Les- will you please forward to WVGen-L There are advantages to being part of the Federation of Gen. Societies. 1. The advantage of being part of the FGS is that the FGS have been aggressive in keeping the records open to the public instead of being locked up by the paranoids. With our inclusion, the FGS can increase the strength of political muscle via not only the Societies but also The USGenWeb Project and the reach going into the hundreds of thousand researchers/visitors to The USGenWeb Project. (2,500+ volunteers in whole The USGenWeb Project, not to mention the reach out to 100,000+ researchers/visitors) 2. The objective of the FGS is to help the societies, groups, etc with education in management, record-keeping, protecting access to records, etc. 3. The biggest advantage is that the CCs can be educated to be better presenters, speakers, lecturers, manage the sites better, even local fairs or workshops much more effective. These first 2 are main goals of the FGS. We've had threats to close access to public records in last 2-3 years. The FGS have been there to fight off the threat through the Societies, Associations and Organizations. Because I went to every CC to contact for the booth, I ran into many of the CCs at the FGS, members of various Societies and organizations. Darilee and Mike talked a lot with the APGs who visited. They're ones with the gold lettered black ribbon "APG". We had gold lettered red ribbons "Exhibitor" Some of those attendees have at least 5 to 10 horizontal ribbons Society Officer (blue metallic on white) Delegate (silver on blue) APG (gold on black) ICAPGen (several colors on white) Exhibitor (gold on red) FGS Officer (yellow on blue) There are other ribbons I can't remember NSDAR and NSSAR are members but they had no booths there. W. David Samuelsen, Chair of The USGenWeb Project - FGS 2005 Convention booth -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.344 / Virus Database: 267.10.23/99 - Release Date: 9/12/2005