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Archiver > APG > 1999-12 > 0944593100


From: "Chad R. Milliner" <>
Subject: Re: [APG] dates of conference/types attendees
Date: Tue, 7 Dec 1999 11:58:20 -0700


Regarding national conferences. Until I started serving as the APG
representative to the FGS/NGS Records Preservation and Access Committee, I
never attended. I guess I had two reasons. First, I did not think that the
national conferences would have enough in-depth seminars to make it worth my
time. From the catalogs, many of the activities sounded too basic. Second
was the cost and expense. I would have to take time away from my research
activities.

I have now attended Denver, Cincinnati, and St. Louis. I live in Salt Lake
City and thus will of course attend FGS 2000. However, I am, at this point,
not planning on going to Providence. It seems too expensive for the
perceived benefit. At the other conferences, I stayed in extended stay
hotels such as Suburban Lodge and Extended Stay America. When staying for
an entire week, these type of hotels are MUCH less expensive than the
conference hotels. In Cincinnati, I was still close enough that I could
walk to the conference, while in Richmond, I rented a car and still saved
money over the convention hotel. In St. Louis, my wife came with me and we
rode light rail. However, Providence does not seem to have any lodging
options that will work out as well, and the airfare is expensive unless I
fly into Boston.



----- Original Message -----
From: Michael Neill <>
To: <>
Sent: Tuesday, December 07, 1999 11:25 AM
Subject: [APG] dates of conference/types attendees


> 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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