January 2003 marks the anniversary of this newsletter, and it has proven very 
beneficial in keeping in touch with the volunteers of this organization. Another 
benefit of sending out this monthly message is that we are able to keep the site 
updated better and display volunteers with working e-mail addresses, although 
some do pop up between newsletters. The average of removals from the project 
due to addresses bouncing with this newsletter is now around 55. With over 4300 
volunteers this number is not very high (about 1%).

Our volunteers as of this writing number 4363. We saw 168 new volunteers this 
month, with 98 leaving (37 voluntarily, 9 by staff [non-responsive and bouncing 
e-mails] and 52 were removed due to the newsletter bouncing). 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.


WHERE WERE YOU?

On January 24th around 6:15 AM, the servers that RAOGK is hosted on went down. 
Well, actually the servers didn't but the router that transfers the information 
from the servers to the internet went out. The router was not discovered to be 
the problem until Saturday.  We had extremely cold weather preceding this outage 
in Nebraska, and were told on Friday that the problem existed in the lines between 
the server and the telephone company. A trouble ticket was issued, however the 
repairman did not show up at the premises until late Saturday afternoon. He 
found the router to be the culprit of our being down and that could not be 
resolved until Sunday. Luckily enough we came back online before severe internet 
withdrawal symptoms set it.


OOPS!

Last newsletter I indicated that the ISP ATTBI was bought out by Comcast, and 
that many folks would be having their e-mail addresses changed from @attbi.com 
to @comcast.com. I received many letters indicating that I misspoke, that it 
was @comcast.NET. Sometimes I write these newsletters on the spur of the moment 
(I don't get long-winded that way) and a few items I pull out of the recesses of 
my memory. Most of the time I have all the facts correct, but last month wasn't 
one of those times. Thus the correction here.


WE GET AWARDS

The International Blacksheep Society of Genealogists (http://blacksheep.rootsweb.com) 
honored RAOGK with the 2003 Bo Peeps Award.  

The staff would like to thank all of you volunteers for your very good work 
because without you RAOGK would not exist.


MESSAGE FROM ONE OF OUR SECTION COORDINATORS

One of the new features added to the website this last year is the KUDOS page, 
http://www.raogk.org/guestbook/index.php. It is linked on the front page; New: 
See how our volunteers have helped others. 

As a coordinator for "the end of the alphabet", VA, WA, WV, WI, WY, I try to 
pass along the Kudos I see for "my" volunteers, but the state isn't always put 
in, or even last names. So be sure to visit the pages, and see if YOU are listed! 
And if another volunteer has helped you, let the world know!


Until next month,

RAOGK Staff