Takeaways from NGS Sacramento

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https://conference.ngsgenealogy.org/

Takeaways from the National Genealogical Society 2022 Conference

NGS2022GEN Souvenirs

This past week, I attended the NGS 2022 Conference, the first in-person event since 2019. Because everyone was vaccinated and masking was universal, I was comfortable attending.

After hearing Andre Kearns' [1] keynote at the NGS Banquet Friday night, I am so proud to be an NGS Member, both personally and as Delegate for our Society. The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee [2] which Kearns chairs is doing the work necessary to come to terms with the exclusionary past of the NGS, and to begin instead to tell a far more complete story of our families' and nation's past. His story about searching his son's lineage back to 1619 and a free man of color was inspiring. 

If Kearns could find those scarce, precious documents and prove that case, then there is hope for all of us researchers. If Harvard and Georgetown Universities can confront their past as enslaving institutions, there is hope that more institutions will own their history, do this work, and help descendants find the ancestors whose identities were erased and humanity denied. 

NGS Leadership and Communication

I found the NGS staff, conference volunteers, speakers and exhibitors all not only knowledgeable but also helpful and eager to meet the needs of us attendees personally, and as society delegates. Kate Smith [3] found me and asked more than once to discuss with her any concerns or issues. Cheri Hudson Passey [4] invited comments and suggestions. This Delegate Council meeting was designed to ask probing questions about our shared future, and the leaders wanted to hear not just concerns but also our thoughts, experiences and strategies as we deal with a rapidly changing social landscape. The societies of the past will not take us into the future.

Developing Foresight

NGS2022 goodies

On the other hand....

Attendance was down this year, and most participants  were older white women. I was cheered to see the other parts of our American Mosaic, which was the theme of this 2022 Conference. I began doing genealogy and attending meetings when I was in my thirties, and I asked quite a few other society leaders if they were drawing that group of people to their meetings and--they are not. Times have changed, some of the practices of genealogy have changed as genealogy has moved online, much of it provided by companies competing for our money. We have not yet confronted these trends.

We need to change even more than we have to remain relevant to our community. We must do this in order to fulfill our mission: educational...and devoted exclusively to furthering genealogical research and interest in family and local history. - http://skcgs.org/about.html

To serve our community in South King County, we need to reflect South King County; to look more like our community and reach out to the parts of our population we are not serving now, such as children, young people, minority ethnic, racial and religious groups. We are missing their experience and perspectives. 

We delegates participated in a short workshop about developing foresight. In preparation, we watched this 10-minute video: https://view.knowledgevision.com/presentation/6d8fab3a511f45308dde22d2f1877c38 and considered these four propositions:

  • Intentional learning is a non-negotiable requirement in the turbulent 2020s
  • Foresight is an intentional process of learning with the future
  • We can make an important contribution to building our society's practice of foresight
  • For all its uncertainly, we cannot flee the future. - Barbara Jordan

I look forward to working with readers who have ideas about how to serve South King County Genealogical Society and help us learn to think with the future.

  1. https://www.playbackngs.com/presenter/details/index/id/73599/
  2. https://www.ngsgenealogy.org/dei/
  3. NGS Organizations and Communities Manager
  4. NGS Vice President, Society & Organization Management
Valorie Cowan Zimmerman
SKCGS President & NGS Delegate


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