Year End Recap – Short Term Goals

Genealogical Goals
Samford University
Samford University

While long-term goals can carry over a period of time, I generally expect my short-term goals to be smaller and easier to accomplish. Let’s see how I did this year. My short-term goals for 2013 were:

  • Revise and post my mission statement on my website.
  • Attend GRIP and IGHR provided I get into the desired courses.
  • Add “Mentoring” to my business plan.
  • Attend more online webinars, explore and read more blogs, read the books and magazines I’ve gathered.
  • Create some new programs. I’ve been a little stagnant lately and have not created any new programs to present to local societies.
  • Do more work for my society’s Quarterly.

Here’s the breakdown:

Put my mission statement on my website – I did this as a part of my ProGen study this year. You can view it here in the intro of my website.

Attend GRIP and IGHR – I did get into the courses I wanted and they were quite exciting courses to take! I was lucky enough to have taken Elizabeth Shown Mills’ last Advanced Methods course at IGHR! And I thoroughly enjoyed Tom Jones’ Mastering Genealogical Proof course at GRIP.

Add “Mentoring” to my business plan – I’ve termed consultation now, instead of mentoring. I wavered back and forth over this and feel like mentoring is a personal relationship that develops and can’t be forced or bought, but I can offer consulting services.

Attend more online webinars… – I’ve been watching a lot more of these while I work on organizing in my office or scan documents. I seem to have hit the limit on the number of blogs I can easily follow. There are a lot of us out there blogging and as much as I’d love to read them all, I just can’t. So I have a few of my favorites and I skim the headlines of the rest. As for my books and magazines, I’ve done some work on this but it is a more time-consuming project.

Create some new programs – I have created a new 4-week beginner course curriculum and I have a new lecture on County Histories. I am in the process of writing another one that will be done in January, an Ohio case study.

Do more work for my society’s Quarterly – I have done some of this. I have been extracting data from a ledger from the Boulder Superintendent’s visits to schools and have turned some of it in to the Quarterly editor.

So all in all I am quite pleased with the outcome of my short-term goals for this year. Invariably, things happen that weren’t planned. Next I will discuss the things I accomplished that weren’t on either of these lists.

Year End Recap – Long Term Goals

Genealogical Goals, , ,

notepadWhen I create goals, I like to create two kinds of goals, long-term and short-term. Generally the short-term goals feed into the long-term goals. Also, short-term goals tend to be smaller, easier, things you can take care of quickly whereas long-term goals take more time, planning, determination, and consistency. The completion of short-term goals gives you the sense of accomplishment and the momentum to keep up with the long-term goals.

Last year I created a list of my Long-Term goals for 2013. There were as follows:

  • Organize my office (this is more of an ongoing, every day resolution, but still, I need to keep it visually handy).
  • “Process” my binders. This is in relation to my organization system according to family groups. I recently changed it a little bit and so all of my families need to be caught up.
  • Finish and submit my BCG application by December. (I went “on the clock” at the end of December 2012.)

Let me break them down by goal:

Organize my office – I’m happy to report that this is possibly the only one that I feel is pretty much done. This summer we finally finished our basement and built a very nice home office (that I’m mentioned before). I have plenty of file cabinets, shelves, and desk space to keep my genealogy organized.

“Process” my binders – I know that most of you don’t even know what this means, but in terms of updating my research organizing system, I’ve only done 2 or 3 of these binders. I have about 20. So, while I’ve done some, it’s not as far along as I’d like. I’ll keep working on it.

Finish and submit my BCG application – Well, some things happened with this that have caused me to get an extension. For one thing, I did a lot more education in preparation for the BCG than I had previously thought I would. This was a good thing. In taking those courses, I realized that I would need some more time to really do it right. My new deadline is December 15, 2014. This will make an appearance on my 2014 goals list.

So even though I did maybe half of my long-term goals, I feel like I made quite a lot of progress. These are LONG-TERM goals after all and it’s ok if they carry over to the next year’s list.

 

Year End Recap – 2013

Genealogical Goals, ,

snowflakeDecember… this is a month of mixed emotions for me. I love the holiday decorations, the sparkly lights, trees, snowflakes, and especially snowmen (they’re cute). But it also involves a lot of busy-ness, places to go, kids’ programs and parties to navigate, gifts to buy, wrap and deliver. Stores are crowded. It’s not my favorite time to be out and about. And it can be so cold, and it’s always dark, and I really just feel like hibernating until March.

Despite that, I love that a new year is looming, it’s a feeling of a fresh start, a chance to do some things differently and make new goals. It’s an arbitrary date, January 1, you can “turn a new leaf” anytime during the year, but there’s something about the changing of the calendar that just gets me excited for new things. Last year I made public my goals for 2013. I’m going to take some time to review how I did and examine things I did that were not on the list. It is easy to get caught up in day-to-day mini-roadblocks that I forget to look at the bigger picture and see that I actually did get stuff done.

This series of posts will look at my 2013 goals in more detail and will end with my goals for 2014. I encourage everyone to take some time to do this for themselves, several times throughout the year even, in order to gain some perspective.  I hope you join me in this activity to see where you stand with your goals.

Happy December!

 

Genealogy Gratitude – The Genealogy Husband

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mensethI will finish this series off with a sincere gratitude for my spouse, Seth. He’s the ultimate in being supportive of my genealogy obsession. He supports me, not only financially, but with helping out with the kids when I want to take off on a genealogy adventure. Sometimes, when he gets to come along on those adventures, he’ll be my microfilm fetcher, reader or scanner, or my tombstone spotter. He’s always accommodating when it comes to taking a side trip to visit a far flung cemetery or repository. He also helped build the aforementioned home office (and didn’t once demand a “man cave”), moved many books, shelves, desks, filing cabinets and office supplies to and fro. He also let me pick the bright colors we painted on the walls.

Overall, he is the best genealogy husband a girl could ask for! I love you honey!

 

Genealogy Gratitude – Volunteers

Genealogy General,
Thank You!
Thank You!

You’ve seen them. Maybe you’ve been one. But you’ve definitely benefited from them. Genealogy volunteers! They tirelessly index records, sit at a library help desk, do look-ups, teach classes, mentor, lead genealogy societies, plan events, write articles, edit quarterlies and newsletters, send emails … they do it all. I know that I personally have benefited from many hours of volunteer time. This is my shout out to all volunteers who are, ever was or ever will be giving of their time freely for the benefit of others! It is another aspect of how awesome the genealogical community is!  THANK YOU!

Genealogical Gratitude – My New Home Office

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My home office
My home office

It was only 10 years in the making. We moved into our house in 2003. It had an unfinished basement and we had a young family. My husband and his father got to work finishing the basement. On one side it has a creative studio space, TV/Family room, several closets and a bathroom. On the other … the new home office! It has two U-shaped desks that sit next to each other so my husband and I can work together. We also, finally, got 3 bookshelves for our books that have been in boxes since we moved in, 10 years ago. All of my Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, poetry, Shakespeare and other literature books and his sci-fi/fantasy collections finally see the light again.

All of my genealogy books and files have a home! Genealogy ShelvesMy dog has a little nest and I have a heater to take the chill off of the basement environment. We have two big windows that do let in a lot of light for a basement, so it is not a dark and gloomy as some basements.

I have plenty of room to spread my projects out (I usually have several going at the same time) and my husband has his own section that can be as messy as he likes and it’s not in our living room any longer!

So thank you hubby and father-in-law for all of the work over the years!

 

Genealogical Gratitude – Educational Opportunities

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Pamela teaching her children (1743–45)I am continually grateful for the education opportunities that are available to me on the state level, national level and online. I am also thankful for the teachers, educators, lecturers and mentors who give their time to bring those opportunities to me (and everyone else who benefits, too). I know I wouldn’t be where I am today in the field if it hadn’t been for some really excellent examples who have stood at a podium and unleashed their wisdom upon a group of eager students or those who take time to talk to me (and others) personally about genealogy-related topics.

Those who have “gone before” taking the time to teach those of us coming next is one of the best parts of the genealogical community. A big thank you to all of those who have gone before and are “up there” at the podium (or writing books and articles, or teaching webinars, or leading small study groups). You’ve been a great influence on me!

Genealogical Gratitude – Coffee!

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I don’t know about you, but I am in love with coffee. I am so grateful for coffee and how it impacts my genealogical research. I come from a long line of coffee drinkers so I am sure it runs in the gene pool! I am especially grateful for peppermint mochas. Plain coffee (with cream and sugar) is an excellent treat for next to the computer in the chilly Colorado winters. Also because it keeps me awake at night when I get on a research roll or get me going in the morning after a long night of working. Coffee is a fun way to meet up with friends and fellow genealogists! Coffee is a treat beyond the cup, it brings people together and helps create memories!

Wanna meet for coffee sometime? I’m up for it!

Genealogical Gratitude – Technology

Genealogy General, ,

Assorted_smartphonesIn my last post I expressed by gratitude for the Internet, however, I am also thankful for technology in a more broad sense. In ten seconds, I can scan an aging photograph, have a copy on my computer and in another 10 seconds, I can send it to a distant cousin who may have never seen the photo. I am grateful for technologies like my scanner, computer, large monitor, smartphone with camera, iPad (with Kindle app), as well as software such as Reunion, Evernote, Google, WordPress, Photoshop, iChat, Skype, and so on.

The speed with which I can research, collect and manipulate data and share with others is astounding. Stop and look around your office, look at the apps on your smartphone, look at the Applications folder on your computer and just try to fathom how cool it all is, how utterly life-changing technology has been over the last 20 years!

I am super-grateful for my technology! How about you?

Genealogical Gratitude – The Internet

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arrowI don’t know how we ever got along before the Internet. (Well, I do, but it was a slow process!) I am so grateful at the speed with which I can communicate with my family, friends, colleagues and clients. I am grateful that I can attend a Webinar and brush up on a topic without having to drive a long distance or paying a large fee. I am grateful that I can research late into the night in my bunny slippers and jim-jams. I am especially grateful for the wonderful “cousins” and friends I’ve made almost exclusively because of the Internet. I mean I know that Josh Taylor’s dog is a dachshund named Twix and that Dear Myrtle has adorable grand kids, that Footnote Maven writes incredibly entertaining stories about her cat (Monkey Kitty) and dog (Bullet). I have since been able to connect with many of my Internet friends and various conferences and institutes. I am also grateful that the Internet allows me to close the distance between me and my ancestors, not only through research but with sharing and collaborating with other researchers.

In short, the Internet has closed the time and space gap between me and the rest of the world, and I am grateful!