About:

Officially, they are the Escapees Genealogy Birds of a Feather (BOF). This means they are members of the Escapee RV Club who have a special interest in genealogy. Any Escapee can participate in the group. They are also known as the SKP Genies.

The Escapees is an RV organization made up of serious RVers. Serious means they work hard at RVing the best way possible. The name Escapee comes from the letters S, K and P, which represent Support, Knowledge and Parking. Most Escapees are full-timers. Full-time means that they live mostly in their RV and a significant number of them for 12 months a year.

The SKP Genies are Escapees that do genealogy. The great thing about them is they can and do genealogy on-site. They can economically go where their ancestors went and learn directly from the records what their ancestors did.

Purpose:

To share with each other, the genealogy information, resources, expertise and experiences they have gained while doing genealogy on the road.

What we do:

Most genealogists must be "arm chair" genealogists. Time, work or money tends to limit the average genealogist from doing much on-site research. This means they can do great genealogy, but it can take many years for the records or data to be collected for analysis. On-site visits can reduce the time to weeks or less. If you read the article "Doing Genealogy on the Road" in the March-April 2000 issue of Everton's Genealogical Helper on page 44, you will see just how much can be accomplished in a week. This is what the SKP Genies do. More importantly, they can go anywhere for more immediate information, even if it means coming back several times to a location because of what they learned elsewhere. They also do it economically. It costs them anywhere from $0 to $15 a night, or as much as $20 to $40 a night near metropolitan areas instead of $30 to $200 a night for a hotel room. They will eat breakfast and dinner in their own home, their RV. They don't spend every morning, noon and night eating in expensive or fast-food restaurants unless they so choose.

Needless to say, as a group the SKP Genies have become some very experienced genealogists. One of the characteristics of a SKP is a willingness to share. They share friendships and experience. They also share genealogy data and expertise.

Officers:

The SKP Genies don't really have officers, they have an Administrative Team. The members of the team are:

• Bob Ed - SKP Genies Escapade Coordinator
• Barbara Nuehring - Secretary/Treasurer
• Carol Brown - Newsletter Editor
• Richard Pack - Mailing Coordinator
• Pat Sharp - Library List Coordinator
• Pete Bradish - Webmaster

History:

The Escapee Genealogy BOF, began after the 1991 Spring Escapade (RV rally) in Roseburg, Oregon with about a dozen charter members. One of these wanted to keep in touch with the rest of the Escapees who shared her interest in genealogy. She put together a brief newsletter with an emphasis on sharing with the other members. The word spread and other Escapees asked to receive the newsletter. Soon expenses were incurred that had to be shared and a subscription charge was established. At the 1994 Spring Escapade the editor asked that someone else in the BOF, now boasting 75 members, take over. The BOF group decided on a 4 person administration team which now handles the functions of Secretary, Treasurer, the library location and surname lists, and newsletter editor. As of May 2000, there are 300 subscribers with four charter members remaining.

Rallies:

Twice a year the Escapees have RV rallies called Escapades, one in the spring and one in the fall. Of those one is in the west and one is in the east part of the US. They last about 4 days depending on whether you count those days some come in early just to renew friendships. Presently, around 1000 SKP RVs (not including vendors) come to an Escapade. The SKP Genies now hold a post Escapade rally for any Escapees that want to come and learn more about genealogy.

At each of these Escapades a number of seminars are given. Many seminars are given by vendors who want to educate the Escapees on their general product area (diesel engines, solar panels and inverters, traveling in various parts of the world in an RV, computers, etc.). A large percentage of the seminars are given by Escapee or guest speakers on purely educational topics (gourmet cooking, packing everything you own in an RV, cell phones, e-mail on the road, and the like). The SKP Genies give an educational seminar at each of the Escapades which is appropriate for all levels of genealogical experience. They also hold post Escapade genealogy rallies which last another day and a half. The group usually goes out to dinner at some special place for one of the evenings. The SKP Genie post Escapade rally has been averaging 30+ RVs for 40 to 50 genealogists (not all spouses share the genealogy bug).

The subjects and activities shared at the SKP Genie rallies is initially unstructured except for an introduction by you on yourself and your genealogy (surnames, areas of experience, etc.). Follow on subjects are based on who's there and what do they have to share or want to learn. Recently these subjects have included how to do genealogy on the Internet, the gathering of all the Confederate and Union graves project, the sharing and searching of various genealogy CDs, and what would they like to have on their first web site.

Membership:

To join the SKP Genies, all you have to do is be an Escapee. For more on the Escapees, look at their web site or call 800-757-2582 and have them send you information. If you are or become an Escapee, you can subscribe to the SKP Genies Newsletter. It's $8.00 per year to cover production and administrative costs of the five issues. To subscribe, please write to Barbara Nuehring at: SKP Genealogy BOF, 142 Rainbow Drive  # 4228, Livingston, Texas 77399-1042

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