CURRENT VOLUNTEER NUMBERS

Welcome aboard all new volunteers; we are really glad to have you. We currently 
have 4320 volunteers across the globe. During the month of July we welcomed 127 
new volunteers. Forty-one volunteers were removed due to the newsletter bouncing 
back to us (user unknown, mailbox full March and April, and hosts unknown); staff 
removed 9 for being non-responsive or having bad e-mail addresses; 57 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.


BACK TO BASICS

This site has been online since March 1999, and has grown tremendously with all 
you fine folks volunteering to aid your fellow genealogists.  The one thing I've 
noticed happening over the years is that some folks are getting away from the 
original idea why this site was started, which is:

	To do the leg work in your home county for those researchers who
	are far away.

The reason we set the benchmark of one lookup per month was that the volunteer 
would take 5 or 10 minutes off their own research time when they go to the 
library, courthouse or cemetery, to grant a request.  We now have volunteers 
who have signed up for multiple counties, and ever since the LDS put out the 
1880 Census Index CDs folks have been trying to signup in every state that 
they would do lookups on the 1880 Census. We have volunteers who have Ancestry.com, 
Genealogy.com, Heritage Quest, etc. memberships who use these sites as their sole 
source of lookup material. We do not want the RAOGK project to be sued by the
companies providing these services. Providing free lookups cuts into their revenue.

Over the years we have had complaints from researchers that they were being 
charged for mileage and/or gas. Of course this is not allowed. When asking 
the volunteer about the complaint, we get reasons like "the cemetery was clean 
across the county about 50 miles one way" or "gas is so high now, I have to 
charge" among other reasons. If we got back to the basics, you could tell the 
requester #1 -- I am sorry, but I am unable to honor your request as the 
distance is too far.  #2, if you were including the researcher's request 
along with your own research, as the project was originally designed, you 
would have incurred the expense anyway, and it isn't fair to charge the 
researcher in that instance.

So let us think about getting back to the basics of why this site was created 
and why it has been so popular and so rewarding to everyone who has touched it 
in one way or another.

CONGRATULATIONS

I must commend everyone who volunteers for RAOGK. The complaints are so few and 
far between that the staff thinks we have 99% of the problems licked. If we 
aren't the largest genealogy lookup site on the internet, then we come in second 
in number of volunteers. But it really isn't the numbers I am impressed with, 
for me its always been the quality of folks that we have. Eighteen months ago, 
I might not have been able to state this, but both sides of the fence (volunteers 
and staff) have worked hard to make this the site folks recommend time and time 
again.


FYI

From time to time we get messages wondering how to find the volunteers on this 
site. Sometimes the e-mail comes from volunteers themselves. I believe it was 
about 8 months ago I pulled the link that goes directly to the page that lists 
states and countries from the main page. Many of you folks were complaining 
that it seemed like the requesters had not read the FAQ's before sending off 
a request. Now the only way someone can get to the state/country page from the 
main page is going through the FAQ for Requesters first. The FAQ page contains 
a link at the bottom to "Find a Volunteer." But for those volunteers who were 
not aware of this, the direct link to state/country page is 
http://www.raogk.org/listing.htm  That cures our part, however there are many 
sites out on the internet (Cyndi's List to name one) that has the individual 
state/country pages listed so there will be folks who will make requests that 
have no clue what our policies are and what they are not. Please feel free to 
send requesters back to the FAQ page if you think they need to read it.

IMPROVEMENTS

We are deligently working on a system where the e-mail addresses of the 
volunteers will no longer be available for those who love to harvest them. Our 
plans are to have a link called "EMAIL ME" below the volunteer's name. Once 
clicked,  a page will appear that contains a mail form for a requester to fill 
in. When they hit a submit button, the e-mail will be passed on to the volunteer. 
The e-mail address will not be listed anywhere, and will not be available for a 
harvestor to obtain them. The spam received by volunteers has been reduced 
tremendously in the past, but the ability to harvest has not been totally 
disabled. It may take up to a couple of months to get this accomplished; remember 
we have over 4300 volunteers. I am just giving you a heads-up on what is going
on behind the scenes.