Ready to Learn at FGS!

Day 2 - Wednesday, 11th February

FGS Day 1

I woke up on Wednesday morning eager to start the day; however, as I was still recovering from jetlag I was a bit slow in getting ready. I made the decision to miss the opening session – 8 am when you’re still not 100% with it is too early. My first session of the day, at 9:30am, was Engaging Your Long Distance Membership by Jen Baldwin. I was very keen to hear Jen speak and I thought this topic would be handy because most of the societies I plan to join are interstate or overseas. I thoroughly enjoyed Jen’s talk. One important point she made, and probably the most important in my opinion, was that it is just not about the distance physically – members may also be mentally un-engaged.

After Jen’s talk, I finally met Laurie Desmarais! She actually tweeted during Jen’s talk that she was waiting to meet me! I also met Lisa Dawn-Crawley briefly and Laurie’s friend Bev Fieg. Sharn, Pauleen and I also had a chance to catch up and mingle. We saw Cousin Russ, Cheryl, and Thomas MacEntee. Sharn, Pauleen and I grabbed the chance to each get our photos with Thomas. 

Me & Laurie! She reminds me so much of my cousin :)

Me & Thomas!

Next, we were off to our second talk – How the Genealogist Can Remember Everything with Evernote by Lisa Louise Cook. Now, me being Gen Y and all, you would think Evernote would be an easy app for me to grasp. Nah ah! For some reason I just have not been able get the hang of it and it has frustrated me to no end. 

Frustration!

You have no idea how happy I was when Sharn told me she couldn't understand Evernote either! At least we know we’re not alone and shall get frustrated about Evernote together. I found Lisa’s talk to be very informative and I plan on giving myself the challenge of using Evernote for a week. I might even do a video on it. I think I might have told someone I would do a video on my learning to use Evernote. Anyway, I now know a lot more about how to use Evernote. I’ll give it a go and see what happens.

I found Laurie and Bev waiting for me outside the room afterwards. They promised they weren’t stalking me…hmm. Haha. Dalton and Hilary also appeared too. By this time (midday), I was starving, so we went to the Blue Lemon for lunch.

Lunch Buddies: Hilary, Laurie, Dalton, Me, and we found Roger
wandering the streets after.

The next session for us all was The Ethical Genealogist by Judy Russell. I was extremely keen to hear Judy speak, particularly because she’s known as the Legal Genealogist. I just graduated with a degree in Criminology which included a bit of law. Today’s Fun Fact about Caitie: I love legislation! So if there is any topic or seminar that relates to law AND genealogy, count me in! I learned that Judy has three rules of ethics – tell the truth; play nice with others; and don’t tell tales out of school. Judy’s talk was brilliant and made me super excited for her other sessions.

Judy Russell speaking about The Ethical Genealogist

I did not have anything planned for the next session so I went back to the hotel for an hour’s rest. The last session of the day that I attended was Video Marketing: Killer YouTube Strategies for Societies by Lisa Louisa Cooke. This was all about YouTube and as you know, I have a YouTube Channel. I am wanting to really improve my YouTube Channel this year so I was not going to miss this session. I took five pages of notes! When Lisa mentioned a particular aspect, I would get an idea of how it could be applied to my channel. I am keen to start putting these ideas into practice. 

The last item on Wednesday’s agenda was a Behind The Scenes look at Family History & Television. We watched some snippets of Who Do You Think You Are, and two other shows that aren't on air in Australia – Genealogy Roadshow and Finding Your Roots. Then it was a panel session with D. Joshua Taylor, CeCe Moore, and Kenyatta D. Berry. The audience was able to ask them questions about filming the shows. It was great to get some inside information and it was funny to learn that the celebrities in WDYTYA do not know where they are going, they are just told if they need a passport or not!

Behind The Scenes: Family History & Television Panel

Overall, it was a fantastic day!