Tag Archives: Innovative Grants

Eastside Gen Soc Uses Innovative Grant for Workshop

by Roxanne Lowe

Maureen Taylor (left) and Celia McNay, Eastside Genealogical Society President

The Eastside Genealogical Society threw itself a 40th birthday party on Saturday, 15 Sep 2018. The society has been celebrating every month this year in a small way, but really hit the big time hosting Maureen Taylor, the Photo Detective, in an all-day workshop in Bellevue. The workshop was free to EGS members as a thank you for 40 years of support, while others paid a small fee. Ms. Taylor presented Photo Detecting 101, Google Images and Beyond and Discovering Genealogical Clues in Photographs. Well done, value-added presentations all around.

EGS used its 2018 WSGS Innovative Grant to help fund the workshop — an excellent use of the grant. Besides the Eastside Genealogical Society, the four other successful 2018 grant winners were:

  • Lower Columbia Genealogical Society to purchase genealogical books to donate to the Longview Public Library for public use. Lower Columbia has generously donated books for a number of years, using money from membership dues and their coffee stops.
  • Okanogan Genealogical Society to help purchase supplies to repair and preserve books holding the “Tonasket Times” newspaper from 1913 – 1952.
  • Stillaguamish Valley Genealogical Society to help publish a book on “Early Stillaguamish Valley Schools” in the Arlington Area.
  • Wenatchee Area Genealogical Society for digital preservation of family records, library holdings and archival documents.

More information about the deadlines for the 2019 Innovative Grants will be publicized in the coming months.

Five Societies Earn Innovative Grants

by Roxanne Lowe

In an announcement made at the WSGS Annual Meeting on 26 May 2018 in Vancouver, five local societies were  awarded Innovative Grants for special projects and purchases. The grants, up to $100, are designed to support the inventive and creative efforts of WSGS-member societies and organizations. Each society’s proposal was scored and ranked by a review team.

2018 Innovative Grants were awarded to:

  1. Eastside Genealogical Society to help pay for “The Photo Detective” Maureen Taylor workshop to celebrate the society’s 40th birthday. Ms. Taylor will present “Finding Family History in Your Picture Mysteries” on September 15 in Bellevue. Society members will get to attend for free while the public will pay a small fee. For more information about this workshop, click here.
  2. Lower Columbia Genealogical Society to purchase genealogical books to donate to the Longview Public Library for public use. Lower Columbia has generously donated books for a number of years, using money from membership dues and their coffee stops.
  3. Okanogan Genealogical Society to help purchase supplies to repair and preserve books holding the “Tonasket Times” newspaper from 1913 – 1952. Each book uses an entire roll of special archival document repair tape. This grant will buy a few rolls of tape to stop the destruction of the collection.
  4. Stillaguamish Valley Genealogical Society to help publish a book on “Early Stillaguamish Valley Schools” in the Arlington Area. It’s taken years to gather historical documents and photographs for this project from the 1800s to the early 1940s and now they’re ready to publish.
  5. Wenatchee Area Genealogical Society For the 4th consecutive year, WAGS has applied for an Innovative Grant to promote genealogy in their area. This year, they’re focusing on the digital preservation of family records, library holdings and archival documents. They plan to preserve family histories and archival materials of their society, its members and the community.

The Innovative Grant program was started in 2015 to support the inventive and creative efforts of local societies and organizations. When created, Recognition Chair Roxanne Lowe explained, “We know that local societies can do a lot with very little, so we’re hoping the Innovative Grant Program will be what you need to jump-start a project that has been dreamed about for some time.”

WSGS Awards Announced in Vancouver

by Roxanne Lowe

Many thanks are extended to the Clark County Genealogical Society for hosting the WSGS Annual Meeting and Awards Event on Saturday, 26 May 2018. The annual meeting was held in conjunction with CCGS’s Spring Seminar featuring David Allen Lambert, chief genealogist with the New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston.

During the annual meeting and awards lunch, 30 local society members  and 4 teams were recognized with Outstanding Volunteer and Team awards. The volunteers were praised for their commitment and energies to promote genealogy and family history in their local communities. For more about the Outstanding Volunteers, read this blog article.

Other awards presented included:

  • WSGS President Virginia Majewski presenting the Outstanding Communication Award to Nancy Cordell, president of the Olympia Genealogical Society

    Outstanding Communication – Olympia Genealogical Society for their new website. Check it out!!

  • Clark County Genealogical Society members Brian Runyan and Lois Boslund receiving the Outstanding Project award from President Virginia Majewski

    Outstanding Project — Clark County Genealogical Society for their dedication to digitizing, transcribing and indexing original tax ledgers for the City of Vancouver for the years 1886 and 1891.

Five local societies were awarded Innovative Grant Awards. Congratulations to:

  • Eastside Genealogical Society – help paying for “The Photo Detective” Maureen Taylor at a workshop to celebrate the society’s 40th Ms. Taylor will present “Finding Family History in Your Picture Mysteries” on September 15 in Bellevue. Society members will get to attend for free while the public will pay a small fee.
  • Lower Columbia Genealogical Society– to purchase genealogical books to donate to the Longview Public Library for public use. Lower Columbia has generously donated books for a number of years, using money from membership dues and their coffee stops.
  • Okanogan Genealogical Society – help purchasing supplies to repair and preserve books holding the “Tonasket Times” newspaper from 1913 – 1952. They use a special archival document repair tape. Each book uses a whole roll of tape. This grant will buy a few rolls of tape to stop the destruction of the collection.
  • Stillaguamish Valley Genealogical Society – help publishing a book on “Early Stillaguamish Valley Schools” in the Arlington Area. It’s taken years to gather historical documents and photographs for this project from the 1800s to the early 1940s and now they’re ready to publish.
  • Wenatchee Area Genealogical Society – For the 4th consecutive year, WAGS has applied for an Innovative Grant to promote genealogy in their area. This year, they’re focusing on the digital preservation of family records, library holdings and archival documents. They plan to preserve family histories and archival materials of their society, its members and the community.

The President’s Award for Outstanding Achievement was presented to Ann Olson of the Olympia Genealogical Society. See separate blog feature.

For more photos of the seminar and annual meeting, visit our Facebook page.

Innovative Grant Deadline Extended

by Roxanne Lowe

We don’t want your society to miss the opportunity to fund a special project or purchase, so the deadline to apply for a WSGS Innovative Grant has been extended to April 1, 2018.

Wenatchee Area Genealogical Society’s mascot coyote

The grants, up to $100, are designed to support the inventive and creative efforts of WSGS-member societies and organizations. The awards do not have to be repaid — they’re FREE MONEY to support worthy projects. Up to five grants will be awarded at the WSGS Annual Meeting and Awards Ceremony on Saturday, May 26, 2018, in conjunction with the Clark County Genealogical Society’s Spring Seminar.

Created in 2015, the Innovative Grants have provided full and partial funding for a wide variety of projects:

  • Support the scanning and preservation of the society’s historical records for posting on their website.
  • Labeling equipment to provide labels for more than 3,000 books in local society’s research library.
  • Support of promotional community events with genealogy-related themes.
  • Upgrade office equipment in society’s research library.
  • Purchase of gravestones for Civil War veterans in the local historic cemetery.
  • Upgrade software designed to index and preserve more than 400,000 local records.
  • Promotion of adoption of society mascot. See photo on right.
  • Assist in purchase of new society computer, 22” monitor and portable hard drive to ensure back-up of files.
  • Assist in purchase of a computer for genealogical research at local library.
  •  Removal of trees that are endangering the safety of people and protection of grave markers at local cemetery.
  • Purchase of a new laptop computer to be used for society presentations and transcription of documents.
  • Purchase prizes for society’s writing contest.
  • Purchase specialized computer software to enable more than one volunteer to enter data related to local obituaries, cemetery records, World War I records and more.

The simple application is only ONE page and is available here, as well as additional guidance on the program. For more information, visit the Innovative Grant page on our website

For more information, contact Roxanne Lowe, Interim Chair, WSGS Recognition Committee, at Roxanne@thekeeffes.com.

Innovative Grant Applications Due March 1

by Roxanne Lowe

Is your local genealogy society interested in some FREE CASH for a special project? Applications for the WSGS Innovative Grants are being accepted through March 1, 2018.

The grants, up to $100, are designed to support the inventive and creative efforts of WSGS-member societies and organizations. The awards do not have to be repaid — they’re FREE MONEY to support worthy projects. Up to five grants will be awarded in 2018.

Last year’s grant awards were made to:

The simple application is only ONE page and is available here, as well as additional guidance on the program. For more information, visit the Innovative Grant page on our website

For more information, contact Roxanne Lowe, Interim Chair, WSGS Recognition Committee, at Roxanne@thekeeffes.com.

WSGS Awards Announced at Annual Meeting in Yakima

by Roxanne Lowe

Many thanks are extended to the Yakima Valley Genealogical Society for hosting the WSGS Annual Meeting and Awards Event on Saturday, 22 April 2017. The annual meeting was held in conjunction with YVGS’s Spring Seminar featuring Jay Fonkert, a Minnesota-based genealogy researcher, educator, and writer who focuses on nineteenth-century Midwest research. Nearly 90 people attended the seminar and annual meeting.

WSGS Vice President Donna Phillips presenting Outstanding Volunteer Award to Patricia McCann Manning from the Stillaguamish Valley Genealogical Society.

Region 6 Representative Janet McKinnon presenting an Outstanding Team member award to husband Mikal McKinnon for his work on the Tri-City Genealogical Society’s Library Recataloging and Renumbering Team.

During the annual meeting and awards lunch, nearly 40 local society members were recognized with Outstanding Volunteer and Team awards. These volunteers were praised for their commitment and energies to promote genealogy and family history in their local communities.

Some of the 2017 local society award winners

Other awards presented included:

  • Outstanding Communication – Whitman County Genealogical Society for its newsletter filled with personal stories, photos and “snippets from the olden days.” Their newsletter started on in 1984 with just a few pages focusing on Whitman County. Today the newsletter is 10 pages with a continued focus on the county, but has expanded to include a wide variety of genealogy-related articles, designed to educate and entertain the society’s members and other readers. Special acknowledgement was extended to newsletter editor Judy Standar McMurray, with assistance from Monica Bartlett Peters.
  • Outstanding Project — Grays Harbor Genealogical Society for the preservation of thousands of records from a 100-year-old funeral home that closed suddenly. The records were in danger of being lost or discarded until the society stepped in. Twelve boxes of paper were organized, scanned, cataloged and indexed into 19 binders. While this was an effort tackled by almost half of this small society, special recognition was extended to Cathy Cook, Gary Parfitt, Marlene Payne and Bonnie Johannes.

Five local societies were awarded Innovative Grant Awards. See separate blog feature.

The President’s Award for Outstanding Achievement was presented to Joanne Egbert Calhoun of the Wenatchee Area Genealogical Society. See separate blog feature.

For more photos of the seminar and annual meeting, visit our Facebook page.

Local Societies Awarded Innovative Grants

by Roxanne Lowe

In an announcement made at the WSGS Annual Meeting on 22 Apr 2017 in Yakima, five local societies were  awarded Innovative Grants.

  1. WSGS President Virginia Majewski (middle) presenting an Innovative Grant to Eastern Washington Genealogical Society members Pat Ayers and Mary Holcomb

    Eastside Genealogical Society – to support the scanning and preservation of the society’s historical records for posting on their website.

  2. Eastern Washington Genealogical Society– the purchase of gravestones for nearly forgotten Civil War veterans in the local historic Evergreen Cemetery.
  3. Tri-City Genealogical Society– labeling equipment to provide labels for more than 3,000 books in their research library.
  4. Wenatchee Area Genealogical Society– support of promotional events with genealogy-related themes in WAGS’ “Community Connections” program.
  5. Whitman County Genealogical Society– upgrade office equipment in their research library for safety and efficiency reasons.

The Innovative Grant program was started in 2015 to support the inventive and creative efforts of local societies and organizations. When created, Recognition Chair Roxanne Lowe explained, “We know that local societies can do a lot with very little, so we’re hoping the Innovative Grant Program will be what you need to jump-start a project that has been dreamed about for some time.”

More information about the Innovative Grant program, including a Guidance Document, is available here. A blog article with a list of the 2015 and 2016 recipients and their projects is available here.

For more information, contact Roxanne Lowe, WSGS Recognition Chair at roxanne@thekeeffes.com.

Innovative Grant Applications Due March 1

by Roxanne Lowe

Local Societies:

WSGS wants to help your society! Get your Innovative Grant applications in by Wednesday, March 1, 2017!

The grants, up to $100, are designed to support the inventive and creative efforts of WSGS-member societies and organizations. Up to five grants will be awarded in 2017. These are grants — not loans!

The simple application is only ONE page and is available here. Additional guidance on the program is here.

Here are previously approved Innovative Grants, but look for more ideas in the Guidance Document:

2015

Chelan Valley Genealogical Society – purchase of new magazine containers/binders for the local library’s historical magazines
Northeast Washington Genealogical Society – tree removal in a pioneer cemetery
Skagit Valley Genealogical Society – assistance with computer purchase
Tri-City Genealogical Society – advertising & prizes for writing contest
Wenatchee Area Genealogical Society – specialized software to manage society’s extensive genealogical holdings

2016
Jefferson County Genealogical Society – software upgrade for society’s library and research database
Wenatchee Area Genealogical Society – publicity for dedication and adoption of society mascot Coyote
Whitman County Genealogical Society – assistance with purchase of computer, monitor & back-up software

For more information, contact Roxanne Lowe, WSGS Recognition Chair at roxanne@thekeeffes.com.

Society Award Deadlines Soon

by Roxanne Lowe

The Washington State Genealogical Society wants to recognize your good work! We know your society has great members doing great work — and we’d like to celebrate that. Below are the deadlines (and website links) for our recognition awards and special programs.

For more information about the WSGS recognition awards, contact Roxanne Lowe at roxanne@thekeeffes.com.