When I was elected as the President of our Group it was for a one year term, then Covid19 came along. My term subsequently extended to two years as we had to postpone our Annual General Meeting and Election of Officers. That meeting will proceed this afternoon as a face to face meeting with an option for members to join via zoom.
I have been so proud of the manner in which our members rallied and met the Covid challenges head on, I thank you all for your support and guidance during this challenging time. In the following President's Report to be tabled at today's meeting I outline some of our activities during the term.
Jill Ball - President
Lake Macquarie Family History Group
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President’s Report
August 2019 - October 2021
My current term as President of the Lake Macquarie Family History Group is nearing an end. This time has been personally rewarding for me and, hopefully, has produced some benefits for our Group.
When reflecting on this time I think of the acronym TEAM: Together everybody achieves more. The
strength of an organisation lies not with the person who wears the President's
badge but with those individuals in the group who bring a range of experience,
skills and opinions to achieve common goals.
I thank you all for your support, advice and words of
encouragement during my term. I send a special shout out to the dedicated Officers
and Committee Members who have supported and guided me on this journey. I'm so
grateful to all of our volunteers who carry out their allocated duties quietly
and efficiently. It is gratifying to arrive at the hall for our meetings and
see the members swing into action to set up, organise and then pack up for our
events. You are a well-oiled machine.
I am absolutely delighted that our group has weathered the
Covid-19 storm. Despite the challenges of the past eighteen months we remain a
vibrant organisation that has faced challenges with determination and a willingness
to embrace new tools that allow us to connect, communicate and collaborate.
Thanks to an anonymous benefactor, who donated the funds for
our Zoom account, we were able to move our monthly meetings online once the
Covid lockdown was announced. We returned to face-to-face/zoom hybrid meetings for
a short time until our second lockdown and we continue to stream our guest
speakers presentations via Zoom.
We owe a huge thank you to our treasurer, Karen, who each
week, hosts a zoom session for our members which provides an opportunity for
them to chat and learn. Our recently formed DNA Special Interest Group
organised by our member, Jan, and a small group of DNA enthusiasts is proving
to be popular with an average of 19 members in attendance each fortnight. On
occasion we have organised one on one zoom sessions to assist members solve
particular research questions or demonstrate a particular tool.
I am proud of the varied and interesting education programme
we have presented over the past two years. Although several members and I have
made speaker suggestions we are indebted to Elspeth Bradbury who has managed
the programme with grace and no fuss. Elspeth, who also co-edits our Chronicle
with Glynda, has been a wonderful mentor to me during my term.
It is pleasing to note that two of our members, who have
given many years of service to our Group, are to be recognised by The RoyalAustralian Historical Society. I congratulate our Secretary, Warren Oliver, and
Vice-President, Jennifer Myers, on their awards of Certificates of Achievement from that Society.
To be successful in the 21st century a family history
organisation needs to be involved in local and genealogical communities. The
Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/lmfhg/,
that we set up in 2019 has enabled us to connect with people in our local and
the broader genealogy community. Among the 220 followers of our page are people
from all Australian States, the US, UK and Canada.
About a third of our members have also joined our Facebook
Discussion Group, a private forum where we can connect to ask our questions,
share family history news and store documents of interest to members. It
saddens me that the majority of members are not taking advantage of this
private space for discussion.
Our blog, https://lakemacfhg.blogspot.com/,
which shares stories of Lake Macquarie people, mostly sourced from the
newspapers on Trove, and news of our events and activities, has received 9250 visitors
from Australia and beyond in less than 18 months. Many of these are because we
shared our posts to relevant Facebook Groups.
Another initiative being undertaken by our librarian Linda
and I is the cataloguing and entering of our library collection on the
Librarything platform. We have already added nearly 2000 items to that catalogue
which you can view here online: https://www.librarything.com/profile/LMFHG.
Unfortunately without regular access to our Library this task is taking longer
than expected.
Some links have been established with Lake Macquarie
Council. Earlier this year we recommenced our volunteer research service at
Speers Point Library which had to be cancelled due to COVID-19, this was
cancelled again during the latest lockdown and will recommence next month.
We recently collaborated with the Society of AustralianGenealogists and Lake Macquarie Council to run a six session beginners’ course
at Speers Point Library. We managed five of these sessions before our second
lockdown, the last session is to be delivered by zoom this week.
I have been appointed to the Cultural Collections
Consultative Committee at Lake Macquarie council where I try to advocate for
genealogy and local history services in our area. I have recently been invited
to join a group to review Council’s current Community Strategic Plan.
Our membership number has remained constant during my term,
I welcome the new members who have joined our Group, it has been a joy to
connect with you at our recent meetings. As a reasonably new arrival to the
Lake the fellowship of LMFHG members has buoyed me during my time as President.
Under our Treasurer Karen’s stewardship we have maintained a
reasonable bank balance. We only managed to hold one Bunning’s Barbeque in
October 2019 before Covid struck. We have missed this source of valuable income
and hope that we will be able allocated another day in 2022. Our ongoing onlinesecond-hand book sale has generated valuable income.
Serving as your President during COVID-19 times has given
this passionate traveller a focus during my stay-at-home months. I thank you
for giving me this opportunity and your continuing support. I will be
nominating for a further year’s term as President of LMFHG but then I plan to
graciously retire and resume my globetrotting.
President, Lake Macquarie Family History Group
9 October 2021
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