SoCal Jamboree 2009: On my way

DearREADERS,
As we speak, Ol' Myrt here is in the middle of the desert with her car packed to the gills, on the way to participate as a speaker and exhibit hall vendor at the 2009 Southern California Genealogy Jamboree to be held this weekend, Friday through Sunday 26-28 June, at the Burbank Marriott Hotel and Convention Center, Burbank, California. From the Jamboree website:

Jamboree has several speakers who form the core of the lecture faculty and who are frequent presenters at the conference. These speakers include Jana Broglin, CG; Bruce Buzbee; Bill Dollarhide; Arlene Eakle, Ph.D. FUGA; Wendy Elliott, Ph.D., FUGA; Bennett Greenspan, Leland Meitzler, Geoffrey Rasmussen, George G. Morgan and Drew Smith, and Elaine Alexander among others.

A number of speakers will be making their Jamboree debuts this year: Tony Burroughs, FUGA; DearMYRTLE; Maureen Taylor; Jean Wilcox Hibben, Ph.D., CG; Feargal O'Donnell of the Irish Family History Foundation; Tom Kemp; Lisa Alzo, and many others. David E. Rencher, AG, CG, FIGRS, FUGA will return after a few years' absence.

The Friday night banquet keynote will be delivered by Dr. Tukufu Zuberi, one of the stars of PBS's series, "History Detectives." Other activities will be this year's version of the very popular "Effective Society Management" panel discussion on Saturday morning, dinner with David Rencher on Saturday evening, and "The Art of Mourning - A Victorian Obsession" for a cheerful start to the day on Sunday.

Last year's Blogger Summit was such a success that it is being repeated in 2009. "Blogger Summit 2: Son of Blogger" will feature many of the leading information leaders in the geneablogging community today: Lisa Louise Cooke; DearMYRTLE; Dick Eastman; Leland Meitzler; TheAncestryInsider; Craig Manson; George G. Morgan; Stephen Danko, Ph.D.; and Schelly Talalay Dardashti.

Of particular interest are Friday sessions:

• Librarians (with geneablogger friend Thomas J. Kemp)
• Beginning Genealogy (Beverly Truesdale and Lynne Parmenter)
• Kids' Family History Camp (Starr Campbell, Hailey Campbell, Michael Melendez, Maureen Taylor and Jeanne Wilcox Hibben, Ph.D., CG) I wonder if Jeanne will be playing her guitar?

The Jamboree blog is your source for all the details -- speakers, lectures, exhibitors, hotel, travel and directions, registration online and by mail, events, etc.

Ol' Myrt's classes are geared for beginning genealogists:

• Friday 1:30om-2:30pm ~ Finding Digital Items in the Family History Library Catalog. With indices and scanned image collections residing at BYU, FamilySearch and a variety of state-sponsored websites, researchers are in a quandary as to how to locate the collections. The answer is to look in the Family History Library Catalog, a logical place for genealogists to start.
• Saturday 9:30am-noon ~ Summit 2: Son of Blogger Panel Discussion. Genealogu bloggers, podcasters and video casters use the Internet in ways that have changed communications to genealogists and family historians. This panel discussion will cover a wide range of topics include: How have bloggers changed the flow of information between vendors and their customers? How can family history blogs help to exchange information and locate cousins? What are the ethical issues of blogging? What tips do these pros have for starting your own blog? What tools are available to help bloggers get up and running.
• Saturday 1:30pm-2:30pm ~ The Winter of our Discontent: Three Months to Better Organization. We've heard about marathon runners. How about a marathon to finally get organized? Myrt quickens the pace of her 12-month program and asks you to devote a mere 12 weeks to the process. You can do this! Includes sorting, filing, data input, scanning photographs, documenting artifacts and creating family history experiences for the non-genealogists in the family.
• Saturday 3pm-4pm ~ Seven Habits of Highly Effective Genealogists. The class focuses on feedback from other genealogists who would do things differently if they were starting over from scratch. Handouts include research log, research checklist, a plan for filing paper documents and information leading to proper source citation.

So come on down! Hope to see you at the Jamboree.

Happy family tree climbing!
Myrt :)
DearMYRTLE,
Your friend in genealogy.
Myrt@DearMYRTLE.com