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Archiver > APG > 1999-12 > 0944591116


From: Michael Neill <>
Subject: [APG] dates of conference/types attendees
Date: Tue, 7 Dec 1999 12:25:16 -0600


Jan raises a valid point that I overlooked in my earlier comments on this
thread.

I'm fortunate that my job (teaching at a comm. college) occasionally allows
me to attend a conference without missing work. This is not always the case
however (FGS 2000 is a good example) and most of the newer and younger
people (which have been the focus of this thread) are not in the situation
that I am (a fairly flexible work schedule). To continue on her point, I
don't think it's the conference fee as much as the travel expenses that are
the difficulty for those in this situation. I'm not certain what the remedy
would be. One difficulty is that national conferences need rooms that will
hold a couple of hundred people for some of the lectures and even larger
audiences for the banquets, etc. This usually prevents the use of facilities
that might have lower room fees, etc. (correct me if I'm wrong on this one).

I attend national conferences when I can, but attendance for me is mainly
for professional reasons. If I were pursuing my own genealogical research
and none of the other non-personal genealogy activies, I would be much less
likely to attend a national conference, even if it were close. The reasons
for this are many, but center on finances and perceived benefit. I do fit
into the demographic group that was the focus of this initial thread.

For many new to genealogy that fit in our category of discussion, attendance
at national conferences is prohibitive, for more reasons that simply cost
(although that's a big part of it). Those who can legitiately "expense" the
trip are more likely to go and even then, they've got to see the benefits of
attending. I'm not certain that many of the newer people do. Frankly put,
they've got to feel they can get something at the conference they cannot get
from the web, their email, or a listserve. If the goal is truly to attract
people from this group, then we've got to find out what will motivate them
to attend and lower cost is not always going to do it.

Michael

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