This month's newsletter contains: * SUMMERTIME/VACATION TIME FOR MOST OF US * MY VACATION * FUN TIME * SPAM * INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET * WORKING ON IT * THE RAOGK SHOP * CURRENT STATS SUMMERTIME/VACATION TIME FOR MOST OF US For those of us who live in the Northern Hemisphere we are now in our summer season, which usually equates to vacations. If you are planning on being away from your computer longer than 3 weeks, please let staff know by going to http://www.raogk.org/change.html and putting yourself on temporary status. Temporary status will remove you from being seen by researchers, but not removed from the site entirely. When you return home and ready to take requests, return to the same link and let us know you are back and ready to rock 'n roll. Oh, and by the way, have a great vacation. MY VACATION Well, not really going away on vacation. . .don't have the funds to do so. However, because it is summer with yard and flower beds to attend to I haven't been at my computer as normal. Some of the articles in this newsletter will be repeats from past newsletters mingled in with some new items. If you feel a bit of deja vu when reading this, you might be correct. So repeating some items is my little "vacation" from thinking. FUN TIME This could also be called "Getting to Know You." We now have a RAOGK Gallery aka an area where volunteers can upload pictures of themselves, their other hobbies (what other hobbies?), their flowers, their pets and their adventures. The RAOGK Gallery went online May 14th and announced on both the Chat and the RAOGK-L mailing list and we have quite a few pictures uploaded. One volunteer said the name "RAOGK Gallery" looked a lot like "Rogue's Gallery" -- hmmmm you never know, LOL. Another volunteer said it was addicting. http://www.raogk.org/gallery2/ If you should want to join in on the fun and have an area for yourself, you will have to register to do so. Registration is easy, however, it has to be approved by either Doc or me. A notice is sent to us from the software and we will approve it as soon as we see it. Please understand we are not always sitting in front of our monitor, so it could take several hours before you receive notice of approval. SPAM Not the canned stuff, but the unwanted and/or unsolicited e-mail that drops into our mailbox. One of the reasons a researcher has to jump through hoops to get a request off to a volunteer was to make your e- mail address unaccessible to robots that traverse the Internet just soaking up e-mail addresses. I don't know how many lotteries that Doc and I have won, if we would just "click here" to retrieve it, yeah right. There is another type of e-mail that could be considered spam, although the sender is just an ordinary person thinking they are passing on some interesting fact, funny story or cute pictures. The problem is they send it to *EVERYONE* in their address book. This includes raogk@raogk.org and raogk-admin@raogk.org, if they have corresponded with the site. More than likely one of you have been a recipient of such a mailing from a researcher you have helped as well. Now I put up with such mailings from my daughters, my friends know better than to send me mail like that, so now I am telling you folks. Hopefully all of you are "smarter than the average bear" and don't send such messages out. But if you do and it is received by a staff member, you will be unequivocally removed, without warning, from the site. INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET The information I am talking about isn't a new database or a new website, but blogs. There are a lot of blogs dealing with genealogy online. Some will contain links to other blogs and to sites with ancestral information, others will contain interesting news in the genealogy world. Personally, I read two of them pretty much on a daily basis. Dick Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter (http://blog.eogn.com/) is actually his online version of the newsletter that he sends out weekly. He brings you up to the minute news regarding genealogy and some very interesting websites you might not find anywhere else. Ancestry.com decided to go the blog route instead of the Ancestry Daily News and they have called it 24-7 Family History Circle (http://blogs.ancestry.com/circle/). I used to get the ADN but never read it, but for some reason do enjoy reading the articles on their blog. I find the ramblings on "The Genealogue" amusing and puts a smile on my face (http://genealogue.blogspot.com/) One of our own volunteers has an excellent blog with links to good sites on the internet to aid your research simply titled Genealogy (http://genweblog.blogspot.com/) I could list a whole lot more, but go to your favorite search engine and search for genealogy blog and you will find one listed to suit your own taste. WORKING ON IT So many of you are doing such great work that we applaud everyone. Of course not everyone will get a personal thank you, nor one sent via our business address, but let it be known YOU DO GOOD WORK. We are getting e-mails (and donations) from researchers who want to let it be known how well a volunteer did their job. We have had 2 "Thank You" boards and have had to shut them down due to spammers. We are working to get another one up real soon (hopefully this month). Just thought we'd let you know we are working on it. The RAOGK SHOP Don't forget our online store (http://www.cafepress.com/raogk?pid=2851439&tid=606 for items with the RAOGK logo on them. For general genealogy designs there is our sister store Genealogy For You (http://www.cafepress.com/genealogyforyou??pid=2851439&tid=606) Proceeds from sales help us meet the financial needs of keeping RAOGK online. If you have an idea regarding a design that would be good to put on products please let me know (cpsales@genealogyforyou.com). CURRENT STATS Last month: 4290 This month: 4283 New: 83 Left: 39 Staff removals*: 34 June Requests (through June 29, 2005): 6,695 USA volunteers received: 6,017 NON-USA volunteers received: 678 *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. The STAFF thanks you for volunteering and until next month. . . . . . THE STAFF Bridgett, Michele, Bill, Anja, Terri, Nancy, Jo, Mollie, Bonnie, Linda, Melissa and Doc, the Tech Guru