T is for Technical Team and Treasurer #AtoZChallenge

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Welcome to Day 20 of the  #AtoZChallenge.  Don't know what the AtoZChallenge is? Find out more here.

My theme is about Family History Societies.  What they are, How they work, Who is in them, Why they exist.

And which ones begin with T !  
 

Societies beginning with T

Australia

 
 
 

USA

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Family Organizations: T (from Family Search Wiki) 

 

TechnicalTeam

So much of our family history is about technical stuff these days isn't it?  We used to think we were pretty smart being able to operate a microfiche reader and a microfilm reader back in the day.  Now my mind boggles at what we need to keep a Society running.  
 
As a Society our IT infrastructure is quite significant.  We need to maintain banks of PCs, each with links to our own society's databases as well as subscription databases and useful websites.  We manage much of our day to day management business with files in the cloud.  We host meetings using Zoom and are now exploring what we need in technical terms to offer hybrid meetings that are a high quality experience for those at home as well as in person.  We have several projects which are digitizing and indexing and of course there is our library catalogue to host, not to mention emails for all our committee members and volunteers who look after different aspects of our business. 
 
And did I mention the website?  And a robust financial program to produce timely and accurate reports.  
 
You need a whole team of people to make sure that everything is running smoothly, not overloaded, maintained and is across all the latest developments.  We simply could not function without our TAG team or Technical Advisory Group.   
 
 


Treasurer

Every Society needs a treasurer to look after the books.  At our society, we have several income streams, ranging from membership, to interest in the bank, to royalties for publications, book sales, ticket sales for events or education workshops. Sometimes there are endowments or donations that have been given to the Society.  A Treasurer may be asked to produce forecasts for the management team and certainly reports for the members at the AGM.  They need to be able to answer questions about cash flow confidently and make sure good systems are in place for accountability.  A good Treasurer is worth their weight in gold.

What have I forgotten that begins with T and makes a Society tick? Thank you for taking the time to think about family history societies and what they do for you and your research.



Comments

GeniAus said…
And the members of the Technical Team need to be lifelong learners continually updating their knowledge.

Are my frustrations showing???
April 23, 2021 at 12:35 PM
crgalvin said…
I like the idea of a TAG team. In order to prepare people to take on technical tasks those with the ability must be prepared to Train others.
April 23, 2021 at 10:52 PM
ScotSue said…
I find your theme so interesting. You may well have already told us this, but it would be good to know how many members are in your society and how big is the management team. In my experience of various societies, treasurers are like gold dust - difficult to find and retain, as financial matters become more complex.

April 24, 2021 at 6:35 AM
Alex Daw said…
Hi Jill, Carmel and Sue - thank you all so much for taking the time to swing by and comment. Ha Ha Jill, yes I can hear the frustration from here :) Carmel - yes! I need to include Training don't I? Sue - as at 18 January we had 1031 members and were pleased to report at end of March (end of our annual reporting period) we had increased membership by 4% which is pretty amazing considering COVID and a great credit to the management team who really made the transition to Zoom very quickly. There are nine people on the management committee (t can be up to 10 I believe) but we also have so many wonderful volunteers who keep the place ticking over.
April 24, 2021 at 8:45 AM
Molly's Canopy said…
Great and timely issues. The technical teams in my gen societies have been fantastic -- switching to online learning during lockdown and reaching out far and wide for presenters, which has helped tremendously while we cannot travel. https://mollyscanopy.com/2021/04/talking-on-the-busy-signal-atozchallenge/
April 25, 2021 at 6:54 AM
Alex Daw said…
Thanks Molly - I think COVID has provided us with an opportunity to rethink how we do operate and consider who we may not have been serving previously. Now we are using Zoom we are much more aware that nearly 40% of our membership (who live outside the city centre) is able to participate in Society activities more fully.
April 25, 2021 at 8:02 AM
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