Once again, as we approach the end of our second Pandemic Year, St. Louis Genealogical Society is encouraging all our wonderful, loyal members and friends to remember us in year-end giving plans. As we look back on where we have been and where we are going, it is obvious that only through your support, donations, and participation has our society been able to weather this long storm.
We are so proud of how much we have learned during these past two years. Having mastered the basics of remote learning in 2020, we spent 2021 perfecting our ability to reach you via Zoom and planning for how to emerge from the pandemic in 2022, once it is completely safe to welcome you back in person.
Many of our volunteers have continued working at the office at scanning, indexing, proofreading, and planning on a regular basis to keep the workflow going. We hope you have been able to take advantage of all of the new and updated pages and recorded webinars and classes that are now on our website.
If you haven't checked the website recently, please take a look at what is on offer:
- Our monthly meetings have been held via Zoom all year long. Recordings of these meetings remain online for three months. Currently, you can see the September meeting, "Coming to a Conclusion . . . Based on What?" and the November meeting, "Ohio Valley Pioneers: Using the John Dabney Shane Collection." (The October meeting was not recorded.) These recordings are available on the "Monthly Meeting" page on our website.
- Classes have been digitally recorded and are now available on the "Classes" page on our website, free for members to view. There are a dozen classes for you to watch at your leisure and more on the way!
- German, Irish, and Jewish Special Interest Group (SIG) meetings continued virtually all year. Many of the recordings remain online. Learn more by clicking the links below:
- German SIG: Two recordings available
- Irish SIG: No recordings available at this time
- Jewish SIG: Three recordings available
- Volunteers have added new pages of records from Webster Groves and Fenton, as well as numerous congregations. Click here for links to new data added to the website.
- All year, we have continued to publish our Quarterly journal, including a special pandemic issue. We have maintained our Ask Louie research service, regularly wrote this blog, and administered our Facebook News and Events page, our Facebook group, and our Twitter account, all of which have continued to grow.
Upcoming for 2022
Like many of you, we assumed that by now we would be back to normal, but it looks like we will be living with COVID-19 into at least a part of next year. Complicating matters is the fact that the St. Louis County Library Headquarters building, where our meetings have been held for decades, will be closing for renovation sometime in the early spring. However, we are nothing if not flexible, and our programs planning committee is hard at work making plans. We will continue our all-virtual schedule for at least part of the year while we learn how to hold "hybrid meetings," presented both in-person and virtually at the same time. We are updating our audiovisual equipment so we can invite participants to join us in person for classes and meetings while others can participate via Zoom.Much of our 2022 schedule is in place and we couldn't be more excited to share it with you. We will have a hybrid Family History Conference in early May, a Technology Institute at the office in the summer, and a Speaker Series in October. Our annual research trip to Salt Lake City is booked for the middle of October. Our Calendar of Events page has the meetings for January through March posted right now so you can begin adding them to your calendar.
How can you help?
There are so many ways you can pitch in! The past two years have wreaked havoc on our fund-raising activities, but we have strived to carry on providing you with the excellent quality you expect.- Any amount you can send will be much appreciated. Please visit our website to donate today in our secure store.
- Recently, StLGS members received a letter from our president, and we are hoping members will use the envelope provided to send in a check or credit card donation. All gifts to StLGS are tax deductible to the extent allowed by current law.
- You can also help by keeping us updated when you move. Almost thirty of those letters to members came back to us with old addresses on them, meaning that we paid for the postage and printing, but the letters never got to where they needed to go. To update your address, phone number, and/or email address, just send a note to membership@stlgs.org.
Matching Donations, Amazon Smile, and Schnucks eScrip
Because StLGS is a not-for-profit 501(C)(3) organization, we qualify for matching donation funds from companies that offer them. In the past, we have received matching funds from AT&T, MasterCard, and Boeing. Does your employer support matching donations? If so, please think of earmarking your donation to StLGS that way.For the past seven years, we have been a member of the Amazon Smile donation program. If you are planning to shop online this holiday season, please log on to https://smile.amazon.com and choose St. Louis Genealogical Society as the recipient of your donation. It costs you nothing, and Amazon will donate a portion of every one of your purchases to the society.
In addition, St. Louis-area Schnucks grocery stores still accept eScrip/Community cards. You cannot use them with their current rewards program, but if you choose to forego your personal points, you can still designate rewards to go to the charity of your choice. If you have an eScrip/Community card, please select StLGS as the recipient of your points. They turn into dollars for us! You can learn more about the eScrip program on the eScrip website.
All of these donation channels are open to everyone. If you have friends or relatives who would like to join you in supporting the society, please encourage them to do so.
Your membership and support are vital to the future of the society! We are counting the days until we can see you in person again, and we are grateful for whatever you can do to help us keep StLGS strong and thriving in these very difficult times.
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