The Education Committee has been hard at work these last few months looking for ways to provide educational opportunities to ISGS members and the genealogical community as a whole. Here are a few things we are working on implementing in the very near future:
Webinars
Each month ISGS will offer an educational webinar with topics focusing on Illinois research, methodology, and beginning research. The webinars will be open to the public when they are presented live. After that, an archived copy of the webinar will be available to ISGS members at any time through our members-only website.
More information will be available soon, as we hope to kick-off our first webinar in January. If you have ideas for topics or are a speaker who would like to discuss opportunities, please email the Education Committee Chair, Julie Tarr, at isgseducation@ilgensoc.org.
Blog Content
Starting very soon, we will begin to post more articles to this blog that are educational in nature, such as how to use/find a particular record type, researching at Illinois repositories, and research stories that can help and inspire others. We are seeking guest authors to submit these articles since everyone has something to share and we are a community that enjoys helping others. If you would like to submit an article idea for consideration, please email the Education Committee Chair, Julie Tarr, at isgseducation@ilgensoc.org.
Another feature, which we have already started, is the Ask A Genealogist column. This is your opportunity to ask our Genealogy Committee a question about Illinois resources, records, or research strategies. Send your question to the ISGS Genealogy Committee at isgsgenealogist@ilgensoc.org.
And finally, each month, we plan to highlight an Illinois society. These articles will contain general information about the society, as well as any projects they are working on, what their library or archives collections hold, and some tips for researching in that particular geographic location or ethnic group.
In The Works
There are a few more things that the Education Committee is working on that pertain to the other goal of this committee, which is to educate the general public about genealogy and get our youth involved in genealogy. The details of these projects are still being worked out, but following is some brief information:
- Workshop Toolkit – The Education Committee is working jointly with the Publications Committee to produce a toolkit to provide guidance to libraries and genealogical/historical societies on how to host a genealogy workshop.
- Youth Workshop – The Education Committee is working with the Conference Committee on developing a youth workshop to be held in conjunction with the annual fall conference. We would like to make the workshop an annual fall conference activity.
- Youth Contest – The Education Committee is looking to institute a “creative” contest (writing, photography, artwork) for youth to participate in each year.
If you would like to be involved in this committee, please fill out the Volunteer Form and check “Education Development” under the Areas of Interest section. If there is something specific you would like to work on, please note it in the field marked Additional special talents or interests.
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