Since 2003, the Washington State Genealogical Society has recognized more than 450 outstanding volunteers and teams, nominated by their local society or genealogical organization for their service and dedication. These volunteers are the backbone of their local society, giving their time and expertise, to the organization and the field of genealogy. In the coming months, you will be introduced to each of the 2015 award recipients and learn why they received the 2015 WSGS Outstanding Volunteer and Team Award.
Today we’re introducing Janette and Tony Birch of Cheney, Washington, who were nominated by the Eastern Washington Genealogical Society (EWGS). They were recognized, among other contributions, for their commitment to make new society members feel welcome and part of the group.
Janette and Tony Birch
This dynamic duo has been members of EWGS for nine years, and have been “The Greeters” at society meetings for more than three years. Besides producing tags for new members, they help people find their name tags, answer any general questions, help enroll new members, assist newcomers find a person who can answer questions, and point out who the officers are. Sometimes they are affectionately called “The Information Station.”
Besides their welcoming role, the Birch’s wrote an article about Theodore Roosevelt and his 1903 Washington State train tour for the EWGS online Digital Digest. When the EWGS surname database was first started, they helped create and maintain the online database of members’ ancestor surnames which can be found on the EWGS website.
Mr. and Mrs. Birch are a treasured team at the EWGS, and demonstrate that they richly deserved being recipients of WSGS Outstanding Volunteer Awards.
For more information on the WSGS Outstanding Volunteer Award program, visit the Recognition page of the WSGS website or contact Roxanne Lowe, Recognition Chair, at Roxanne@thekeeffes.com.
Saturday, November 7
The Greatest Generations (EWGS Meetings)
12:30 pm to 3:00 pm
Spokane Public Library Auditorium, Downtown
Who are we? The GI Generation, The Silent Generation, The Baby Boomers, Generation X, Generation Y, Generation Z?…….
History tells us the “Greatest Generation were those in America, born between 1901 and 1945….but what about those born after 1945; including the newest baby just born last evening in Sacred Heart or Deaconess.
Join our speaker, Brusan Wells, Director The Foundation – Rockwood Retirement Communities as we explore each generation and dare to ask the question….”Could today’s newest generation, born after 2007 …be The Greatest Generation?”
Brusan Rhoda-Wells is a Montana native. After completing her schooling in Spokane she enlisted in the US Army and retired as a First Sergeant. After graduating from Eatern Washington University with a degree in Home Economics she volunteered for Girl Scounting then became a staff member culminating in serving as it’s Assistant Executive Director in 1995. After a short jaunt working in Seattle she came home to Spokane. Brusan is looking forward to retirement and having a chance to continue pursue genealogical research in partnership with her mother, Betty Rhoda.
Cookies and social time: 12:30 p.m. Meeting starts at 1:00 p.m.
Cyndi Ingle, of www.CyndisList.com fame, was the presenter at annual Fall Workshop of the Eastern Washington Genealogical Society. And she was, of course, wonderful.
As she arrived into Spokane on Friday, and had never been to the Eastern Washington Branch of “our” Washington State Archives, I arranged tours for her. Here is Cyndi with Lee Pierce (red shirt), archivist for the “downstairs” or paper archives part of the facility out on the EWU campus in Cheney, and with Harold Stoehr (green shirt) who manages and maintains the “upstairs” or digital archives part of the building. They were both so very gracious and informative and both Cyndi and I thanked them profusely for their time.
Cyndi was especially impressed with these two wrapped sets of disks………. Harold took us into the very innermost vault and let Cyndi hold the external backup to the entire contents of the state’s digital archives. (Don’t panic; there are multiple backups.) Cyndi was big-eyed-impressed with being able to hold such a treasure in her hands.
Cyndi hails from Puyallup and we here in Washington are very proud of our own home-grown bigwig celebrity in the world of genealogy. I was happy to show her some “eastern Washington” resources in person, especially our one-of-a-kind Washington State Digital Archives.
Cyndi Ingle is coming to town!!!
Cyndi has lectured all over the world (practically) and all over the Pacific Northwest but she has never come to Eastern Washington…… and this coming Saturday, October 3rd, she is coming to town!!
It’s not too late to register…… click to www.EWGSI.org to get all the scoop and to register (PayPal or send check or pay at the door).
Cyndi’s List has over 300,000 links to websites that pertain to genealogy. If you live near Spokane (within a 3-hour drive is near) then you really must come to spend the day with EWGS and with Cyndi.
Did you notice the latest photos in our Blog banner? They’re part of a rotation of photos submitted by you — our enthusiastic readers — and we’re hoping you’ll send us your favorite photos of our beautiful state.
Rural cemetery near Hartline in Grant County. Photo by Donna Potter-Phillips.
This latest batch of photos was submitted by Donna Potter Phillips, WSGS Vice President, Eastern Washington Genealogical Society President AND avid photographer. On a rotating basis, you’ll see Donna’s photos of a rural cemetery (pictured here), sea urchins at Salt Creek Recreation Area near Pt. Angeles, Lake Crescent, Mt. Rainier, Stevens County, and the Eastern Washington Branch of the State Archives.
Donna’s photos are part of our Blog Banner Photo Challenge — photos you’ve taken of scenes in our great state of Washington. There’s still time to send us your favorite photo for the Blog banner. For more details, read the 08 July 2015 blog post or enter “Blog Banner” in the search bar on the right.
Where are your photos? We hope to see them soon!
The Eastern Washington Genealogical Society boasts an awesome corps of folks who always and eagerly step up to do pretty much whatever needs to be done. EWGS is an awesome organization because of these good folks!
Three of these super volunteers are Mary Holcomb and Tony and Janette Birch. These EWGS members were honored at the September EWGS meeting when WSGS representative Charles Hanson presented them with certificates of appreciation…………… applause! applause!
WSGS extends this recognition honor opportunity to all genealogical societies within our area who wish to honor their volunteers with WSGS certificates of appreciation. Please visit our website (www.wasgs.org) for the application. Certificates will be presented at the WSGS annual meeting or if the honorees cannot attend, at their local society meeting.
(WSGS thanks member Roxanne Lowe for all her efforts with this project.)
Printing the Membership Booklet
A while back Eastern Washington Genealogical Society decided due to cost of postage and printing to stop printing and mailing the membership list to our members. The membership list is on the society website and our webmaster set it up so you could download a PDF file of the membership list if you wanted a copy on your own computer, so I downloaded a copy for me. It was 22 pages long and included a nice cover page and the society by-laws just like the old copies we used to receive by mail.
Since it was a PDF file I went to Adobe Reader to look at the file, and since I wanted a hard copy for a project I was doing I wanted to print a copy. When I went to the print box up came a list of ways to print the file, and one said print a booklet, so I hit that one and the printer started printing. What surprised me was it printed half size, so two pages on each sheet, and then it turned over the paper and printed on the back of the same sheet of paper. Out came 6 pages all in order and when folded in half I had the whole 22 pages printed.
Now I had bought a new printer a Brother all in in one, and it had duplex printing. I did not have a clue what that meant until I found out it will print on both sides of a sheet of paper which is a big paper saver. I also have an older Kodak printer and I did not know it had duplex printing also, but it does and will print booklets also. So do you have a duplex printer? Have you printed a booklet?
EWGS 80th Anniversary
Since 2003, the Washington State Genealogical Society has recognized more than 400 outstanding volunteers, nominated by their local society or genealogical organization for their service and dedication. These volunteers are the backbone of their local society, giving their time and expertise, to the organization and the field of genealogy. In the coming weeks, you will be introduced to each of the 2014 award recipients and learn why they received the 2014 WSGS Outstanding Volunteer Award.
Today we’re introducing Donna Potter Phillips, of Spokane, Washington, who was nominated by the Tri-City Genealogical Society (TCGS). She was recognized for her leadership, knowledge, and volunteer efforts toward the goals and operation of the TCGS.
Donna Potter Phillips
Ms. Phillips has supported the TCGS as a member for many years even though her primary membership as been with the Eastern Washington Genealogica Society. Over the years, Ms. Phillips has presented many genealogy lectures and classes for TCGS, and has been called “my favorite teacher” by many. She has planted the seed, fertilized it and energized her students’ interest in genealogy. Many have said that when she talks, one wants to listen. She has also encouraged many TCGS members to “write their book.”
Ms. Phillips has been an inspiration to many and has been credited with “firing up” TCGW members’ genealogy research and writing their family history stories. Her valuable assets and generosity illustrate that she richly deserved being a recipient of a WSGS Outstanding Volunteer Award in 2014.
For more information on the WSGS Outstanding Volunteer Award program, visit the Recognition page of the WSGS website or contact Roxanne Lowe, Recognition Chair, at Roxanne@thekeeffes.com.