The President's Letter is a monthly column written by the FHSA President. It is published in our newsletter and posted here. Katie Gertz offer's insights into family history, the needs of the society, and personal reflections each month.
November President’s Letter
Do not forget to register for our Annual Meeting coming up November 7th where we have scheduled a great lineup of international speakers with expertise in their respective regions. We all have immigrant ancestors, and these speakers can help us navigate finding records in their ancestral homes.
I look forward to the new year for the Family History Society of Arizona to become stronger and better in the genealogy and family history community. We have a lot of great ideas and plans for 2027. As a head start on some of those new ideas, the October monthly meeting we just had was a help session for those who had specific interests or roadblocks to moving them closer to finding records they may have overlooked. We have a great many folks in our society with a wealth of knowledge, and they are happy to share it to help others. We will have more of these sessions in the future.
We will be rolling out a new format of programs for 2027 that we believe will enhance our ability to meet the needs of our membership and attract more new members. The new format will involve having a quarterly theme with a mixture of lectures and hands-on work sessions to put into practice what you have learned. For instance, our first quarter “theme” is about brushing up on your computer skills. We also have plans for learning about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how it can help with your genealogy research. And other exciting program themes.
So, stay tuned. I’m confident you will want to come along on this new exciting journey with our new format. We are continually evolving as an organization and with your help we continue to grow.
As we are approaching the end of the year and since we will not have our normally scheduled monthly meetings for November or December due to the holidays, I will take this opportunity to offer my sincere thanks to our Executive Board, Jessie, our Newsletter Editor, Richard, our Webmaster, Betsy, our Program Coordinator, and our SIG leaders. Without all of them or ANY of them for that matter, our Society could not function.
We have two executive board officers stepping down this year. Darlene Hagan, our Treasurer, and Christine Worth, our Secretary. I would like to genuinely thank them for their dedication to our Society for many years and wish them the best. Please do not forget to go to our website to vote for the new officers.
Looking forward to seeing you on November 7th! Our January meeting will be a POTLUCK gathering instead of a regular meeting. It’s a fun evening to get to know each other better.
Katie Gertz