A WARM WELCOME

At this time we would like to welcome the 103 new volunteers that signed
up during the month of October, and hope you enjoy being a volunteer as 
many of those people who have been around for awhile.  We also had 88 
volunteers leave for various reasons and 57 the staff removed due to 
their e-mail bouncing or being non-responsive. The staff doesn't ask 
too much from the volunteers, just keep us posted on any changes you 
may have by going to http://www.raogk.org/change.html instead of writing 
to us directly. Also, as always, please be sure to acknowledge receipt 
of a request, whether you can fulfill what is requested or not.


AWARDS RECEIVED

Last month I told you about a "contest" from the website Genealogical 
Journeys in Time. The contest opened and closed in one month instead 
of running an entire year due to cheating on the part of some of the 
entrants. GJIT announced Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness as the 
winner of this short "surfers poll."  Final standings can be viewed 
by going to: http://www.genealogicaljourneys.com/topsites/topsites.html

GJIT also awarded Random Acts a separate award for their "Genealogy 
Site of the Year, 2002." This award can be seen and the criteria for 
receiving this award by going to  
http://www.genealogicaljourneys.com/winners.htm#2002GS

Of course, I have posted the graphic award on our awards page, 
http://www.raogk.org/awards.html

These awards are also your awards, not only mine, the staff's or the 
site's. If it wasn't for your continued great work, these awards would 
be going to another site. The site is the body, but the volunteers are 
the heart and soul of it all.  Congratulations to all of you.


PUBLICITY

All of us know of DearMYRTLE, right? If not, DearMYRTLE is a genealogy 
columnist who has a daily newsletter going out over the internet. Her 
web page is located at http://www.dearmyrtle.com/ where you can read 
all about her. DearMYRTLE is also an old friend of mine from when I 
was a genealogy host in AOL's Genealogy Forum, and asked if I would 
be a guest on her radio program. This radio program also can be heard 
over the internet on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights (9 PM EST). 
You will also find links to the radio show on her website. I guess you 
could say I had my 15 minutes of fame, talking about my favorite site, 
Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness. This interview took place on 
October 22nd. She said I did a very good job, and visits to the site 
did go up a bit.


PERSONAL

I don't do much chest beating about any of the "other" sites I also 
manage, but thought this time I would mention that I do have a personal 
website. If you should want to know a little bit about the administrator 
of RAOGK you can visit http://bridgett.maddoc.net/.  Actually I haven't 
mentioned it before because my personal web site is the last site I take 
care of and it was really, really outdated. In fact, it had cobwebs 
covering it because of the lack of attention.  I just spent some time 
revamping the site and am now not embarrassed to show it off.  


For all those observing Halloween and/or Thanksgiving, please do it safely.


Until next month,

RAOGK Staff