is dim. I would of course welcome any person to reply here to say that they will take on the role of moderating the group for a one year period to get us through this complex set of circumstances, but as I have little confidence in that's happening I am suggesting today that the CIG suspend its activities until such time as someone who is not worn out with it will guide us through this difficult time. I welcome any comments on the subject, especially for the benefit of those who are "regulars" and would clearly like to continue the CIG. These community based activities take time, energy, interest, and the desire to help others in the genealogy community find a more efficient and interesting path through their research. The benefits outweigh the difficulties in reasonable time spans. But six years is enough. Carol Boggs ************************* Visit the D-OGS web site: http://www.ncgenweb.us/dogsnc/ To Unsubscribe: As a member you are automatically subscribed and remain subscribed. To unsubscribe, email NCDOGS-admin@rootsweb.com with your request. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to NCDOGS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message