American
Historical Society of Germans From Russia
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Minutes of Genealogical Research/Service Committee
Committee Members Present: Elizabeth Barker, Nicholas Bretz, Al Hart, Ed Hoak, Ron Rutz, Lauren Brantner, Dennis Zitterkopf – Vice Chair, and Karen Penner – Chair. Excused: Roger Rutz, Patricia Sellenrick, Ron Rutz; Staff Members Present: Diane White, Pam Wurst, Yulia Tsymbal Guests: Barbara Bretz, Jerry Siebert, Frank McLean, and Dr. Nina Vaschkau
1. Welcome: A welcome was extended to committee members and guests. 2. Minutes: The minutes of March 6, 2008, were approved as printed. 3. Announcements and Miscellaneous:
4. AHSGR/GRHS 2008 Convention at Casper, WY: A. Nick and Barbara Bretz and Dennis Zitterkopf have worked hard to set up the Heritage Hall for the Casper Convention, and the hall has come together. Barb and Nick have put together “notebooks” for the various regional Volga groups. There are several VCs that did not respond, but most did. The several Volga Mennonite villages are included with the Ukrainian Mennonite villages. B. This committee will evaluate the Heritage Hall concept at the October board meeting, and we will determine if the same concept will be continued at future conventions or whether we will return to the village night concept (or both). 5. Report on CLUES 2008 edition: · Diane reported the project will be completed. Jim Wiebert is not working on the project, but temporary help at headquarters is. The missing information is checked against paper records and file in Metafile/Results Plus is now cleaned up. Listing SEN numbers and corresponding surnames is a manual task that needs to be worked on. Once her work is finished, it will NOT be in a format to publish and will need volunteer help to format. Diane is to let the committee know how we can help format CLUES. · When new members submit information, a copy is sent to Frank by volunteers to add to CLUES. 6. Village Coordinators Ad Hoc Committee Report (established to look at VC Policies and Issues) Dennis Zitterkopf, Chair, Ed Hoak and Nick Bretz
Dennis, with input from his committee, prepared a proposed or draft Statement of Purpose (SOP) that sets out the suggested role and responsibilities of VCs to the society, as well as that of the society to the VCs.
ACTION TAKEN: It was moved by Elizabeth Barker, and seconded by Ed Hoak that the Genealogy Committee recommends to the board that the co-chairs of the Village Coordinators serve on the Genealogy Committee as either a member of the board (if they already serve on the board) or as a nonmember. Motion carried.
7. Surname Charts Status: · Nick has talked with Brent Mai. Brent does not want his surname charts to be sold, but does want them available for researchers to use. He will talk to Brent again this week. · Karen has tried to call Ruth Schultz, but she is unable to talk by phone because of hearing difficulties. Ed suggested that Karen see if Barb Bretz would be willing to talk personally with Ruth to see under what conditions AHSGR can keep the charts. · Another issue regarding the surname charts is what to do with the charts after an owner has died.
8. Obituary Cards, Files and SOAR Station in Library · The GC reviewed Al Hart’s “Obit Storage Plan.” We agreed the reference to “Staff” in Step 3, 4, and 5 be removed and will adopt and follow the plan as edited. · Long term goal is to have all obituaries available in electronic form (SOAR). Ron Greenwald is capturing all obits on list serve; Lauren Brantner is gathering all obits in areas of Colorado each week. · Reviewed possibility and necessity of setting up a second SOAR station when multiple researchers are at library · Goal is to store obit cards that have been scanned and now in metal files in boxes, optimum size would be 4 drawers in one box and place on south shelving in vault with present date posted on box. New obits that have been scanned would not be integrated into present obit files, but placed in separate boxes. Boxes will need to be carefully labeled. · By Agreement: Retention policy of scanned paper obituaries is three (3) years from the date posted on the box. At that point (in 3 years) the policy is to be reviewed prior to destroying the paper obits. · Obits now scanned at Marge Benson’s in Calif. need to be moved or sent to Nebraska. We agreed to either pay to return boxes to Lincoln or returned to Lincoln by Jerry Siebert (his suggestion). · In the future all obits will be scanned in Nebraska. Dennis has worked with Norma Somerheiser and Barbara Schmidt to scan obits. · Pam reported that there are times when there are multiple visitors at the library, with each person/group waiting for time at the SOAR station. It was discussed to have a “Sign-in” Notebook with time given of when researcher begins work at SOAR station, and giving that party 30 minutes. · ACTION: It was moved by Lauren, seconded by Ed, that we limit time at the SOAR computer to 30 minutes if someone is waiting to use the computer and that we revisit the issue at our next board meeting of visitors signing in with time given when working at the SOAR station. Motion carried.
9. Genealogy Information in Boxes in the Vault. Regarding the boxes of donated information in the vault, the committee felt this may be data the Historical Committee should review.
10. Status of Library Cataloguing. Pam advised she has completed cataloguing all books. A big project would be an inventory to match books on the shelves with the library cards. It is a slow, tedious project, but is necessary to determine the books that are not in the library. Missing books need to be removed from the inventory before proceeding with an automated system. Dennis is to send Diane what information describes the software for library automation and how to obtain it.
11. Photo Archive Indexing. Diane is working on photo archive indexing as time allows.
12. Library Book Scanning Project. · The rare and hard to replace books and documents need to be identified and scanned, such as the 1898 Lincoln Blue Book. We do not have the ability to scan books. · The committee discussed scanning family history books to add to SOAR at a later date, particularly new donations coming into the library, if donors agreed. We will ask Ron Rutz to draft a form letter for people donating family history books for permission to place book on SOAR at some point in the future.
13. Village Night Revamp for 2009 Convention. Evaluate 2008 convention and discuss Village Night at 2009 Convention at October meeting.
14. Genealogy Committee Long Term Strategic Plan – Karen will work on preparing one for the October meeting.
15. Dennis would like an article re: the Gedlist and what it can do for you for the next Newsletter. Lauren Brantner agreed to prepare the article.
16. Meeting adjourned at 4:30 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted, Karen Penner, Chair |
Visit the SOAR web site, the only genealogy and historical record site recommended by AHSGR KEYWORDED information, searchable by ALL surnames and places mentioned in the image with spelling variations and/or errors compensated for with SOUNDEX for the Obituary database, AHSGR Journals, AHSGR Work Papers, AHSGR Clues, Cemetery Records, Ships Passenger Lists, Surname Charts, Stumpp Book, Bohlender Book and Bessarabian Birth, Death & Marriage Records. |
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