Newsflash 41

Newsflash 41

After another successful conference and AGM, it is my pleasure to write to you again as Guild Chairman. To keep you all up to date, this Newsflash will inform you of several pieces of ‘Guild news’:

Guild governance
Master Craftsmen of the Guild
Chairman’s address to the AGM
Other News from the Conference
Events – Conference and next seminar

Firstly, Guild governance - there have been a few changes in the officers and post-holders within the committee - already updated on the Guild website! The officers are now as follows:

Chairman - Kirsty Gray
Vice Chairman – Anne Shankland
Secretary - Jan Cooper
Treasurer - Cliff Kemball

Subcommittees

Our subcommittees will continue under the current chairmanship of John Coldwell (Marketing) and Gordon Adshead (Seminars). I must take this opportunity to publicly thank Gordon and his team for their superb organisation of the Warrington Conference. It was lovely for me to be able to have a ‘low profile’ this year, as one of the attendees put it!

Postholders

There are many posts within the Guild and I am pleased that the ship is rather steadier this year than last, so there are fewer changes in personnel.

As I highlighted in my report to the AGM, Keith Bage has been Editor of our Journal for three years and has decided to step down and challenge a new Editor to take the Journal to new heights. Teresa Pask was elected to this post.

ACADEMIC CO-ORDINATOR Andrew Millard
ARCHIVIST Peter Copsey
DATA MANAGER Ken Mycock
DNA ADVISOR Susan Meates
EDITOR Teresa Pask
E-LIBRARIAN Colin Pattrick
FORUM MANAGER Wendy Archer
FRONT OFFICE MANAGER Roy Rayment
LIBRARIAN Roy Rayment
LOOK-UP MANAGER Gillian Stevens
MARRIAGE CHALLENGE COORDINATOR Peter Copsey
MARRIAGE INDEX COORDINATOR Mary Rix
MENTOR COORDINATOR Hilary Gardener
NEWSWATCH COORDINATOR Jim Isard
PROBATE INDEX COORDINATOR Gerald Cooke
PRODUCTION MANAGER Peter Walker
PROFILES AND ARCHIVE ADMINISTRATOR Paul Millington
PUBLICITY MANAGER Des Gander
REGIONAL REPRESENTATIVES CO-ORDINATOR Corrinne Goodenough
REGISTRAR Stephen Daglish
RENEWALS SECRETARY Peter Copsey
SALES MANAGER Vacant
STAND MANAGER Corrinne Goodenough
VOLUNTEERS COORDINATOR Glenys Marriott
WARP ADMINSTRATOR Peter Walker
WEBMASTER Anne Shankland

Following the announcement of the new Guild Committee and post holders after lunch on Saturday, a highly suitable candidate has come forward to take on the role of Sales Manager and another Guild member has offered to serve on the Guild Committee. More details on these appointments will follow after our full Committee meeting in May.

Representatives

The Guild is represented by members on many other organisations and I am grateful to those who give up their time to attend meetings and committees on our behalf. Please do contact these representatives if you have any questions, issues you would like them to raise, suggestions etc.

AFFHO David Evans
AFHSW Geoff Riggs
BGRUC Jeanne Bunting
FFHS Peter Copsey
NGS Robert Young
PROBATE USER GROUP Roy Rayment
SAFHS Graham Tuley and Samantha Godley
TNA DIGITAL ARCHIVING PANEL Geoff Riggs

As I noted in my AGM report, we have over 200 of our over 2300 members who contribute as volunteers to the work of the Guild. Including those in Committee roles, the many people who take part in sub committees, regional representatives and willing volunteers at fairs contribute many hours to make things run smoothly. In addition there are dozens who give freely of their time on project work.

I was overwhelmed with the response to my request for volunteers in May last year and it goes without saying, the more volunteers we have, the more we can do as an organisation. If you feel you have any skills you could offer in terms of running the Guild as an organisation, an idea for a Guild project or anything else you feel that we should be doing, please do get in touch with me at chairman@one-name.org.

Master Craftsmen of the Guild

The Guild Fellowship Scheme was set up in order to recognise those Guild members considered especially worthy of honour, either because of their level of expertise in genealogy and one-name studies, or for their contribution to the running of the Guild - or both. In keeping with the concept of a Guild, each individual recognised in this manner will be known as a Master Craftsman of the Guild (MCG). Nominations were invited from all members and three further MCG’s were announced at the AGM – Gordon Adshead, Roger Goacher and Mary Rix. Some people at the Conference expressed their surprise at how few awards there were – they cannot be awarded without your nominations! So, if you feel there is someone missing from the current list of MCG’s, please send your nominations for 2012 to Jan Cooper, Secretary (secretary@one-name.org).

Chairman's address to the AGM

My verbal report to the AGM was packed full of information and news to bring attendees up to date and the text is available in the Chairman’s Corner of the Members Room for those who were unable to join us in Warrington.

Other news from the Conference

As always, photographs of the conference will be available on the website soon and I will look forward to seeing the article in the next journal to tell you all about it! Although I kept a lower profile than usual, I met many new people at the conference this year - I hope you all enjoyed it!

Two terrific new offers were announced at the Conference –

My Heritage – this website is the most popular family network on the web, providing genealogists with tools and facilities to explore and grow their family history. They have:
- More than 55 million registered members worldwide including more than 3 million members in the UK
- Geographic presence: Approximately 200 countries in 6 continents
- Over 700 million Profiles (names in family trees)
- 17 million Family trees
- 36 Languages
I am delighted to announce that MyHeritage.com are offering a free three-year “PremiumPlus” MyHeritage subscription (worth over £200) to all current Members of the Guild. This will allow you to gain valuable “smart matches” against a database of more than 700 million profiles/individuals. You can also host your data in their safe and secure environment at no charge during this three year period. There is a ‘New!’ flash in the Members Room which will link to the promotional codes page for My Heritage.
The Genealogist
We have also negotiated a discount on both Diamond and Gold subscriptions for Guild members from The Genealogist: £40 off Diamond and £10 off Gold. If you already have a subscription you can still take advantage of this offer when your renewal comes due. For those who want to store their certificates you can purchase Certificate Binders and Family History Binders: at 30% off normal price and you can purchase S&N Data CDs at 20% off normal prices. Again, the discount code is available in the Members Room.

This year, there was a change in the Guild Award. There was a marginal improvement on the seven essay entries from last year – this time, eight entries were received! The winner was Colin Ulph with ‘How I run the ULPH one-name study.’ Colin was not able to attend the Conference. His prize is on its way to him - a 12-month subscription sponsored by FindmyPast.

We received an interesting and well thought out collection of 17 entries to the Guild Poster Competition at the Conference. Thank you to all the members who contributed. You may well see your poster again in a Guild promotional activity! The winner and runner up of the poster competition was Peter Rugman with his posters ‘Have you hit a Brick Wall?’ and ‘Digging for Your Ancestors’. Peter was presented with his prize on Sunday afternoon – a 12-month subscription, sponsored by FindmyPast. Well done Peter!

Events: Conference and next Seminar

Next year’s conference will be held in Maldon, Essex at the Five Lakes Hotel, Golf, Country Club and Spa, Colchester Road, Tolleshunt Knights, Maldon CM9 8HX from Friday 13th - Sunday 15th April 2012, with the AGM on Saturday at 9am.

Don’t forget the forthcoming Guild Seminar on Mining Sources, taking place at Northumberland Museum and Archives, QE2 Country Park, Woodhorn, Ashington, Northumberland, NE63 9YF on 21st May 2011 – further details are available on the Guild website here.

Kirsty Gray
Chairman

Back

Newsfeed Index