* HOTMAIL/MSN USERS * CONTACTING STAFF * CHANGES, CHANGES, CHANGES * ACT OF KINDNESS NEED UPDATING? * NEED A BREAK? * SHOPS * KUDOS * IN APPRECIATION * COMPLAINT DEPARTMENT * STATS Thank you for being a volunteer for Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness. The volunteers are the backbone of this website and have helped thousands of researchers over the past 8 years we have been online. Keep up the good work, you are doing a grand job. Many of the items this month have been contributed by RAOGK Staff. These are the folks that are the life and blood in keeping the site going. Since they are on the 'firing line' they are more in tune of what needs to be elaborated on and reminders sent to the volunteers. If you would like to see and/or contribute an article/item to be included in the next newsletter please feel free to drop a note to feedback@raogk.org. HOTMAIL/MSN USERS Due to a recent reconfiguration of the mail servers at HOTMAIL/MSN, most requests made through the RAOGK site are not being received by HOTMAIL/MSN recipients. Our Tech guru has followed the email being sent out and Hotmail is accepting the mail, where it goes after that is anyone's guess. RAOGK is not the only website that is having this problem with those two ISP's, others are as well. So until a solution to this problem is found, it is highly recommended that you use another email address as a volunteer for RAOGK. CONTACTING STAFF If you should have a reason for contacting staff, please read who you are to contact in certain situations on our Contact Us page. This page has been revamped and hopefully more understandable than it has been in the past. http://www.raogk.org/contact.html Links to the Contact Us page can be found in the navigation links at the bottom of all pages or within the FAQ's for both Volunteers or Requesters. At the bottom of all the pages on the website also contains a link that indicates who is hosting the website (MomNDoc's Online Services). That link is for informational purposes only, and not to be used to make contact with RAOGK. CHANGES, CHANGES, CHANGES At one time or another, we all need to change something, whether it be an Act of Kindness, email address, location, etc. We on staff cannot make any changes at all unless we have the proper form filled out by you the volunteer. I know sometimes some of you wonder why you can't just email us and have things changed just like that *finger snap*, but in order for us to keep accurate records in case of a mistake on either part, we need the forms filled out in full detail as to what you as a volunteer would like done to your submission. Every single email that we receive is saved so that we can go back and reference them at any time. ALL changes can be made by going to http://www.raogk.org/change.html ACT OF KINDNESS NEED UPDATING? As a volunteer with RAOGK and also a frequent requestor of volunteers on the site, I would urge all volunteers to be aware of their act of kindness and if what they are able to do changes, to contact staff. Recently I have contacted more than one volunteer to do a look up and was told they don't do that anymore or that is out of the scope of their ability. My requests were not out of the ordinary and usually dealt with a public records look up. If your act of kindness says "public records look up and copying" and you know there are certain documents like death certificates or divorce records that you can not obtain because in your state they are not considered public records, then you need to state that in your act of kindness. This will save both the volunteer and requestor time and energy. (http://www.raogk.org/change.html) NEED A BREAK? With winter quickly fading into the spring and summer months, time restraints for our volunteers may change. Either outdoor activities and/or vacations may cut back on the amount of time you have available for volunteer work. Another possibility is that adverse weather has kept you from getting out to fill some requests and now you have a backlog. For just these types of situations we offer a "Go on or Return from Temporary Status" form located with our other change forms at http://www.raogk.org/change.html. (See links you should have bookmarked at the end of this newsletter.) Temporary Status is an option when a volunteer will be away from two weeks to no longer than three months. Temporary Status will remove your listing from being viewable to the public, but doesn't remove it from the database. We would appreciate it, however, if you are going to be away for more than three months, to remove yourself from the project. When your time again allows you to volunteer, you can return to the site and volunteer again. SHOPS We have 2 genealogy specific shops online. The first shop is a RAOGK logo shop (http://www.cafepress.com/raogk?pid=2851439&tid=703), mainly for you volunteers to buy items with the RAOGK logo on it. The second shop is called Genealogy For You (http://www.cafepress.com/genealogyforyou?pid=2851439&tid=703) and contains designs on mugs, tote bags, t-shirts and more that show the humorous side of our hobby. Proceeds from these two shops help RAOGK pay its bills to stay online . The first week of March our 'supplier' (CafePress.com) announced new items we could add to our store inventories. Since that time I have been busy adding these new items to the shops. I added these new products to the RAOGK Logo Shop first. I am still in the process of adding them to the Genealogy For You shop. So at this time we now have 35 styles of t-shirts (included in this count are hoodies and sweatshirts) for adults, available in 30 colors. Our newest products to be added are for the ladies, Plus sizes in two styles (scoop neck or v-neck) in sizes 1X to 5X available in black or white. Women's Plus size scoop neck (white): http://www.cafepress.com/raogk.114731175?pid=2851439&tid=703 Women's Plus size v-neck (black) http://www.cafepress.com/raogk.114730910?pid=2851439&tid=703 The men's dark t-shirts are now available in 8 colors, women's dark t- shirts 4 colors. The women's pink t-shirt is now available in light yellow and light blue. Men's "Ash Grey" t-shirt is now available in natural and light blue. Check out the new colors they are great !! KUDOS: http://www.raogk.org/thankyou/ The month of March saw kudos written about: Carolyn Weber (England), Julie Schopieray (Michigan), Annie (Maryland), Shelli (Nevada), Lora Carter (Oregon), Joan Earl (California), Sue Sheppard (Virginia), Bruce Thompson (Florida), Mark Cagle (Florida), Leonard Wiegand (Colorado), Lori Driver (Wisconsin), Russell Fellows (Michigan), Dick Larsen (Idaho), Diane Duvall (Arkansas), Rosalyn (Georgia), Christine Hollenbeck (Kansas), Grzegorz Mueller (Poland), Israel Pickholtz (Israel), Lavonia (North Carolina), Jack Eaton (Indiana), Carolyn Reed (Michigan), Cheryl Northrup (Colorado), David Henry (Florida), Carrie Corsby (Arizona), David and Judith Mills (Idaho), Bill West (Oregon), Carol Reed (Michigan), Elizabeth Bauerle (Florida), Sandra Jean {Garrison} Roark (Indiana), Harriet Worrell (Missouri), Charle J. Smith (Connecticut), Dave Lee (Wisconsin), Christine Hasman (England), Charles Biller (California) IN APPRECIATION We have received contributions this month with nice little notes attached to their messages. Quite a few praised the services of many volunteers, not naming them. However, some did include the name of the volunteer and will list those volunteers below. Again, we at RAOGK do appreciate all you have done for the genealogy community as a whole and in general, keeping RAOGK's reputation as a good one. Kathy Ramirez John Small Debora Weber-Wulff Carolyn Reed A great big THANK YOU goes out to one and all who have helped RAOGK to continue to be a presence online. Your purchases through one of our stores or by sending a contribution via PayPal or check are very much appreciated. http://www.raogk.org/support.html COMPLAINT DEPARTMENT: DO NOT SEND Staff members, especially the admin, any e-mail chain letters. If you want to "pass on something cute" to those in your address book, do a search and find and remove any address that has @raogk.org in it. CURRENT STATS Last month: 4135 This month: 4101 New: 54 Left: 40 Staff removals*: 42 March Requests (through March 27, 2007): USA volunteers received: 5,220 NON-USA volunteers received: 576 *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, Bonnie, Melissa, Brenda, Dennis, Kathy, Jeniann and Doc, the Tech Guru