GeniMates - Two months down the track

It's time for reflection now as GeniMates is two monts old today. Although  it's only a short time I want to think about what I am doing.

In my first post on February 7 I said " I thought that I would prepare a pro forma with a list of questions that I could ask some of the people I meet to complete and that I could post these profiles on the web. I then thought about all the wonderful genealogists I have met in Australia and who do not have a presence on Facebook, Twitter or a Blog, I'd really like to profile some of these GeniMates who do fabulous work in local societies, as volunteer indexers or in their day to day jobs. There are a number of directories of genealogists around but these tend to be serious in nature and concentrate on professional genealogists."

I'll use a PMI (Plus, Minus, Interesting) structure to share my reflections. I would welcome reflections and suggestions from anyone who reads this post.

PLUS
* The focus of the blog seems to be unique.
* Fellow Genealogists have made a number of positive and encouraging comments on the blog, Facebook and Twitter..
* GeniMates have had an opportunity to share some interesting stories.
* I have established relationships with some interesting and generous people who have submitted profiles.
* The blog already has a number of followers as does the GeniMates Facebook page.
* Blog visitors come from a broad range of countries

MINUS
* Readers do not generally comment on the posts so the collaborative function of the blog is not exploited.
* Readers from Non English speaking countires have not responded to my pleas to contact me so the profiles do not have the "all over the place" focus that I hope for.
* Some invitees have not responded either positively or negatively to my invitations for profiles. I am not offended if people do not wish to take but I'd love to know.
* The online submission form has created difficulties for some profilees.
* It is difficult trying to balance the sending out of invittions and a schedule for posting profiles.

INTERESTING
* Some of the data collected will give information about  popular resources and common practices of the group profiled and therefore fodder for more blog posts.
* I wonder if readers would like different questions asked of profilees.
* Those who respond to invitations generally are users of some social media.
* There is a large representation of  librarians in the group profiled so far.
* Profilees are generally modest about their accomplishments and abilities.

Although I get stressed when I do not have a profile or two up my sleeve I am enjoying this project immensely and look forward in the coming months to publishing more GeniMates profiles.

The First Post

My excitement is mounting as, in two days, I will take off for the Rootstech Conference in Salt Lake City where, as Geniaus, I am an official blogger.

I heard this morning that 1800 people have registered for the conference...that's a lot of genealogists and I want to meet many and find out about them. As I was sipping my coffee in bed this morning I recalled some books that were popular when I worked with kids. Called Authors and Illustrators Scrapbooks they had a page devoted to each sperson that provided a short bio and some personal information.

Following the model in these books I thought that I would prepare a pro forma with a list of questions that I could ask some of the people I meet to complete and that I could post these profiles on the web. I then thought about all the wonderful genealogists I have met in Australia and who do not have a presence on Facebook, Twitter or a Blog, I'd really like to profile some of these GeniMates who do fabulous work in local societies, as volunteer indexers or in their day to day jobs. There are a number of directories of genealogists around but these tend to be serious in nature and concentrate on professional genealogists.

I could post these profiles on the Geniaus blog but I'd like to give them their own home. I thought about putting up a website but blogging is so much easier so I decided to set up a new blog using a newly created Google account. I pondered about names for the blog: genipals, geniprofiles, genibods but decided using Mates in the title would add a bit of Australian flavour.

Once I have thought of the questions and headings for my proforma I will have it ready for Rootstech. Down the track I might make a soft copy available via this blog.

I don't want to make this too onerous so only promise one or two profiles per week, that is, if I can get anyone to take part. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

If you have any suggestions for this project please post a comment on this blog or email me at GeniMates@gmail.com.