Dear SRRGers,
So much has been happening with SRRG, and all of it good. Isn't
that a nice thing to be able to say in this often troubled world?
Tom, Susana, Jack and I want to thank all of you for your participation,
to encourage you to continue sending in materials and stories
for the SRRG web site, and to welcome new members into our wonderful
group.
1. MEMBERSHIP.
SRRG now has over 130 members representing 35 shtetlach. Jack
Hoadley continues to give us updated membership lists for our
web site. Please check these routinely as you may find new people
researching your family names and towns.
2. FAME and FORTUNE.
SRRG is a force! If you haven't already seen Chuck Weinstein's
message, I am including it here:
Date: Tue, 09 May 2000 18:44:49 -0700
From: Chuck Weinstein <cweinstein@jewishgen.org>
Organization: JewishGen ShtetLinks Project Manager
Subject: April ShtetLinks Statistics
I thought I would share with you some interesting statistics about
our project, as I know at least some of you wonder if anyone is
paying attention. In the month of April, ShtetLinks had over
150,000 hits, representing some 9876 individual visitors, of whom
1541 visited ShtetLinks more than once. Lodz continues to be,
by far, our most popular site, with Suchostaw Region Research
Group, Krakow, Riga, and Zmigrod rounding out the top 5 individual
sites on our server. Aside from JewishGen, our top 5 referring
sites are google.com, yahoo,altavista, and excite.
3a WEB SITE.
Our web site continues to grow
and improve. Just in case you haven't been visiting daily, go
there now! We are all indebted to Tom for his excellent leadership
and his ongoing work. As you know, we are all volunteers. As you
might guess, the time and skills it takes to create and manage
and expand the web site could well be considered a half time job!
3b WEB SITE DEPARTMENTS.
Have you noticed all the new departments on the site? And
the old ones that have been updated? For example, have a look
at "Bibliography"
for some interesting and relevant books for your next library
search. Think about adding something to "Famous
sons and daughters." Download the unique map
of the SRRG neighborhood that Tom has created for us. Check
out the new section on "Recipes and Food
Lore;" what would a Jewish group be without recognition
of the culinary link? And our newest department: "Travel
in the Suchostov Region"-trip reports and information
helpful for travellers. Please, please, contribute to any or all
of these departments. Send your materials, photos, stories, information
to your Shtetl Leader or to me asap.
3c REDESIGN of WEB SITE.
Now that we have passed through the early infancy stage of
SRRG, we are about ready to move on to the pre-toddler stage.
Part of our expanding universe will be redesigning of the SRRG
web site. For this we would like to enlist your help. There are
at least 3 things you can do to help, and none is painful.
4. SHTETL LEADERS.
I know that everyone in SRRG sends their appreciation to all
our Shtetl Leaders for their time, patience, and energy committed
to SRRG. I also need to ask more of you to volunteer to be a Shtetl
Leader. Even if your town of interest has only one researcher
(you!), we would like there to be a Shtetl Leader (you!). This
will help us get a page for your shtetl onto the web site. That
in itself may attract new researchers. Also, it makes it easier
for us to communicate as sometimes when I have new information,
I am unable to get it out to all 130 members and I just write
to Shtetl Leaders. Additionally, having a Shtetl Leader improves
the communication among those researching that shtetl. So please
write to me now and "volunteer" to be a Shtetl Leader.
Shtetl Leaders' responsibilities are important but not onerous:
nudging shtetl researchers to send in materials for the web site,
writing to
JGFF people researching that shtetl to invite them to join SRRG,
keeping in touch with own shtetl researchers, looking for new
information about your shtetl. If you want to know what it's like,
you can write directly to any one of our Shtetl Leaders, listed
on the site.
5. SPECIAL PROJECTS.
a) Susana is beginning work to find photos of our shtetlach.
We are
interested in both old and new ones. If you have any or intend
to get
some on a future trip, please be in touch with Susana.
b) Jack is constantly updating the SRRG membership lists. These
are
kept by member name, by shtetl being researched, and by family
names
being researched. If you have changes or additions to any of these
categories, or any e-mail address change, please send these to
Jack and
to me.
c) We have located some new archival information applicable
to our
towns. This information is accessible only in NYC and in Washington,D.C.
If you can help with either of these places, please let me know.
6. SLC CONFERENCE.
We are trying to plan a Birds of a Feather (BOAF) meeting
for the Salt Lake City Conference. A BOAF is simply a meeting
of a subgroup, in
our case SRRG. Wouldn't it be fun to put faces to the names you
have been e-mailing with, to exchange more information, and to
make new plans? Definitely, it would be fun, but finding a time
is not so easy.
Susana writes:
_______________________________________________________
Tom Weiss and I will be attending the SLC conference. We
have booked a room for our official Birds Of A Feather ( BOAF)
meeting. If you look at the Conference schedule you will note
that very few groups were given the privilege to book a room and
time. However, it appears that our slot coincides with Gary Mokotoff's
lecture on how to use the LDS. So we are looking for alternative
days and times.
There are rooms assigned for BOAF meetings every day of the
conference but they are not exclusive. Any group can use them
and we might find that we are having a meeting concurrently with
another group. This cannot be helped, I tried to change the
booked room on Sunday but there was no available room and or time
slot available. No problem.
Please let us know if you are attending, so we have an idea
of numbers.Right now, we have the following people as attending:
Rita Margolies, Edward Rosenbaum, Renne Steinig, Ethel Pincus,
Diane Freilich, Helene Kenvin, Mark Halpern.
I have looked carefully over the Conference schedule and these
are the times and days that conflict the least with Galicianer
researchers. If any of the times/days below is still not convenient
I will make every effort to meet you individually.
Please note that Sunday we only have one hour. The room is
booked before and after. The other days are flexible and we can
"shmooze" a little longer. This, of course, if it
follows the pattern of other
Conferences. It might be that we will have to book this slot
on arrival and only have the hour.
--July 9 Sunday 11.45 AM to 12 .45 PM - Salon 1 ( This
is the booked slot.)
--July 10 Monday 12.15 PM to 1.45 PM - Salon 1
--July 12 Wednesday 12.15 PM to 1.45PM - Salon 1
--July 13 Thursday 11 AM to 12 PM Salon 1
--July 13 Thursday 12.15 PM to 1.45 PM Salon 1
I must add, from past experience, that Thursday is not a
good day. It is the day of the banquet and of goodbyes. Most
of us will leave on Friday. By then you have met new people,
made or are trying to make arrangements to see them once more
before you go. It is a hectic day. I have only added it as a
last resort, in case the other dates are not suitable. My vote,
so that you know, is Sunday or Monday.
I also want to remind you that our umbrella organization :
Gesher Galicia, is having a meeting on Sunday, July 9 from 1 PM
to 2 PM. I will be attending and urge you all to make an effort
to be there.
I am looking forward to seeing you in SLC and giving you the
big hugs I have been saving up.
Susana Leistner Bloch
_______________________________________________________
In closing, I want to say what an incredible journey SRRG has
been to date. The following note I received recently is one of
the joys of my
job.
Dear Joan,
Thank you SO MUCH for forwarding H's messages to me. We are
related!!!! I am ecstatic. I wasn't planning on attending the
conference
because I have young kids at home, but I may try now to work out
the logistics, knowing about her!
___________________________________
Let me encourage you all to keep in touch with one another,
to drop me a line every now and then, and to keep up your wonderful
research.
Have a great summer.
Joan Baronberg, SRRG Coordinator