<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=us-ascii"> <TITLE>Message</TITLE> <STYLE type=text/css>DIV { MARGIN: 0px } </STYLE> <META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.18812"></HEAD> <BODY> <DIV><SPAN class=984564011-04102009><FONT color=#0000ff size=2 face=Arial>Dick Eastman, in his newsletter on August 29th, touched on national conferences and some of these issues. He made two points, but let me quote the second:</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=984564011-04102009><FONT color=#0000ff size=2 face=Arial></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=984564011-04102009>2. The organizers of the successful conferences are not stuck in a rut. They do not do the same things year after year. They experiment and try new things. If successful, they do it again the following year. If the experiment is unsuccessful, they drop it.</SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=984564011-04102009></SPAN><SPAN class=984564011-04102009><FONT color=#0000ff size=2 face=Arial></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=984564011-04102009><FONT color=#0000ff size=2 face=Arial>The article can be found at <FONT color=#000000><A href="http://tinyurl.com/ycoowb8"><STRONG>http://tinyurl.com/ycoowb8</STRONG></A><STRONG>. </STRONG></FONT></FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=984564011-04102009><FONT color=#0000ff size=2 face=Arial><FONT color=#000000></FONT></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=984564011-04102009><FONT size=2 face=Arial>[Disclosure: </FONT><FONT size=2><FONT face=Arial>I<FONT color=#0000ff> was program co-chair for one of the two conferences Dick rates highly in the first paragraph. We did have a track of case studies, for example.]</FONT></SPAN></DIV></FONT></FONT> <DIV><SPAN class=984564011-04102009><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=984564011-04102009><FONT size=2 face=Arial><FONT color=#0000ff>My take on the article is that Dick is saying -- whether the attendee is a novice or a very experienced genealogist -- national conferences aren't as attractive as they once were. He makes points about topics, the liveliness of advance advertising, and the cost of major conference hotels. I think he should have added the cost of traveling to small cities that are not major airline hubs.</FONT></FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=984564011-04102009><FONT size=2 face=Arial><FONT color=#0000ff></FONT></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=984564011-04102009><FONT size=2 face=Arial><FONT color=#0000ff>It all makes for good thinking points if you are involved in planning a national conference. The fact that the people posting on the public list are NOT saying that they themselves find these conferences very interesting should be a red flag. The people who defend current conference topics are, in fact, defending them for "beginners", a category in which they are NOT placing themselves.<SPAN class=984564011-04102009><FONT size=2 face=Arial> </FONT></SPAN></FONT></FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=984564011-04102009><FONT size=2 face=Arial><FONT color=#0000ff><SPAN class=984564011-04102009></SPAN></FONT></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=984564011-04102009><FONT size=2 face=Arial><FONT color=#0000ff><SPAN class=984564011-04102009>Some of the happiest people I've talked to at NGS in recent years told me that they were attending the BCG Skillbuilding Track. These people had gone to the conference solely to attend that track and they were to a person very pleased. So, while we are at it, hats off to Kay Frielich who has planned those tracks for a number of years, as well as to the speakers she has picked.</SPAN></FONT></FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=984564011-04102009><FONT size=2 face=Arial><FONT color=#0000ff><SPAN class=984564011-04102009></SPAN></FONT></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=984564011-04102009><FONT size=2 face=Arial><FONT color=#0000ff><SPAN class=984564011-04102009>Yours, Barbara Mathews</SPAN></FONT></FONT></SPAN></DIV></BODY></HTML>