INFORMATION ABOUT NERGC 2009

NERGC’s tradition of excellence in providing genealogical lectures, seminars and workshops as well as exhibitors’ booths, the Ancestors Road Show, a Society Fair, and luncheons and banquets continues in April 2009 in Manchester, New Hampshire.

The Tenth New England Regional Genealogical Conference, Discovering Family Treasures, will be held April 22-26, 2009 at the Expo Center of New Hampshire and Radisson Hotel in Manchester. National speakers will be Thomas W. Jones, James Hansen, and Megan S. Smolenyak.

Pauline Cusson, Melinde Sanborn, and Allison Ryall will Co-Chair the 2009 Conference, and Program Co-Chairs will be Christine Sweet-Hart and Barbara Mathews.
Watch the NERGC website www.nergc.org ( http://www.nergc.org/ )for updates as they become available.

VOLUNTEER APPRECIATION DRAWINGS AT NERGC 2007

Cheryl Patten’s daily appreciation drawing for volunteers drew much interest. Daily winners included Joe Hoefflinger (CAS) who took away the L.L. Bean Flashlight, Bonnie Sweatman (CMGS) who won the L.L. Bean Passport Organizer, Linda Pelletier and Oti Wyatt who won Dunkin Donut Gift Cards, and Cindy Knight-Palazzo who won the L.L. Bean Personal Organizer.

MANY THANKS TO ALL THOSE WHO PUT IN HUNDREDS OF HOURS PRIOR TO, DURING AND EVEN NOW IN WRAPPING UP THE CONFERENCE!

SPECIAL RECOGNITIONS AT THE CONFERENCE

During the Conference, the following individuals were recognized for their special contributions to the New England genealogical community:

Rosalie Godfrey
Our special guest, Rosalie Godfrey, was a solid, moving force from the first NERGC planning meeting in 1986 through the initial planning stages of our NGS-NERGC meeting in Providence. She was among the original delegates who conceived, designed, and created NERGC. She performed numerous jobs for NERGC with efficiency, skill, and forethought. Her leadership in helping create NERGC will not be forgotten.

Cherry Fletcher Bamberg
Cherry Bamberg was the recipient of the 2006 Donna Holt Siemiatkoski Volunteer of the Year Award. Since joining the editorial staff of Rhode Island Roots and subsequently becoming its chief editor, Cherry has steadily improved the quality of the publication to the point where today it is among the finest journals published by a genealogical society. Her work to strengthen and grow the Rhode Island Genealogical Society and genealogy in Rhode Island exemplify the very best in volunteer service.

Cheryl Willis Patten
Cheryl Patten was the recipient of the 2005 Donna Holt Siemiatkoski Volunteer of the Year Award. Her efforts on behalf of the Maine Genealogical Society, the New England Regional Genealogical Conference, and genealogy in general have been prodigious. Over a period of many years, she has time and again gone beyond the call of duty to promote and otherwise advocate for genealogical concerns in the state of Maine. Cheryl Patten's life has been dedicated to promoting genealogy in Maine and in every aspect of her career she has symbolized the ideal volunteer.

Joseph V. Camposeo, CMC
Joe Camposeo, the newly elected President of the Connecticut Town Clerks Association, has been the Town Clerk of Manchester, Connecticut eleven years and in 1999 became a Certified Municipal Clerk (CMC). His Family History Days in Manchester were popular with the public and genealogists and have evolved into annual Genealogy Road Shows. He responded to a genealogists’ initiative for better communication between Town Clerks and genealogists by Co-Chairing an Action Group that has served both communities.

SOME COMMENTS FROM COMMITTEE CHAIRS

From Janet Wallace, Hospitality and Queries Chair:
WASN'T IT GREAT????? We are definitely now in the Big League! That Conference was a mighty big mountain to come down from!

From Nancy Pexa, Society Fair Chair:
Everyone deserves a huge thank you for a job well done - Hartford was actually a shining star. All the sessions were appropriate to the setting and occasion. I thank you for letting me be a part of the event. I want to thank everyone who helped make the conference so great. I did not know what to expect, and it was everything I hoped it would be.

From Melinde Sanborn, Distinguished Service Awards Chair:
Although it was part of the Special Award that Rosalie Godfrey didn't have to speak at the banquet where she was our guest (all pleasure, no work), she did spend some time with me reminiscing about the early days of NERGC. It was wonderful to see how much we've grown and prospered through her eyes!

COMMENTS FROM ATTENDEES (TAKEN FROM FULL CONFERENCE EVALUATION FORMS)

Some of the things "liked best":

"This is one of the best conferences that I have attended."
"Excellent job by committee. Well done!"
"Great presentations"
"So many great sessions/topics to choose from."
"Location - easy to do in a day"
"The great facility"
"Easy parking"
"Excellent Convention Center food and staff"
"Chance to visit with old friends"
"Meeting people"
"Friendly volunteers"
"Friendly people, interesting lectures, and lots to look at."
"Syllabus is wonderful"
"Bags are great! I love the square bottom & place for a water bottle."
"It was excellently run. Thanks for all your hard work."

Some of the things "liked least"
"The price of parking"
"Meeting room layout"
"Cold rooms"
"Too much walking"
"Some sessions were crowded."
"Thursday was too long with no break."
"No time for lunch or supper on Thursday."
"Little dedicated vendor time outside sessions"

The 2007 Evaluation Chair and Conference Co-Chairs appreciate all the feedback we received. Summaries and analyses will contribute to a comprehensive report for NERGC’s Annual Meeting. Conference committees and participating societies will get summaries. NERGC will use the feedback to improve the variety of programming, vendors, and resources available; the quality and expertise of its speakers; and the usefulness of the networking and sharing opportunities to make our next conference even better than this one.

CONFERENCE EVALUATIONS UPDATE

Pam Roberts, our Evaluation Chair, reports that this year NERGC expanded its program evaluation model to include individual session evaluation feedback forms for each speaker in addition to the overall conference evaluation. New England CONNECTions drew a diverse audience in age, experience, professional background and interests, and the evaluations have a wealth of comments that will assist us in meeting these diverse needs in the future.

The data from each individual session as well as the data from the full conference evaluation will contribute to an overall conference evaluation report for use not only by NERCG 2007 Chairpersons and Committees but for future planning by NERGC 2009 Chairpersons and Committees.

Preliminary data shows that our NERGC attendees participated in session evaluations at a higher rate than the 25-30% voluntary expected return rate for most audiences. In nearly all sessions, over 50% of attendees filled out at least a portion of the evaluation form and in some cases over 80% of attendees returned forms.

This high representation of opinion increases the likelihood that the data summary for each session is truly representative of the audience attending each presentation. Overall, hour-long speaker sessions were rated "very good" to excellent" with strong agreement that participants learned something new and that expectations and needs were met.

PRELININARY REGISTRATION STATISTICS

Mary Choppa, who did an outstanding job as Registration Chair, has provided an initial breakdown on where attendees came from. While the majority were from New England (including over 300 from Connecticut and 180 from Massachusetts), the conference also attracted attendees from the:

Middle Atlantic States: 65
Southern States: 24
Midwest: 12
Far West: 20
Canada: 4
England: 2

New EnglandCONNECTionsWRAP-UP

Although the final tally isn’t in, preliminary figures indicate over 720
were on hand at the Connecticut Convention Center and Hartford
Marriott Downtown April 25-29 for New England CONNECTions.

The evaluation forms completed by attendees indicate that the quality
of the speakers was among the most highly rated features of
New England CONNECTions, and the Conference Co-Chairs Tom Howard
and Dick Roberts and Program Chairs Allison Ryall and Christine Sweet-Hart
wish to thank each and every one of them for their wonderful performance.

The Co-Chairs also want to publicly acknowledge the tremendous job done
by our hardworking Committee Chairs. To say that you are the greatest would
be an understatement. Without your enormous effort and on-going participation,
Hartford 2007 would have not been the success it turned out to be. We also thank
the many, many volunteers from many organizations (as well as a number
who were unaffiliated with any NERGC society) who contributed countless
hours of volunteer time.

Very special thanks also go to Dick Eastman for making it possible to
check e-mail and perform other tasks on the Web from the Exhibitors' Hall as
well as his special report on the conference, complete with pictures, in his Online
Genealogy Newsletter of April 29, 2007.

He wrote in part, "I just returned from the New England Regional Genealogical
Conference in Hartford, Connecticut. As expected, this was a great conference.
I believe the total attendance was more than 700, not bad for a regional conference
covering only six small states. The event featured presentations by top national and
regional genealogical experts. The Connecticut Conference Center is a first-class facility
although the attendees, lecture rooms and exhibitors' hall only filled a small part of
the available space.

The convention opened under sunny skies on Thursday although I think that was
the last time the sun was seen. The remaining days were overcast with frequent showers.
Those of us who stayed at the nearby Marriott Hotel didn't mind because we didn't need
to go outside. The hotel, restaurant, coffee shops, convention center, and parking garage
were all connected."

For the full story, see http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2007/04/nergc
_2007_wrap.html#more