* CONTACTING STAFF * NON-RESPONSIVE VOLUNTEER? * LETTING THE STAFF COORDINATOR KNOW * SHOPS * KUDOS * IN APPRECIATION * CURRENT 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. Again, 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 aware 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. CONTACTING STAFF As staff we still receive a significant number of emails requesting changes in email addresses, acts of kindness, removals, and the need to be put on or return from temporary status. We even receive email "complaints" from volunteers about issues related to requests sent to other volunteers. This takes valuable staff volunteer time as we reply, asking that you use the correct form. Once again, we would ask that whenever you need a change related to your listing that you please go to http://www.raogk.org/change.html and use the correct form. If you need help from a section coordinator or other staff members, please use the staff contact form, which you can access at http://www.raogk.org/contact.html. These would be good links to add to your favorites or bookmark for easy access. Other links we suggest you bookmark include the FAQ's for Requesters at http://www.raogk.org/faq-requesters.htm and the FAQ's for Volunteers http://www.raogk.org/faq-vols.htm. Thank you in advance for using these forms and making our jobs easier as well as having your needs met in a more timely manner! NON-RESPONSIVE VOLUNTEER? Just a friendly reminder!! Please remember each and every time you make a request or contact a volunteer with RAOGK for any reason, do so via the RAOGK website (http://www.raogk.org). Anytime an email is sent using RAOGK you are getting the volunteers current email address AND your email is archived and we can refer back to that email for any reason. I recently had a RAOGK non responsive volunteer complaint, made by another volunteer. Because this person had used an email that they had saved from a prior request, the address used was out of date. The volunteer had put through a change of address and for that reason didn't receive the current request. The complaint was denied and could have been forgone completely if procedure had been followed. LETTING THE STAFF COORDINATOR KNOW Along the lines of keeping the Staff Coordinator informed as to what is happening, when a Staff Coordinator contacts you either with a complaint or any problem, you the volunteer need to commit to a closer relationship with your Coordinator and keep them informed with what is going on as the requester is not obligated to the same thing as you are. For instance, if you are contacted because a requester says you did not respond and, for instance you actually did, the coordinator needs to know that. We are at this time only getting one side of the story. In most cases it is an ISP problem where one will not talk to the other and the email goes into cyberspace. It would be a good idea to cc: or bcc: the area coordinator on return communications to the requester so as to CYA and keep them informed and up to date to the situation. SHOPS We have 2 genealogy specific shops online. The first shop is a RAOGK logo shop (http://www.cafepress.com/raogk?pid=2851439&tid=704), 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=704) 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 . To help you with your requests, a small notebook called "Research Tracking" was created. This notebook is a good size to fit in purse or backpack to carry along with you while doing requests. The product can be viewed by going to: http://www.cafepress.com/raogk.103230216 and if you would like to see what the inside pages look like, they can be seen here: http://raogk.org/graphics/example_page.png Mother's Day is not far off, and we have a section in the Genealogy For You shop just for Mothers. None of these designs have the word genealogy on them, but they do have 'Greatest Mommy,' 'Mommy's 1st Mother's Day' and a design that is done with a cross-stitching font with I [Heart] (insert favorite word for Mom here). Mother's Day designs: http://www.cafepress.com/genealogyforyou/1356456 I [heart] designs: http://www.cafepress.com/genealogyforyou/1356458 Thank you for your patronage at either shop. KUDOS: http://www.raogk.org/thankyou/ The month of April saw kudos written about: Yvonne (Indiana), Paula Curcio (Mississippi), Rich Boyer (Pennsylvania) [3], Kathy Kuroda (Illinois), Lois Hanley (Illinois), Dave Gauvin (Michigan), Wendy Wright (New Hampshire), Mark J. Rosenblum (Missouri)[2], Robin Arvickson (Pennsylvania), Barb Valley (Ohio), Kathleen M. Mayo (Massachusetts), Debra Branigan (Virginia), Linda Tessin (Michigan), Carrie Corsby (Arizona), Keith Northington (Arizona), Bruce Thompson (Florida), Joyce Obland (Montana), Tanya Van Horn (Texas), Beverly Key (Alabama), John Ely (Iowa), Roger Ward (Texas), Rita Hawthorne (Arizona), Evelyn Ehlert (Michigan), Martha Lee (Virginia), Rebekah Owens (Maryland), Gary Maize (Missouri), Ken Peters (Indiana), Cynthia Stewart (Wisconsin), Betty Garrett (California), Mariea Maggiore (New Jersey), Deanna Cunningham (Kansas), Donna Rohwedder (Illinois), Diana Watson (Pennsylvania), Mary Bishop (Kentucky), Christine Hollenbeck (Kansas) 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. Sara Cushing Pam Whiteside Kathryn Jenkins 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 CURRENT STATS Last month: 4101 This month: 4089 New: 60 Left: 40 Staff removals*: 16 April Requests (through April 28, 2007): USA volunteers received: 5,185 NON-USA volunteers received: 573 *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