Regional Coordinators

As stated on the home page of the ISOGG website, "meetings are important, as they allow for the dissemination of information and to maintain the momentum.  While we are geographically spread out, we will do what is possible to hold meetings."  To facilitate this, we've introduced the volunteer position of "Regional Coordinator" (RC).

An RC's duty is to coordinate and hold at least one ISOGG meeting a year within their region.  The RC's will do what they possibly can to coordinate meetings within their region. Some meetings may cover several states, or provinces, while others may have several meetings within one state or province. (i.e.: California, Texas, New South Wales, etc.)  Regions may be subdivided down.  For example: Allen Blancett is the RC for the Southeast, and Peter Roberts is the RC for Atlanta, GA.  The state of Georgia still needs an RC and other cities in Georgia, like Augusta, could have its own RC as well.

As also stated on the ISOGG homepage, ISOGG does not have funding to support the society, so RC's are not reimbursed for any expenses the meeting(s) may incur. It's recommended that RC's choose a place for the meeting that they can obtain for free, like a room at a genealogical society, LDS Family History Center, or library. Some RC's may also choose to hold the meeting in their home or gather for a no-host meal at a restaurant.

When your meeting is scheduled, send an e-mail to isogg@msn.com with the date, place, time, and any additional details to be listed on the ISOGG main site.  You might also want to send announcements to the various mailing lists and forums inviting people.  Do not list any information that you do not want out there for the general public to see (i.e.: address, phone, etc.) Next, list the meeting info on the "calendar" section of the ISOGG Yahoo site, and also submit it to Megan Smolenyak's "Gentealogy" website calendar at the following link:
http://www.genetealogy.com/cgi-bin/calpublisher/monthly.cgi

When a person joins ISOGG, they are automatically added to a Yahoo mailing list for the region in which they reside. This is to notify members of meetings or genetic genealogy presentations in their area. ISOGG membership information is confidential and to be used for ISOGG purposes only, and NOT used for marketing or any other non-ISOGG related manner.  

Always remember, you are volunteering to promote genetic genealogy, and this should not be an inconvenience for you.  You volunteered because this is your hobby and you enjoy it.  You are free to resign as an RC at anytime, just e-mail isogg@msn.com if you do.

Meeting  Format and Agenda(s)

Meeting w/ Presentation and/or Workshop

For your first ISOGG meeting, try to arrange a DNA presentation or workshop with the meeting. Schedule the meeting for 2 1/2 hours, and use the first or last 1/2 hour for an ISOGG member meeting.  Agenda items for the ISOGG member meeting should include:

     1. A brief background of ISOGG and the society's mission
     2. Current items that ISOGG advocates
     3. Feedback from members

When conducting the first ISOGG member meeting with presentation/workshop, the presentation is recommended to be an introductory to genetic genealogy.  Follow-up presentations may include: administrating a surname project, utilizing "reverse genealogy" to find project participants, building a DNA project website, etc.

Tea Time Meeting - UK or Coffee Chat Meeting - US

In some areas, there may be very few ISOGG members.  Remember, it only takes two people to make a "meeting".   Schedule a time and place to meet.  Do publicize it, you never know, you may get others who join you on the spur of the moment.  You have a common interest in genetic genealogy,  Discuss it, brainstorm, review where you are with genetic genealogy, and then where you want to be. 

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