In the current environment of “social distancing” and library closings, it is impossible for most genealogical societies to conduct regular, in-person meetings. For that reason, the Texas State Genealogical Society is making virtual meeting resources available to TxSGS Partner Society members. We hope by supporting our Partner Societies in this way, we can help to lessen the impact of the pandemic on our genealogical community.
Going virtual has a lot of benefits for a genealogy society. Virtual meetings
- Maintain the relationship between Partner Societies and their members during a time when physical meetings are difficult.
- Provide a way to reach out to distance members and those who can’t make meetings because of physical limitations.
- Show Partner Society members that the society cares about their physical and mental health at this time of social distancing.
- Offer an opportunity to showcase a wide range of speakers from across the country because of the virtual format.
TxSGS will host a Partner Society’s regularly scheduled meeting online, at no cost to the society.
TxSGS facilitators will set up the meeting, provide you with the information you need to join the meeting, and monitor the meeting while it is taking place in case there are questions or technical issues. You will be responsible for communicating the information about the meeting to your members and/or to the public and planning the program.
Already have a speaker scheduled?
TxSGS will work with your speaker in advance to test their remote access capabilities. You are responsible for selecting and finalizing an agreement with your speaker for the meeting and for announcing and promoting the meeting to your members and/or the public.
Need a speaker? Select from ten prerecorded webinars available for you to use.
You can use any of these prerecorded webinars for a regularly scheduled meeting of your society, using either our virtual hosting platform or your own. We will also provide the syllabus for those attending the virtual meeting. These sessions were recorded live by TxSGS specifically for Partner Society Webinar Series. Partner Society members are eligible for one free prerecorded webinar per year. Other recordings are available for $20 each. To learn more, visit Partner Society Webinar Series.
There is no cost to your society for hosting your meeting or for showing these webinars, however, due to our licensing and contractual obligations, the society must be a Partner Society member of TxSGS. Annual dues for a Partner Society Membership are $30 per year. If your society is not already a member, you can learn more about membership and how to join TxSGS here.
We need to receive a request from you at least fourteen days before your regularly scheduled meeting in order to have time to make the arrangements to host it or to make a webinar available. Fill out the Partner Society Virtual Meeting Request Form to schedule your time and select your recording.
We will continue to offer these special Partner Society member benefits until you are able to resume in-person meetings.
Want to conduct your Partner Society Board or SIG meetings virtually as well?
TxSGS offers help for Partner Society members to conduct small group virtual meetings as well. If your Partner Society is interested in learning how to set up and run their own virtual meetings, we will be happy to provide you with assistance in selecting a meeting platform and show you how to use it.
Contact us at memberinfo@txsgs.org or webinars@txsgs.org for more information. To schedule a virtual meeting or to show a pre-recorded webinar, please use the Partner Society Virtual Meeting Request Form.