This month's newsletter contains: * REMINDERS, REMINDERS, REMINDERS * WHAT DO I DO NOW? * LIVING IN THE STONE AGE * SPEAKING OF KUDOS * OKAY, NOW WHAT? * THIS IS NOT A SCAM * SAVE YOUR GAS Since our last newsletter, the Gulf Coast of the United States has been ravished by two monstrous hurricanes. The staff wishes to send our heartfelt wishes that all our volunteers in the affected areas are okay and did not suffer too much loss. One staff member lives in an affected area of Hurricane Rita, and we have not heard from her since before the storm. As the administrator of this site, I become like a mother hen worrying about her chicks. If you are a volunteer and were effected by Katrina or Rita, and you receive this newsletter -- could you please drop me a note that you are okay? raogk@raogk.org Thanks so much. REMINDERS, REMINDERS, REMINDERS This newsletter will contain some material covered in past issues. We do this from time to time as we have new volunteers signing up daily and also to jog the memories of those folks who have been around for awhile. WHAT DO I DO NOW? If you have any questions regarding volunteering, updating your listing, making requests, or processes the site uses (i.e., reporting non-responsive volunteers) please go to the FAQ's *before* dropping staff members a note. The FAQ's will more than likely have the answer you are looking for. The staff and myself try to keep these FAQ's current, and do add to them when we find the same question being asked over and over again (that is, if it isn't already in the FAQ's). Please bookmark and/or add to your 'favorites' the URL's for the FAQ's Volunteers: http://www.raogk.org/faq-vols.htm Requesters: http://www.raogk.org/faq-requesters.htm LIVING IN THE STONE AGE This is a reminder that any submissions regarding your volunteerism are done manually. You may be filling in a form, but the form only gets e-mailed to the proper staff member. The staff member then has up to 7 days to make the changes. If your changes are not taken care of within 7 days then you need to get in touch with the administrator (raogk-admin@raogk.org). I know many sites you are able to "fix" your own listing, however we have enough trouble with spammers posting to our Kudos area to keep us pretty busy. Those folks have a way of finding out how to do get around barriers, so we will continue to live in the computer 'stone age,' which to me is friendlier anyways. SPEAKING OF KUDOS They always say it is much better to give than to receive. If you have been helped by one of your fellow volunteers and would like to show your appreciation, how about posting your appreciation in our "Thank You" area? Everyone likes to see their name in print ! http://www.raogk.org/thanks/ OKAY, NOW WHAT? We have a system in place where three staff members scan the previous days submitted requests. They do this to see if any duplicate requests have been made. A duplicate request is defined as a message containing the same query, sent to more than one volunteer in the same vicinity and within a very short time frame (up to an hour). When they find duplicates, they get in contact with the requester, with copies to the volunteers involved, letting them know that this action is frowned upon. The requester is also reminded to please reread the FAQ's for Requesters before making any other requests so another faux paux could be avoided. As a volunteer, if you are a recipient of one of those duplicate notifications, it is up to you what you wish to do with the request. The one action we do stress, however, is acknowledgement of the request, duplicate or not. However, if it is a duplicate, you will need to let the other volunteers and the staff representative what your action might be. As a requester, if you are a recipient of one of those duplicate notifications, shame on you . THIS IS NOT A SCAM All our staff members have RAOGK addresses, i.e., raogkstaffX@raogk.org -- the X in the email address is their specific staff address. If you should receive a message from one of our staff members, please respond to them and not e-mail your reply to the raogk-admin address. SAVE YOUR GAS The holidays are coming up, time to think about gifts for family and friends. Save your gas for important things like work or requests and buy online at one of our shops. Remember any proceeds made from sales goes to the support for RAOGK. However, CafePress has given RAOGK the ability to obtain more revenue by becoming an affiliate. By using one of the links below to get to a shop, if you don't find something there, you can visit one of the thousands of shops on CafePress and we can still get revenue from a purchase you make. To get to other shops, just click on the CafePress logo in the upper left hand corner of the webpage. The RAOGK logo store: http://www.raogk.org/store?pid=2851439 Genealogy For You Shop (general genealogy): http://www.genealogyforyou.com/shop?pid=2851439 We've opened up a Halloween section: http://www.genealogyforyou.com/shop/849580?pid=2851439 Christmas Shop: http://www.genealogyforyou.com/shop/793923?pid=2851439 Calendars: http://www.genealogyforyou.com/shop/864785?pid=2851439 CURRENT STATS Last month: 4536 This month: 4495 New: 59 Left: 47 Staff removals*: 19 September Requests (through September 28, 2005): 6,544 USA volunteers received: 5,821 NON-USA volunteers received: 723 *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. Kudos for September: 85 (http://www.raogk.org/thanks/) The STAFF thanks you for volunteering and until next month. . . . . . . THE STAFF Bridgett, Michele, Bill, Madlyn, Anja, Terri, Nancy, Bobbi and Doc, the Tech Guru