Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Dear Randy: How is Your Genealogy Society Dealing With the COVID-19 Problem?

An email reader asked me how my local genealogical society is dealing with the social distancing imposed on businesses, organizations and individuals as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Both of my local societies, San Diego Genealogical Society and Chula Vista Genealogical Society, have closed down in-person meetings.  Taking them one at a time:

1)  San Diego Genealogical Society

*  Communicated via email with the membership about the shutdown, and sent invitations to members for Zoom meetings 

*  Held the DNA Interest Group meeting on Zoom in March and April, with host Colin Whitney.

*  Held the German Interest Group meeting on Zoom in April, with host Amy Chichester.

*  Will hold the April Program meeting on Saturday, 25 April with two presentations by Nancy Loe at 10 a.m. using Zoom.  

*  May 2020 activities are TBD at this time.

2)  Chula Vista Genealogical Society

*  Communicated via email and monthly newsletter about the shutdown, and sent invitations to members for Zoom meetings.

*  Held the Research Group meeting on Zoom on 8 April, with host Randy Seaver.

*  Held the DNA Interest Group meeting on Zoom on 15 April, with host Randy Seaver.

*  Will hold the April program meeting on Wednesday, 29 April at 12 noon, with a presentation by Randy Seaver ("Discovering George W. Seaver's Life Story"), hosted by Randy Seaver on Zoom.

*  May 2020 activities are TBD at this time.

NOTE:  Zoom is an online video conferencing program/app that permits users to join one or more persons (up to 100 for the free version of Zoom Meeting) for a discussion or presentation.  Some families and groups have been using Zoom for several years.  Many genealogical societies have turned to Zoom meetings in the past two months to replace on-site society meetings.

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Copyright (c) 2020, Randall J. Seaver

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2 comments:

Marian B. Wood said...

Hi Randy, Here in CT, a couple of local genealogy clubs are offering live webinars instead of in-person presentations. It at least allows the educational aspect of the groups to continue, even though members can't network in person during a "meeting."

Donald said...

Zoom is a privacy and security nightmare though...