As many genealogical societies continue to think about whether or not to host virtual, hybrid, or just in-person meetings, two organizations on either side of the pond have committed to providing their local and distant members with online presentations and their local members with in-person meetings.
Finding ways to provide benefits to local and distant members is a challenge many societies’ boards face.
Here’s how two genealogical societies have decided to meet the challenge.
Canada
The Quinte Branch of Ontario Ancestors in Trenton, located a couple of hours east of Toronto, has almost 50 local members plus a larger number who live far outside the area.
Here’s what happened at their January monthly meeting.
More than four times the number of local members — at least 220 people — attended last Saturday’s presentation about Ontario land records, delivered by Ken McKinlay who lives in Ottawa.
As the past chair watched the audience pour in, almost in awe, he told us that the branch will hold hybrid meetings in the future and will purchase new equipment to do so. For the next few months, however, their meetings will be virtual only.
After the meeting, Quinte Branch sent a survey to people who watched the online presentation, asking how comfortable they would be attending an in-person meeting in June or September. The results have not been shared publicly.
England
The Essex Society for Family History (ESFH) in England faced a similar issue about whether to hold in-person meetings only or hybrid meetings.
During the past couple of years, a large number of their members watched the talks and workshops online on Zoom. The good news for many of us who live far from Essex, the society has decided this will continue in the future.
After “lockdown” was over, ESFH expected local members would be keen to return to live meetings. That hasn’t been the case.
Looking at the recent attendance for headquarters and the three branches, only five percent of members attended in person. Of course, a number of their members live too far to travel to a meeting.
Apparently, the society’s live meetings and events had been running at a loss for some time. They even considered increasing the cost of membership, but felt that it would be unfair to expect members who could not attend live meetings to subsidize the relatively small number that could.
Measures have already been taken to reduce event costs, such as using smaller venues and reducing the number of meetings and live speakers. But as venue costs are expected to rise further, they decided that the members who attend live meetings should contribute more to help cover the cost of their venue.
It was agreed that ESFH members should contribute £3 (about CDN$5) for every live event they attend, as non-members currently do, to cover the cost of live events at each of the four branches.
The society planes to monitor the situation and branches will be able to adjust this cost if they are able to increase their attendance figures and/or reduce their costs in the future.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out — on both sides of the pond.
As someone who is a distant member of a few genealogical societies, I hope they all continue to provide online opportunities for their members and that the societies benefit by doing so.
