CURRENT VOLUNTEER NUMBERS Welcome aboard all new volunteers; we are really glad to have you. We currently have 4331 volunteers across the globe. During the month of April we welcomed 154 new volunteers. Forty-five volunteers were removed due to the newsletter bouncing back to us (user unknown, mailbox full February and March, and hosts unknown); 8 removals by staff being non-responsive or bad e-mail addresses; 91 members decided to leave the project voluntarily. 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 the request or not. FOUND ON THE INTERNET A "google" search using the keyword "RAOGK" found many links to our site. Besides the normal links from websites, we found mentions in several newsletters and a volunteer who was named "Volunteer of the Month" by a genealogical and historical association. You may be interested in these sites, so we'll try to include at least 1 or 2 every month. The Ellen Payne Odom Genealogy Library Family Tree (January 14, 2003) http://www.electricscotland.com/familytree/magazine/octnov2002/snippet s3.htm Nebraska State Historical Society: Evelyn Young http://www.nebraskahistory.org/admin/volunter/newsletr/jan03.htm REACHING OUT AND TOUCHING Last month's newsletter I mentioned the mailing list that volunteers can subscribe to if they wish. RAOGK-L is used for volunteers helping volunteers in methods of looking up information, other sources that might be available for research and a general get-together for the members. As mentioned above we have 4331 volunteers globally, however only 264 have opted to join this list (an increase from last month of 52). Those volunteers on that list have indicated they wish more volunteers would subscribe. If you wish to do so, you may go to http://www.raogk.org/mailman/listinfo/raogk-l scroll half-way down the page, fill in the blanks and hit "subscribe." We have set up a chatroom on an IRC (internet relay chat) server. If you have an IRC application (for example mIRC), the address you enter in is irc.maddoc.net, port 6667, channel is #raogk, or click irc://irc.rootsweb.com/raogk. If you don't have a chat application, point your browser to http://www.raogk.org/chat, fill in a nick name and click "Login", it will bring you right to the chat room. Someone is usually around. After a newsletter has gone out we have several people coming into the chatroom, however, we found it odd that usually no 2 people visit at the same time. Maybe with some kind of luck that more will join in at the same time and a really good get together can be had by all. Come join us. WHAT TO DO, WHAT TO DO? Several times a month the staff gets asked on how to get in touch with a requester. The volunteer either has lost the e-mail address of the requester or the requester has changed their e-mail address and didn't notify the volunteer of this change. To begin with, correspondence between the requester and the volunteer is private; the site does not retain any copies of any requests sent to the volunteers. We have no list of requester's addresses. One suggestion from other volunteers has been to print out a hardcopy of the request when you recieve it, and file it away, in case you have a harddrive crash or your e-mail client mysteriously deletes the request. When you have done the research and you cannot get in touch with the requester because their e-mail address is no longer valid it can really be frustrating. This next suggestion is for when you have taken copies of documents and/or photos of tombstones for a researcher and these items are of no value to you. There are two e-zines published that are sent out weekly, called "Missing Links" and "Somebody's Links." These two e-zines are gems when it comes to finding folks who are interested in genealogically valuable items in which you have no personal interest. Here is an example of something recently published in "Missing Links": "At an antique shop in Poway, California, I picked up some high school 4" x 6" photos from Holyoke, Massachusetts. One reads: "Remember me. Helen-'25" (portrait from Waters studio, Holyoke, Massachusetts); 2nd "with love, Gladys;" 3rd "Love, Grace". 1931 Holyoke High School. St, Germain, Holyoke, which I assume is the studio. I will forward to anyone interested for $3 plus postage." If you do not subscribe to either of these e-zines, you may do so by going to http://www.petuniapress.com. Also at this site are fully searchable back issues of these e-zines. Here is the disclaimer from the editor of both e-zines: "SOMEBODY'S LINKS contains notices of genealogical treasures found, such as photographs, diaries, letters, and family Bibles. To SUBMIT A NOTICE for publication in SOMEBODY'S LINKS, send a plain text e-mail (no attachments) to juliecase@prodigy.net "More "Somebody's Links" notices appear in MISSING LINKS and on RootsWeb's SOMEBODY'S LINKS Message Board [Boards > Topics > Research Resources > Genealogy e-zines > Somebody's Links] or use this two- line URL (paste entire URL into browser window) and when you get there, click on "Somebody's Links": http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/message/rw/topics.researchresources. e-zines.somebodyslinks " DID YOU KNOW? At the bottom of each newsletter there are links to areas of the site that you may want to have bookmarked. Until next month, RAOGK Staff ********************* URL's on RAOGK you should have bookmarked: Volunteer's FAQ page: http://www.raogk.org/info.htm Section Coordinators list: http://www.raogk.org/vol.htm Changing of information (change your "act of kindness"; e-mail address change or needing to be removed): http://www.raogk.org/change.html Business Cards: http://www.raogk.org/business.html Chat with us: http://www.raogk.org/chat/ Brought to you by MomNDoc's Online Consultants: http://www.maddoc.net/