I have been enjoying this list for a while now, and as someone very new to genealogy (2 years, one of which was just unorganized dabbling), I think those with experience in other organized family groups should be defered to for their expertise. I love Chuck's idea of a regional and national group. I also think an initial meeting in Bridgewater is an excellent idea. What I suggest is that you expand your search for Washburn cousins to outside this list. Many folks can only subscribe to a few lists (as you know, the mail is overwhelming). Perhaps a call should be put out in the General Forum or in Ancestry.com's Washburn Web Page. Also, perhaps other groups (related to the Washburns, of course) that have newsletters might be willing to publish an article about this venture. Another idea I have is to perhaps organize a chat session for brainstorming. How did other groups begin? What problems did they encounter that we could avoid? Would it be worth our time to send to other groups that we belong to and ask the more experienced (notice, I did not say "older" here) members for advice. I hope I have contributed to the cause. If I repeated ideas, I didn't mean to. Lori Huntley from Washburn-Mitchell line