Gratitude, and a Challenge

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Greetings family history researchers, near and far, especially Members of the South King County Genealogical Society. Thank you for reelecting both Michele Mattoon as your Treasurer and me as your President. This past two years have been a challenge, but together with the Membership we have accomplished a lot. 


New SKCGS.org

One thing everyone has noticed is the new website, which is much less costly than our older site, and much easier to keep up-to-date. In addition, by building Zoom registration into our public calendar there, we've improved the security of our Zoom meetings. Each team now updates their part of the new site as needed. Thank you Tina! Tina has also streamlined much of the back end of SKCGS, making it easier to bring in new volunteers, and to share handouts and video to both Members and visitors alike. 

To stay up-to-date, check https://www.skcgs.org/home/announcements. 


Planning

Our Five-Year Planning committee has finished its work, which involved conducting a well-received survey, and testing a hybrid-meeting process, so it will be ready when local leadership for hybrid meetings steps up. Well done, Winona and crew! In addition, since one of top requests in the survey results was Beginning Genealogy classes, Winona is just finishing the first season. The society gained new members, and many newer genealogists did their homework and learned some hands-on research work. Thank you, Winona!


Member at Large

Your Member at Large, MaryLynn, formed a small Nominating Committee and ran this year's election. In addition, she has recently taken on heading up the small Membership committee, and with our Treasurer's help, cleaned up our Membership reporting system. This is a huge help to me and all the rest of the Board members who need up-to-date data. Thank you, MaryLynn!


Governing Documents

This is the season for planting, weeding, pruning, and so our ByLaws committee will soon be re-commencing work on both the Bylaws and Standing Rules to bring us into compliance with the long-awaited update to the laws governing Washington State non-profits. We'll be simplifying and updating as we go through both documents. 


Volunteer

We need your help, too! Among other things:

  • We are looking for another member of the SKCGS Education team. Please write to us at education@skcgs.org if you are interested in helping out. We share the work and have fun providing SKCGS with wonderful topics and speakers.
  • We also need two Member volunteers for a financial review to take place sometime in June. Estimated time to complete is less than two hours. Write to Treasurer@skcgs.org to volunteer.

More opportunities at https://www.skcgs.org/support-skcgs/volunteer.


Valorie Zimmerman


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