Category Archives: Administrative

WSGS Blog Year in Review

by Charles Hansen

I have been a blogger for years before the WSGS Blog started and have always been amazed that blogs are so interesting, yet so few people read many blogs. They do get read, and so here are some interesting items from the WSGS Blog.

While most of our readers are from the United States, we also have readers from several other countries.

We also have readers from many states, but this list is the top cities, thanks Seattle for always being number one. The last few weeks number two on the list has been Philadelphia? Anyone know why Philadelphia is interested in our Blog?

This is the top 15 hits this year. Most everyone gets the blog as a digest weekly, so that is why number one is on this list.  I see some people have found the categories and tags we attach to most every blog article. While the articles Donna Phillips does on trivia, serendipity and  mystery are popular, they did not start till later in the year so they do not show up on this annual list.

I know I welcome the few comments we get, would be nice to get more, but is there anything else you would like to see in the blog that we have not thought of?

In 2017 there were several major seminars held on the same days, and that it is hard to schedule speakers, but maybe a save the date post early in the year could alert everyone of upcoming seminars early enough to avoid conflicts in 2018 or 2019.

I want to thank all the people that send their information on upcoming meetings, seminars and items of interest, you make my job very easy to do. I also want to thank my fellow bloggers  Donna Potter-Phillips and Roxanne Lowe.

Non Profit Training for Genealogical Societies

by Charles Hansen

Looks like the December 5 and December 7 webinars should be viewed by every genealogical society in Washington
Nonprofit Essentials Toolkits

You care about your mission and want to make sure your organization does what it needs to do to succeed. That is why we created DIY learning toolkits that include short videos, kit materials, key documents, and more. Click on the images below for more information!
Boards in Gear
Why, What, and How of Boards to Better Achieve Mission

Connection to cause
Roles & responsibilities
Board development
Board operations
Fundraising
Finance Unlocked for Nonprofits
What Every Board Member Needs to Know about Finance

Balance Sheets
Income Statements
IRS Form 990
Giving
Oversight
Let’s Go Legal
The right road to compliance and protectionState law
Federal law
Fundraising
Employment law
Intellectual property
Strategic Planning in Nonprofits
Your Step-by-Step Guide to Achieve Your Mission

Prepare
Listen
Envision
Plan
Execute
Evaluate
We know that you want to learn about other topics as well. Visit the Washington Nonprofit Institute website for archived webinars on many other topics, including fundraising, risk management, equity, and communications. If you can’t find what you are looking for, contact us!
Opportunities to learn

You also need opportunities to learn with others. That’s why we are offering a full schedule of workshops and webinars designed to give you what you need to strengthen your board. Upcoming board-related events include:

10/12 SEQUIM: Finance Unlocked for Nonprofits
10/26 SPOKANE: Inland Northwest Conference for the Greater Good
11/1 ONLINE: Changes to Washington Leave Laws
11/2 KENNEWICK: Boards in Gear
11/2 MOUNT VERNON: Boards in Gear
11/3 YAKIMA: Boards in Gear
11/9 CALL: What you need to know to serve on a nonprofit board
11/9 KENT: Understanding the 501(c)3 Application Process
11/15 SPOKANE: Boards in Gear
11/15 SHELTON: Boards in Gear
12/5 ONLINE: Finance Unlocked for Nonprofits webinar
12/7 ONLINE: Nonprofit Legal Checklist

There are many more nonprofit learning opportunities to join! Visit the Washington Nonprofits calendar (by clicking the icon below) and the 501 Commons featured training and networking events listing.

New Photos on Blog Banner

by Roxanne Lowe

Spokane River. Photo by Donna Potter Phillips

Have you noticed the Blog banner changes every time you visit? The photos are submitted by readers like you. We’re always looking for scenic photos of our beautiful state for the rotating photo gallery on the blog banner.

The current batch of pictures were taken by Bettye Hull from Cheney and Donna Potter Phillips from Spokane.

Guidelines for the photos are few:
•Landscapes, landmarks, and scenery photos are preferred. If, however, you have a perfect photo that includes people, please obtain their permission to post the photo.
•Photo must have been taken in Washington State (this is the Washington State Genealogical Society blog, after all!).
•Photo will be cropped to 1100 x 250 pixels, so keep that in mind.
•You may submit as many photos as you want.
•Final decisions on suitable photos will be made by the awesome WSGS Blog Team.
•There’s no prize if your photo is chosen – just the satisfaction that your photo is being showcased on a blog viewed by hundreds of enthusiastic genealogists.
•There’s no firm deadline to submit photos, just keep ‘em coming. We want to rotate lots of photos to keep the blog fresh.

To submit your photo, please email the image (jpg only, please); what, where, when, and by whom the photo was taken to WSGSBlog@wasgs.org.

Got questions? Email the blog team at WSGSBlog@wasgs.org.

Report on the WSGS Board meeting.

by Charles Hansen

WSGS, the Washington State Genealogical Society, exists for one reason: To be of assistance to all the genealogical societies in the state. That mission statement was loud and clear at the recent Board meeting in Yakima.

The Board consists of 16 good folks and 13 were present; that’s dedication. They come from all four corners of the state; Ginny Majewski, the president, comes from Sequim…. that’s a 500 mile round trip!

The meetings are kept to agenda, business is accomplished, Parliamentary rules are followed, and everybody participates. It’s a good group!

All projects, plans and programs were discussed. Website problems and updates were discussed. The use of ZOOM for virtual meetings (not just for this Board but any society in the group) was discussed. Questionnaires were sent to all genealogical societies in the state and Ginny is coordinating the returned into; to wit, how can WSGS help YOU?

A new state-wide project was opened for business. WSGS wants to have a listing of all Civil War burials in Washington and will partner with http://www.civilwarvetswastate.com

to create and maintain such a list.

I am proud to be associated with this great group of dedicated workers and  hope that if you are approached to help WSGS that you will not think twice but will answer “YOUBETCHYA!”

 

 

Reading the Blog Daily

by Charles Hansen

Most everyone reading this blog reads the weekly digest, but there are other ways to read a blog, the simplest is to go to the URL for the blog and bookmark it, then you can go the blog whenever you are online. Our WSGS blog is located here    if you want to go bookmark it. Problem is there may not be any new posts since you were here before and so is there a better way to read a blog, a way that notifies you when a new post is online? Yes an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) reader is the way to do that. If you were around a few years ago most all genealogists used Google Reader, a really easy to use RSS reader. Google decided to discontinue Google Reader and so people were scrambling to switch to another RSS reader. Many switched to Feedly a good RSS reader that was free at the time, and still has a free version for the web, IOS and android. The pay version has many improvements and  they keep adding more and more improvements.

Here is a copy of my Feedly screen, I have folders for Gene Societies, Genealogy, Google, Home and Garden, Libraries, Neighborhoods, Newspapers, Pictures, Rootsweb, Transportation and Work. I have about 350 blogs in Feedly, most post weekly or even less except for the newspapers which post about 60 articles a day, so I get about 25 or 30 articles a day from all the rest of my Feedly feeds.

Using Feedly I can read the Monday Mystery and Tuesday Trivia the same day they are posted, and I am the only one using Feedly to read the WSGS blog as of today.

There are other RSS readers besides Feedly, just Google RSS Readers.

We’ve Made It Easier to Renew or Join

by Roxanne Lowe

Have you renewed your WSGS dues? If you have, thank you — we’re glad you’re part of us!

If you haven’t renewed, we’ve made it a whole lot easier! Now, you can do everything online by clicking on the Members Only tab on the left navigation bar on any page of the WSGS website, then going to “Profile.” From there, click on the green “Renew Membership” button and follow the prompts. Easy peasy!

If you aren’t a member of the WSGS yet, it’s just as easy: click on “Join/New Member” on the left navigation bar. It’s only $12 for an individual ($13/couple).

Of course, if you’d rather use snail mail, that’s okay, too — just mail your membership form to:

Washington State Genealogical Society
Membership Chair
1901 S. 12th Avenue
Union Gap, WA 98903

Ginny Majewski Elected WSGS President

by Roxanne Lowe

Virginia “Ginny” Majewski

Virginia “Ginny” Majewski from Sequim has been elected President of the Washington State Genealogical Society for the 2017 – 2018 term. Currently, Ginny is WSGS Secretary and also President of the Clallam County Genealogical Society. She replaces Mikal McKinnon from Richland who presided over the society for two terms, 2013 – 2017.

In other election news, Karin Coppernoll from Monroe and Opal Myhres from Yakima were elected Secretary and Region 5 Representative (Kittitas, Klickitat, and Yakima counties), respectively.

For more information about Ginny and Karin, read the 01 Dec 2017 blog post.

How to Post on the Blog

by Roxanne Lowe

Do you want to broadcast information about your local society, workshop, genealogical tip, or a research query? Just post to the WSGS Blog! You can reach hundreds of genealogists from around the state. Just email a Word document, text file, PDF or graphic to WSGSBlog@wasgs.org and the blog masters will do the rest.

We’re always looking to publicize local events and workshops, feature stories, updates from your society, and other genealogical information that might be of interest to our many subscribers.

We hope to hear from you soon! And don’t forget to encourage your Society members to subscribe to the Blog for the most up-to-date information from around the state.

You may manage your subscription options from your profile.

WSGS Elections Open December 1

by Roxanne Lowe

WSGS members will receive a link to their election ballot via email on Thursday, 01 Dec. Offices on the ballot include President, Secretary and Regional Representatives in Regions 1, 3, 5 and 7. Below are profiles for President candidate Virginia Majewski and Secretary candidate Karin Coppernoll.

Virginia "Ginny" Majewski

Virginia “Ginny” Majewski

Virginia “Ginny” Majewski of Sequim, Washington, is running to serve as WSGS President for the next two-year term. For the past two years, she has served as the WSGS Secretary and a member of the Executive Committee. Prior to that she was the Regional Representative for Region 3 (Clallam, Jefferson, Kitsap, Mason and Thurston counties). She has served as President and on the Board of Directors for Clallam County Genealogical Society for many years. She has given a number of presentations for various societies and Family History Centers throughout Jefferson, Clallam and Kitsap Counties.

Ginny has worked on her personal family history for over 20 years. She attended the National Institute of Genealogical Studies, University of Toronto and graduated with a certification in advanced genealogical studies in both American Records and Methodology.

Ginny’s personal statement: Genealogy is one of my passions. The past 10 years have brought about a tremendous amount of change in genealogy with so many advances in science and technology. We need to keep informed and relevant if both WSGS and local societies are to survive. I believe that WA State Genealogical Society can be a resource and help to local societies. The Board has been working hard the past few years to make WSGS more visible, active and relevant and I hope to continue that effort — and more.

Karin Coppernoll

Karin Coppernoll

Karin Coppernoll of Monroe, Washington, is running to serve as WSGS Secretary for the next two-year term.

Karin is a professional genealogist with more than 30 years of experience research her family history. She is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists, National Genealogical Society and the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, as well as two state genealogical societies and trustee of her local historical society. She is also a member of Sno-Isle Genealogical Society.

Karin has a certificate in Genealogical Research from Boston University and  has attended the Salt Lake City Institute of Genealogy.  For more information about Karin, visit her website.

Karin’s personal statement: I’m excited about the opportunity to serve genealogists and local societies in Washington on the state board. It’s my way to share my passion and experiences in the wonderful world of genealogy and family history.