CURRENT STATS Last month: 4556 This month: 4543 New: 79 Left: 42 *Staff removals: 30 *Staff removals are those folks whose e-mail address has been reported bouncing and confirmed or volunteers who, over the course of trying many times, did not respond back to requesters or staff. Staff also removed 21 volunteers from the site due to returns (user/host unknown and Not Accepting Mail from this sender) when the November newsletter was sent out. Kudos for October: 40 (http://www.raogk.org/guestbook/) Most of the time this newsletter covers information that we have been asked about repeatedly over the course of the month. If you feel that you are hearing repeats of the same thing over and over again it is because we are getting messages during the past month that has been covered in past newsletters. Besides the two FAQ areas posted on the site, this is the only way we can communicate with all of our volunteers. So please bear with us with our repeated items. TEMPORARY STATUS Everyone has a time in their life where conditions are such that volunteering for a few weeks or months is not possible. For such times we have a condition called "temporary status." This means that your listing remains in the database, however, not viewable to the public. This status can only be for *no longer* than 3 months. If you need to be away from the site for longer than that, you really do need to completely remove yourself from the site. To place yourself on temporary status, or if you are already on temporary status and want to become active again, you need to go to http://www.raogk.org/change.html and select the link that pertains to temporary status. If you need to be removed from the site entirely, you still need to go to the above link and select the link to be removed. RESPONDING TO REQUESTS This topic seems to be discussed in all newsletters. It can't be stressed enough that when you receive a request you *must* let the requester know that you have received the request, whether you can honor the request and how long it will take you to do so. When we receive complaints that a volunteer has not responded, we do not take the complaint at face value and instantly remove a volunteer for this reason. We, in turn, write to the volunteer to find out if there has been some problem that has prevented them from responding to the requester. However, our success rate of getting a volunteer to respond back to us is not very good either. A question frequently asked is if a person has no intentions of doing lookups, why do they sign up? To this question, we have no answers. With the new system in place we are running into another bit of a problem. The requesters having typos in their e-mail address, with no way for the volunteers to contact them. This is all the more reason to respond to the request FIRST, then do the lookups. If you spend hours on doing the research on the request and then send the information back to the requester, only to find a bounce message in return, look at the time you wasted and I am sure the frustration level is raised as well (I know mine would be). Be sure to save all correspondence received, so if we should receive a complaint stating you have not responded back, and if we receive a complaint, when we contact you regarding this you can prove you tried. WHAT DO I DO NOW? I can't stress enough you really *MUST* respond back to the requester whether you will be able to honor that request. Doing so may save you some time in the long run. When a person makes a request, they have to physically enter their e-mail address, mistakes happen, typos occur. If you should go out and retrieve the information requested, spend time at a courthouse or library, spend money on copies and then send them the information you have so laboriously obtained, you may get a bounce message back. This bounce message may inform you of many things -- user does not exist, host does not exist (the name after the @ sign) or mailbox is too full. The last reason isn't to mind blowing, but the other two can. What do you do now? Well, you hang on to the information you have obtained and wait for them to write to you. You can notify the staff of what has happened just to let us know what is going on just in case the requester complains they have not received a response. You also need to save those bounce messages, as sometimes folks just do not grasp the problem you may have had in trying to get back to them. But what we can't provide for you is a way to get in touch with this wayward person. We do not keep copies of requests made of volunteers, we are just what you might call the 'middle man' in this equation. THE NEWBIES WILL LAND This will be the last newsletter prior to the holidays coming up. We hope each and everyone of you receive information so one of your brick walls can come tumbling down. But this season brings on brand new computer users and brand new genealogy researchers. All I ask of you folks if you should receive a request from an obvious "newbie," to remember that you were in their shoes at one time, be gentle with your responses . THANK YOU Some of you may not hear this enough from the people you have helped, but the staff at RAOGK want to take this time to thank all of you for being such a great group of people. I have always stated that genealogists are the best group of people, ever. Happy Holidays to all !! THE STAFF Bridgett, Michele, Val, Bill, Madlyn, Anja, Terri and Doc, the Tech Guru