Saturday, September 8, 2012

Society Chapter Survives

The Ohio Genealogical Society has an annual Chapter Management Seminar, and I attended their 2012 seminar last month.  One of the sessions was, “Attracting New Members for Your Chapter”, by Deborah Lichtner Deal.  Deb had a number of ideas for attracting new members and I look forward to sharing more of them in a future post.  This post is relating one of her ideas and the story she told us about one OGS Chapter that was facing closure, due to insufficient membership.  She appealed to them to hold off closing, since she had some ideas to try out.  Maybe enough interest could be drummed up so that the chapter could stay open. The Chapter agreed to wait and see.

Deb planned to visit the Chapter and offer the program, “Top 10 Free Internet Sites”.  The program was promoted on a library’s Facebook page and in area newspapers.  It ended up being so popular that she offered THREE sessions in one day!  After that, there were enough people who signed up for membership in the Chapter that it could remain open!  Success.

 
 

What I take away from this story is:
  1. Help may be available outside of your own Society or Chapter.
  2. “Free” and “Internet” are hot topics.
  3. The library’s Facebook page and/or area newspapers were successful in getting the word out.
  4. It’s nice to have Deb & OGS on your side.  :)

I’d love to hear from any of you reading this blog post.  Do you have a “hot topic” that received favorable responses from the public?  If so, what was the topic and where did you promote/advertise it?

Thanks!


Deborah Lichtner Deal is an OGS Trustee.  She is listed on the OGS website at:  http://ogs.org/about/board.php.  She gave me permission to share this story here.  Thanks Deb!
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10 comments:

  1. Welcome to the GeneaBloggers family. Hope you find the association fruitful; I sure do. I have found it most stimulating, especially some of the Daily Themes.

    May you keep sharing your ancestor stories!

    Dr. Bill ;-)
    http://drbilltellsancestorstories.blogspot.com/
    Author of "13 Ways to Tell Your Ancestor Stories" and family saga novels:
    "Back to the Homeplace" and "The Homeplace Revisited"
    http://thehomeplaceseries.blogspot.com/
    http://www.examiner.com/x-53135-Springfield-Genealogy-Examiner
    http://www.examiner.com/x-58285-Ozarks-Cultural-Heritage-Examiner
    http://www.examiner.com/heritage-tourism-in-springfield-mo/dr-bill-william-l-smith
    http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/drbilltellsexcitingstories
    The Heritage Tourist at In-Depth Genealogist: http://www.indepthgenealogist.com/

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    Replies

    1. Thanks, Dr. Bill! And I'll check out your links.

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  2. Very unique idea for a blog. I recently joined our local county genealogical society and am in the process of joining the DAR. Although I am not that young, I'm a generation younger than the other members of both groups. They seem a little distorted when I pop up with my family tree and documents on my android or take a second to look up answers to their questions on my phone. I lived with my grandparents for a while as a kid, inherited my grandfathers love of history and took over his job as the family historian at the age of 14, so I am very familiar with our family history and get a bit uncomfortable with my ability to answer questions about a certain family and almost instantly have the documentation online to back it up. I fully support digitalization of all historic family documents, etc., lying around in archives and museums and attics as access to ones heritage in an inherent right and should be totally and freely accessible. Welcome to Geneabloggers, by the way.

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    1. Hey T J, I enjoyed your comments. I admit I've encountered similar reactions with my Android and even just my laptop. Thanks for sharing (part of) your story.

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  3. I just found your blog through Geneabloggers. Welcome to Geneabloggers.

    Regards, Jim
    Genealogy Blog at Hidden Genealogy Nuggets

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    1. You all are so nice. Thanks for the Welcome.

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  4. Jenny, I just found your blog courtesy of GeneaBloggers, and I am thrilled to see someone initiating an online discussion about topics such as this. It seems there are two camps in the genealogy world: those who live/work/research on the Internet, and those who don't. Bridging the gap between these two worlds when it comes to interfacing with fellow genealogists seems to me to be Job 1.

    I think, eventually, as more people comfortable with the online world infiltrate the world of face-to-face genealogical societies, we'll see a difference in attitudes and utilization.

    In the meantime, we all can benefit from sharing ideas on what works and what doesn't.

    Of course, those of us who thrive on genealogy blogs--and those, especially, who write their own--have a vested interest in seeing this conversation move forward in a productive, positive way ;)

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    Replies

    1. Hi Jacqi, "two camps" - nice analogy. And, yes, we have a vested interest for sure. :))

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  5. What a great premise for a genealogy blog. And a breath of fresh air.

    I met Deb Deal at SLIG last January and she is a bundle of energy. You are fortunate to have her in your corner!

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    1. Hi Michelle, thanks for your comments. I've only met Deb once and I was impressed.

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