Organizing OGS Conference 2010: Who would take on such a task?

Posted by conference on August 15, 2009 under Blog: New Postings, The Making of Conference 2010 | Be the First to Comment

Ontario Genealogical Society conferences are organized by volunteers—from one of our Society’s 30 branches, or sometimes from a group of branches. The conference is held in a different part of Ontario each year, rotating on an informal basis.

With the wrap-up of the 2009 event in Oakville, the reins of OGS Conference 2010 are firmly in the hands of Toronto Branch.

It is not the first time for Toronto Branch. The 1969 conference was presented by a one-year-old Toronto Branch and included volunteer hostesses “nattily attired in Centennial dress”. In 1975 we took on the task with the theme “York and the Home District”, and again in 1985 with “Toronto: Meeting Place” which featured a banquet in the blockhouse of Historic Fort York. In 1993 we celebrated the founding of the Town of York with “Toronto: The First Hundred”—and the largest attendance to date. In 2004 we emphasized methodology with the “3RRRs of Family History”, expanded the program to include a full day of concurrent sessions and workshops on Friday, and co-hosted the first pre-conference activities on Thursday.

For OGS Conference 2010, we are incredibly lucky to have an enthusiastic organizing committee of 36 people, that has been coming out to meetings since the fall of 2008. (A steering committee of eight implements the decisions of the organizing committee, coordinates the sub-committees, and makes sure no detail falls between the cracks.)

Each volunteer filled out an information form that asked about his or her skills and experience—but more importantly about how they’d like to be involved. Sometimes volunteering is about a new challenge.

One of the most active committees to date has been program. In several marathon sessions, the six-member program committee has read and considered more than 300 wide-ranging proposals, and is well on the way to an excellent final program with a good balance of familiar and new faces, and topics that will appeal to novice and seasoned researchers.

Other committees are working out the details of all other aspects of Conference 2010—from contacting potential exhibitors for Marketplace, to handling the crowds at the registration desk, and providing opportunities to sample genealogical software and subscription databases. We’re figuring out how to use changing media (like this blog) to attract registrants, and how to keep them informed once they’ve made the decision to attend. And so much more…

So why would we take on the big task of organizing OGS Conference 2010?

We have each experienced the benefits of learning and sharing with other family historians at Toronto Branch meetings, courses, workshops, and annual OGS conferences. We’re excited to invite you to join us for a conference that will be as stimulating, content-rich—and smooth running—as we can possibly make it!