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20 Creative Programs for Your Society
As Education Committee Chairpersons, we are faced with preparing a slate of programs for our local societies. We usually think of speakers appearing each month on a variety of topics. While these are great programs one can also provide a little variety by using some of the following ideas. It is also a good idea to have one or two of these ready to go just in case a speaker needs to cancel at the last minute.
1. Have a social once a year. This could be a 4th of July picnic, a Christmas party, or a banquet honoring outgoing and incoming officers. Your members love to visit before, between and after your meetings. A social allows them to visit for the majority of the time.
2. Allow your members to bring and brag. These are great sessions where each person gets to share a recent breatkthrough with others. These "testimonials" often inspire others to try similar research avenues. Be sure to limit each contribution to 5 minutes or less.
3. Have a local funeral home director or cemetery administrator discuss the types of genealogical information they have in their files.
4. Meet jointly with the local historical society, museum guild, or friends of the library and share your goals and joint interests.
5. Invite the head librarian from your local Family History Center to provide a tour of library holdings and computer use.
6. Have your members fill out a family group sheet from information in an obituary or a census form.
7. Pick four of your prominent members to sit as a "panel of experts." Their fellow members can ask them research questions and see what they suggest.
8. Purchase the Ancestry videos and show one at a meeting followed by group discussion. The Fiske Genealogical Library has a set of 10 videos on Beginning Research and the British Isles. These can be rented for a presentation.
9. Have a goal setting session. Set a couple long term and short term goals for your society. You can also use this session to ask what topics your members want covered at your society programs.
10. Invite a local public librarian to explain how interlibrary loan works and what genealogical resources are available.
11. Invite a local surveyor to explain how land descriptions are written.
12. Have someone from the county auditors office talk about information of genealogical interest which can be found at the court house.
13. Have someone from a title company come and talk about land records they research.
14. Invite someone from a photo shop to talk about old photo restoration.
15. Have a community pioneer come and share what life was like in your area 50-100 years ago.
16. Have your members give book reviews. Report on well known references as well as the obscure. An old favorite might be a new source for a beginner.
17. Invite a genealogy book vendor to come and share their inventory. Remind your members to bring their check books!
18. Have a member share what is available on USGenWeb, World GenWeb or Rootsweb.
19. Have an Immigrant Night. Ask members to be prepared to tell how their immigrant family came to the U.S.
20. Have a Preservation Night. Have members tell how they organize, catalog, and preserve their documents and family photos.
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