The Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) has offered NGS members a $10 discount on registration for their virtual conference, which begins 2 September 2020. See more exciting details about their virtual program below or visit the FGS conference website. Details and the discount code have been emailed to members. And if you register before 15 August, you will save $40 on a regular registration with the NGS Member and Early Bird discounts combined.
The NGS merger with FGS continues to move forward. NGS and FGS recently met three significant milestones on the way to the merger. First, the NGS Board modified its bylaws to allow genealogy societies and organizations to be members of NGS with full voting rights (one org/one vote). Previously, societies and organizations had no membership voting rights and were only eligible to "subscribe" to NGS publications and programs. Second, the boards of both NGS and FGS approved the legal documents necessary to merge. Finally, the FGS membership vote on the merger, which is required under Illinois law, is now underway. All of these steps are milestones on the path to creating the "New NGS." The next step will be the announcement of the slate of candidates for the NGS Board. The slate includes a new Vice President for Society & Organization Management and additional at-large directors from the FGS ranks. Both organizations remain on target for the final merger that will occur on 1 October 2020.
FGS Virtual Conference Plus NGS Discount
In recognition of the upcoming merger of NGS and FGS, FGS has graciously offered NGS members a $10 discount on registration for its virtual conference. The FGS virtual event will begin with FGS "Live!" on 2 September 2020, starting at 11:00 a.m. (EDT) and concluding at 7:00 p.m. (EDT). In addition to the live event, all conference registrations will include a collection of sixteen society management sessions assembled by FGS and more than thirty sponsored sessions.
The registration packages also allow you to select ten, twenty, or forty-five sessions from the On-Demand content, including more than eighty sessions by leading genealogists from which to choose. All registration packages provide online access to the digital conference syllabus. A special commemorative goody bag is included with the forty-five-session package and you will be entered for a chance to win one of two free registrations to the May 2021 NGS Family History Conference in Richmond, Virginia. If you had already registered for the FGS conference in Kansas City, your registration will convert to the twenty-session conference package. For more information, visit the FGS conference website.
The FGS Live! event will feature lectures from some of the most popular genealogy speakers:
- David E. Rencher, “FGS: Celebrating the Past and the Future”
- Judy G. Russell, “Quarantined! Genealogy, The Law & Public Health”
- Ari Wilkins, “Scaling the 1870 Brick Wall in African American Research”
- Thomas W. Jones, “Building a Respectable Genealogy, One Documented Biography at a Time”
- CeCe Moore, “Strategies of ‘The Genetic Detective’”
- Lisa Louise Cooke, “The 2020 Genealogist’s Google Search Methodology”
The FGS Live! event will also include special presentations from our two Platinum sponsors:
- Ancestry’s “Journey to ‘Roots Less Traveled’”
- Ron Tanner of FamilySearch, “What’s New at FamilySearch”
An online chat will take place during the Live! event and there will be a Q&A session following each session.
The following two-hour workshops will also be held on 3-4 September:
- Angie Bush, “Using the ‘What are the Odds’ (WATO) Tool” on 9/3/2020
- Cari Taplin, “Using Google’s My Maps as a Planning & Analysis Tool” on 9/3/2020
- Angie Bush, “Latest Developments in Company Tools for DNA” on 9/4/2020
- Pam Vestal, “What the Heck Does That Say” on 9/4/2020
For a full description of the registration packages, a list of the available On-Demand content, a list of all of the free sessions, and much more information, visit the FGS conference website. To learn more, visit fgs.org.
