Summary of April’s Meeting
Summary of April’s Meeting
Disclaimer: Edited for public viewing. This summary may not contain all items discussed in the business or public meetings. Names mentioned are limited to Officers of OCGS.
Hello everyone,
Monday’s meeting represented our first time using the Zoom Pro, which allowed unlimited time. This was a nice change from the limitations which are inherent in the free version. Remember, this new subscription allows members to call in on their telephone line, and participate with the group through audio. Make sure you are on a telephone plan without long distance charges before using this method. Contact us if you need more information on this.
The business portion of the meeting went well. The Treasury report will be included in the minutes which will be sent out before the May meeting.
Public relations have temporarily taken a back seat. There were some things discussed regarding how we can bring the OCGS to the public’s attention, make our website services more visible, and how to increase membership. We have had a decline over the last year due to natural attrition and Covid era restrictions, but feel we can rebuild membership when we can meet in person.
Correspondence was light this month. We had a request for a cemetery listing from the 1974 cemetery inventory OCGS did for all of Okmulgee County. It is nice to know the effort of our predecessors is still helping people. In a different inquiry about an obituary, we were able to find cemetery records and funeral records as well. From a past inquiry, we wrote to update them with news that a tombstone, which had sunken below ground, had been successfully reset above ground. However, it was not a double stone as we hoped. In following up, we could not locate a stone for the spouse. However, during that effort we did locate a buried stone for someone else, which dated to 1926. This person, and stone, is not recorded on findagrave. Something we plan to remedy.
The Okmulgee Public Library is now open in a limited capacity. Hours are M-F 8:00-5:00, with a 10-person limit at one time and each patron is limited to 1 hour a day.
Old business consisted of a report that 4 of the 5 books ordered last month, for donation to the Genealogical Department at OPL, have come in. The 5th book was out of stock.
The special meeting held last week, to discuss Zoom Pro, resulted in 65% of the membership voting in favor of a 1-year subscription, with no negative votes.
Discussion turned to whether the Society would like to participate in the Pecan Festival this year with a manned information booth. This may be a way to raise awareness of the OCGS and replace some of the numbers we have lost during the last year. Also talked about, was having a car in the parade using our magnetic signs for publicity purposes.
The President is going to check out the cost for these two events.
It needs to be stressed, if we are to move forward, we will have to act quickly! We need a volunteer to lead this effort and several items will have to be procured. A tent, tables, a banner, and presentation materials along with at least 2-3 people to man the booth. Several members are checking into availability of the different items mentioned above, but a committee needs to be gathered and a vote be placed either by special meeting or in the May meeting. If you are interested in this project, please contact us through the OCGS email address. If approved, it should not take a lot of a person’s time but it needs someone to oversee that everything gets done.
The April Campfire meeting was reviewed. During that meeting our new audio video setup was successfully tested. Everything is looking good for utilizing several features when we start meeting in person.
We have been announcing, in each of our meetings, the Southern California Genealogical Society is holding a 3-day Genealogy Jamboree in June. This is their 50th annual Jamboree and will be held virtually this year. Details were given and have been added to our site, where they will be prominently displayed until the Jamboree. These details are repeated at the end of this summary.
We get quite a few visitors to our site from California who’s ancestors left Oklahoma during the depression and dust bowl days. By helping with promoting this event we hope to help our site visitors.
Under new business several ideas were brought forth. In addition to the Pecan Festival (which was considered old business based on past discussions) some new thoughts were expressed.
The first was the feasibility of working with the school systems in the county to conduct a presentation to elementary school children about different aspects of genealogy. Depending upon a teacher’s desire this could be tied in with History, Geography, Math, Science and perhaps other areas we are not aware. A member, is going to make preliminary contact with some members of the education community to get feedback on this idea. A cooperative effort could be formed with any or all of the school districts within our county. With schools using Zoom there will not, necessarily, be a need for a physical presence.
To accomplish this, someone needs to step forward to lead this effort before presenting it for a vote. Again, like the Pecan Festival, we need a volunteer to head this up to be successful. This could be a one-person project or a group project. We are open to ideas.
The above led to the idea of whether an effort could be made to reach out to persons living in nursing home facilities. It was decided to look further at this idea after the pandemic eases to the point where making contact with residents is feasible.
The meeting was then adjourned and the public meeting was opened. No guests were present.
Members were reminded Ancestry has opened up their Ancestry Library Addition product for use at home until December 31, 2021. To use you will need to get a library card at a participating library. The nearest participating libraries which allow out-of-area membership are: Tulsa Public Library ($50), Muskogee Public Library [Easter Okla. Libr. Dist] ($30), and McAlister [S. E. Okla. Libr. Dist] ($25).
These annual membership cards will allow you access to ALL internet services offered. The databases available are too numerous to mention here but access also includes ebooks, audio books, and some video media. Note, if you get a card at any of the District Libraries, they have reciprocal agreements with each other. Take a card obtained from any of the libraries in the Eastern, Southeastern, or Southern Districts to a library in a different district and receive a card for that district for free. Each district has slightly different combinations of services available from at home.
So, for $25-30 and a little driving you can receive cards for one year in all 3 districts.
Bottom line. For $25-$30 you can have access to Ancestry Library edition for 8 months to do a LOT of research and download documents found. Note: this edition does not give access to member trees but you will have access to Ancestry’s thousands and thousands of databases. A once in a life time opportunity to get valuable information in the comfort of your home.
Finally, an informal poll was taken on who has an Ancestry DNA account but does NOT have an Ancestry subscription.
This concluded the informal meeting.
We hope are doing well and hope to see you soon.
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