Society of Genealogists Survey
Shaping the Future
Help the Society formulate its future plans and at the same time grab an opportunity to win four (yes four!) books from our popular 'My Ancestors' range.
We are currently looking at the strategic direction of the Society and would like to invite you to have some input. Please read the letter from the Chairman below:
Dear Members (and visitors),
Ideas from members and visitors like you have always helped the Society of Genealogists develop and change, and we need your help in the next stage of our evolution.
As you are probably aware, the genealogy world has been evolving rapidly over the past few years. The Society of Genealogists has continued to provide education and access to genealogical sources, both onsite and online. However, in the background, the trustees and senior management team have been actively reviewing how this changing environment is impacting the society.
Unfortunately due to reducing membership numbers (a phenomenon seen across many other societies both within and outside genealogy) and an aging building, the balance between income and expenditure is difficult to maintain. In the past year, we have been fortunate to have received generous donations and legacies that have helped us avoid incurring a deficit, however we cannot rely on this in the long run. Ultimately if we do nothing to change, we will not be able to maintain the sustainable income to continue.
Therefore the time has come that we need to change - to find new income streams, enhance the income streams we have or reduce costs. We strongly feel that continuing to cut costs is not a viable option in maintaining the services that are our charitable aim require. These possible solutions may include alliances with appropriate bodies for advancing education, digitisation, shared facilities and allowing us to broaden our national reach; reviewing the effectiveness of the space and location and how we best utilise it; and further options suggested by the membership for consideration.
Although the board of trustees has started to identify possible solutions, to ensure we can make the right decisions to support our membership and the charity aims, we need your help. We need to know what is most important - why you belong to the Society of Genealogists, which services you use and what you want the society to be going forward. We are also interested in ideas and solutions that you may have to help move the Society forward.
To this aim, we are carrying out a series of consultations which started with the recent Library Forum. Below this message are details of a survey. Please complete this on-line if possible, as it helps us to minimise costs. However if you do not have internet access, please contact the Society on 02072518799 to request a paper copy. We encourage you to use the free text sections of the form to present your thoughts and ideas.
A further survey is being developed concerning how you use the collections we hold, or would use if available online.
Making the best use of the space to provide access to our holdings and our every increasing collections is vital. We want to provide the resources you expect as a member. The Collections Review Working Party will be using this information to ensure we have the right policy on deciding which parts of our collections are wanted by our membership.
This next stage of the Society of Genealogists’ evolution depends on your support. We need to take this chance to become an organisation that genealogists appreciate and want to be a member of. This can only happen by us pulling together, finding solutions and making this society worthy of its name. Thank you in anticipation of your help.
Ed Percival, Chairman
Society of Genealogists