We’ve been fairly quiet as a DK community lately, so I’m guessing that everyone’s pretty busy. That would explain why fewer of us have been signing up to host a Friday. No problem! This should be more about fun and less about obligation, so while I indeed have a topic to discuss I invite all to jump in with whatever genealogical thoughts they have to offer today. The floor is open, below the squiggly and my topic of the week.
As promised, I’m leading off with observations about my experience as a speaker on genealogy. It wasn’t my planning that led to three speaking dates within the space of one week, but rather a scheduling coincidence. My first venture into public speaking came last fall when I agreed to address a local genealogical society about my topically-oriented society (immigrants) and its specialty (German research). Because of that first effort I was approached about doing followup presentations — one for the same group and two others for separate societies. And, with all societies planning their speakers months in advance, it was natural that these next three engagements should occur at almost the same time.
My society is, I suspect, unique in being a society created from a library. Most societies are formed to serve a city, county or region, and it’s common for these to establish a “library” within a larger public library facility. In our case, a woman with a print shop and a lot of disposable income started it all. She had been collecting works on her New England and German ancestry for some time when it dawned on her that she really should share her wealth of resources with others. Her first move in this direction was to advertise her collection locally as the “Immigrant Library.” Then, as area genealogists began to visit this private library regularly, she got the idea to propose an exchange of research services: American genealogists would do research for Germans seeking to contact their distant American cousins, in exchange for German research help in locating German ancestors for Americans. Soon a society was formed to formalize the planning effort needed to deliver on this idea.
And, for about two decades, the society thrived and grew. Then came the internet! Suddenly, it wasn’t a “given” that people interested in researching their ancestry in Europe should seek out a society to join so as to help them reach their goal(s). And so the society’s membership began to lag.
I joined a number of years ago, but truly have only been active since 2011 when I was asked to assume editorship of the monthly newsletter. Since that time I’ve taken on progressively more responsibility to the point that I’m now the appointed vice president and have assumed a “marketing” role. I now speak monthly at our library about a certain Germanic region of Europe — May will be on Bavaria, for example — and to that end I also prepare “finding aids” for each region so that persons can know in advance what resources we have on the shelves and within our vertical files.
That’s where the public speaking comes in. While we have a national membership because of our specialty interest, our stability as a society depends upon our attracting members within driving distance of the library. It’s those members who stand to gain the most, because the library is our principal reason for our existence. And it is those individuals who can help us with staffing and other essentials. But we won’t grow that base again if we don’t regularly get the word out. And offering to speak at monthly program meetings of area genealogical societies is the natural avenue for it.
I have two presentations at the moment, beyond making general remarks about my society. The first is a PowerPoint-style slide presentation on learning to read the old German handwriting, and the second is a lecture on the importance of an understanding of German history and culture to the constructing of “stories” around the documentation of one’s ancestry to be found through the records (mostly LDS films of church book birth/baptism, marriage and death/burial records). The latter talk is heavily based upon the “stories” I’ve created around the 19th emigration of four separate German individuals or families — each (as it turns out) with a different reason for leaving!
My greatest fear, as a rookie speaker, was that the equipment for the slide presentation would fail to operate. If that were the case, how could I proceed? My first time out I chose not to use any computer, projector or other electronic device at all. Instead, I printed several handouts at my own expense. That had one benefit in particular, from my perspective. It meant that I could relieve my audience of the burden of taking so many notes; they could relax a bit, and just listen to my talk with the assurance that the handouts could be consulted later for review.
A side benefit of that approach was that audience members could take extra copies for friends or family members who were not able to attend. As several items had a direct or indirect tie to my society, it represented a means of dispersing the message even farther afield. Having a handout on handwriting turned out to be my security blanket as I tried a slide presentation for the first time. All went well, I’m happy to say. Same for the lecture from note cards.
After now four presentations, I have a new appreciation of how easy university professors have it. If they don’t cover the material they bring to class in one lecture, there’s always the next class period! I wasn’t so fortunate, as I had to fit whatever I wanted to say within the allotted time. And, believe me, it’s hard as a rookie speaker to know how long it will take to deliver a talk. I’m too old and impatient to conduct a trial run, so it took some adjustments “on the fly” to be able to package my notes into a coherent whole. But I think I pulled it off.
At least, only I know what I was not able to cover; I did the best job I could of representing what I ultimately delivered to my audience(s) as exactly that which I had intended to present! As it was, the talk went for 75 minutes and I could have probably spoken for two hours. But audiences have their limits, and I think that would have been the effective limit even if closing time hadn’t been fast approaching.
I’m further happy to report that my confidence levels have risen as I’ve completed this first round. From this point forward I believe I could give a shortened version of the history-and-culture lecture from memory. Which is to say, I think I could now do a stand-up talk of twenty to thirty minutes without any notes at all. And if I can do it, you can probably also do it. Your society will benefit from the publicity you’ll generate, if you’ll just give it a try!