Collaboration: the 2023 Year Ahead

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COLLABORATION

2023 will be the Year of Collaboration for me, as President of this society. Everything we do will serve to foster collaboration, as we share resources, encourage and even give helpful criticism of work products as we work together for our mutual goals. The South King County Genealogical Society was described as "primarily educational" in our Articles of Incorporation. Our mission is to

  • Stimulate interest in genealogy and aid individual members in compiling their family records
  • Seek genealogical and historical knowledge
  • Preserve and perpetuate the records of our ancestors
  • Promote the preservation of public and private genealogical materials

So, we meet! And we write, and talk and listen, and help one another.



EDUCATIONAL MEETINGS AND RESOURCES

We've had monthly meetings since our founding, although early records are sparse. Within a few years, we began amassing a lending library (now housed at Auburn KCLS and the Kent FHC), hosting special interest and user groups, transcribing and publishing records. Although I don't know about early study groups, our recent ones really took off in January 2021, studying DNA. We've also studied genealogical proof, crafting citations, and are just finishing Research Like A Pro. For more information, see the online group. Our study groups are a Member-only benefit. Our earliest user group was the Computer User Group, which has now morphed into TUG, the Tech User Group. For more groups, see our Calendar. For meeting invitations, information and discussion, join the online subgroups of interest. 



ONLINE PARTICIPATION

Courtesy of Pixabay
Not all groups meet; for example our Family History Writing group is where we share tips or writing for peer review. And we're hoping to reboot the Research Collaboration group this next year. Tough problems can be conquered when we work together! Another fascinating project is our shared study of the Black Heritage of Franklin, Washington, now a ghost town outside of the village of Black Diamond. Join the group if you would like to contribute to this ongoing research.




EXPANDING OUR REACH

Since Covid-19 changed our lives, our meetings have all moved online, which opened us up to the world, and our attendance shows it! Our group is enriched by the participation from people all over the US, and sometimes, the world! One meeting that's really fun is our Genealogy Chats, which happen once a month. In fact, in summer 2021 we had two chats a month! I was going to chart the growth but lacked some data to make that worthwhile. Instead, here are some images of the tables of attendance.


CHATS AND LECTURES: METRICS



Reading data can be boring, but it shows us how we're doing. We can't improve what we don't measure. To see where the data is kept, check out the Wiki pages, where we also have pages of local resources, Youtube genealogy channels & podcasts, SKCGS Member websites, and books for pleasure, learning, and lookups. Most subgroups have wikis for their collected data as well. 



Courtesy of Pixabay

Our volunteers are fantastic, and we'd love to welcome you to our Board meetings on Zoom to see how we work behind the scenes. Join one of our teams no matter what your skill or interests are, whether it's writing the occasional blog, doing artwork, designing some merch, improving our website, publicity, running meetings or helping beginning genealogists at local libraries.  It's fun and so rewarding!

Get in touch! Info@skcgs.org or write to the Board: Board@skcgs.org.

Valorie Zimmerman




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