Ottawa Branch meetings are now being shown as a calendar that is available by going to the home page.
These are general announcements about Ottawa Branch.
On line copies of our electronic newsletter collection are available for reading on both our computers at the Branch’s library. Located in the City of Ottawa Archives, 100 Tallwood. Click here for location details.
The collection contains over 225 publications from 27 organizations and is growing. Click here for a complete list.
We continue to seek volunteers to work on your Board or on other tasks for the Branch. The descriptions of the Board positions are listed in Ottawa Branch Job Descriptions. Most of these jobs will require 5-6 hours of work per month.
For those of you willing to do something less onerous, there are a number of other tasks:
1. Program Committee: We hold ten general meetings per year, which require a speaker. The committee is responsible to solicit suggestions for speakers and then arrange their attendance. Much of this can be done from a distance with other members filling in with the local requirements. The more volunteers for the committee, the less work for each
2. Library Volunteer Coordinator: We have about 24 volunteers who spend a few hours in the City Archives each month to help visitors to our library. The schedule has been established but there are often changes needed to meet personal needs. Most changes are handled between the volunteers. There are also a couple of empty slots on the schedule that are filled on an ad hoc basis by the volunteers. We need somebody who can keep track of the changes, make sure that the volunteers are reminded of the changes, nag the volunteers to fill the empty slots, advise Archives staff of the changes, etc. This can all be handled by e-mail. If there is a need to meet with staff, I or another local members will be able to do that.
3. TONI Coordinator. The Ontario Name Index is a project of the Society and each branch needs to have a Coordinator.
4. Assistant webmaster: Our webmaster has set up the website to allow Board members and other volunteers to amend the parts that pertain to them. However, not all the volunteers have the requisite computer skills and the webmaster does not have the time to do it all himself. If you are familiar with WordPress, or would like to learn, you could be brought up to speed and given the access to allow you to handle the changes needed. This includes such items as posting meeting details, updating the list of volunteers, etc.
5. Cemetery Committee: Although the winter weather limits the seasons for this work, our new Coordinator will need volunteers to transcribe and to help prepare the transcriptions for the publisher. This is not a priority task at this time but we can keep your name until needed.
6. TONI Indexers. The Ontario Name Index (TONI) shows where information about a particular name can be found. The project has barely started and we are looking for individuals: You will take information from a document (the source) and enter it into a spreadsheet, preferably Microsoft Excel.
7 Other projects. Do you have another idea for a project that will help genealogists? We will be willing to help you make it possible.
We are also looking into some other ideas that will encourage attendance at meetings. I still need to sort them out but you may have some ideas of your won. Even a simple task such as bringing the juice and cookies to the meetings would free me from one task. Let me know if you have any questions or any other ideas. Thanks very much
