Federation Of Family History Societies

Communication

 

'Talk to us'. Whenever we look at how we can improve our lives, our work and our hobbies we hear this cry. In a world full of technology there are so many ways to communicate but so little real communication and much mis-communication. FFHS Ezine, FFHS News, FFHS Members List, FFHS Forum.
Are we so busy that we cannot find time to communicate properly and, equally, to take time to understand what we are being told.

Is this article boring, are you overloaded with information? We pride ourselves as a Federation of Family History Societies that we look for, share and implement good practice in family history. What do we want to read/hear, should it be fun, interesting, critical, constructive? How do you react to messages you receive?

There are a number of ways that FFHS communicates to Members, Family Historians and those with like interests and plenty of opportunity for you to communicate across the board. You can elect to receive these communications by subscribing to these services, you can send messages for publication to or For instructions on subscribing go to the links below.

The FFHS Ezine is considered to be a shining example of how messages can be distributed; you can choose what you want to read and what to follow up. Ezine is intended to provide news, articles and links to further information and replaces Family history News and Digest and Newsflash. It is published bi-monthly, providing news more regularly and more pro-actively than the publications it replaces. FFHS Ezine has the largest number of subscribers and therefore gets your messages to the greatest number of Family Historians.

Ezine is free, subscribe to http://www.ffhs.org.uk/ezine/subscribe.php If you have ideas for the Ezine please contact the Editor at

FFHS lists are targeted at a number of communities:

• FFHS News, this is the longest running list and aims to keep all interested Family Historians up-to-date with breaking news - it should not be one way communication,, if you become aware of changes in access to archives, new sources, problems in our environment, anything that can be of value to others then get in touch with FFHS via FFHS Administrator or FFHS Communications Officer.
  To subscribe go to:
  http://ffhs-lists.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/ffhs-news_ffhs-lists.org.uk
• FFHS Members list. This list aims to inform all Member Societies about items of news that can influence management of Societies and provides an almost immediate form of transmittal. This list is aimed at liaison representatives from Member Societies, a hopefully second contact. These messages are intended to be distributed to all committee members of a society and from time-to-time to specific officers. As a liaison representative it is your responsibility to distribute such information.
  Member societies are automatically subscribed to this list.
• Specific lists. Lists have been setup to satisfy the needs of specific officers, an example being the list for finance officers and the FFHS Executive. Lists for officers of Societies responsible for education, membership renewals, editors, book stalls, projects, record office liaison and research facilities can be easily set up if required.
  To subscribe or request a list send a request to

FFHS Forum
Forums are on line facilities for discussion, contributions to the forums can be in real time or at a time to suit you, post messages to have your say. This can replace some of the lists and has been provided for all to use. We have ambitions that this list will be a regular point of contact and medium for discussion for all Family Historians. We have set up forums for Events, The Federation, Family History Societies and a General forum. There are Regional forums and an Executive forum, we will set up other forums as requested.

To register go to http://www.ffhs.org.uk/forum/index.php

FFHS Members News
This facility is provided for Members to post Society news that it is felt would be of interest to other Societies. Members News can be found in the Members section of the FFHS website and all societies have access to these pages. Please access these pages, ask your Society FFHS liaison Officer for a logon and password. This is an opportunity to post information about a new CD, events in your society, thanks for help received and so on. Send information to the FFHS Administrator or FFHS Communications.

So what is the point of this article? We want to hear what you want us to deliver, what you think we can do better, we want to hear your concerns, your best practice. We want you to spread the word about what is happening and what is best practice. We don't want to hear too many examples of not knowing what is happening or why things are happening, we want informed opinion and we want you to ask if you have questions.

 

David Smetham
FFHS Communications Officer

30 November 2008