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Annual Meeting
The annual meeting of the Fellowship of Brethren Genealogists is open to all who wish to attend. The meeting is held during the Church of the Brethren's Annual Conference. It starts with a short business session and every even year, an election for a Vice-President, who will then succeed the President. The remainder of the scheduled meeting time is given to a presentation on a genealogical subject by a guest speaker.
The next meeting will be at noon Monday 01 July 2013 in Charlotte, NC. When details of the meeting are determined, it will be reported here, posted on the Brethren list, announced on the Fellowship's Facebook page, and noted in the quarterly journal. Information about the Annual Conference, with which the Fellowship's meeting is associated, can be found at the Church of the Brethren's official site, brethren.org.
Informal meetings among Fellowship members and interested church and family historians take place at the Fellowship's exhibit booth throughout the week in the Annual Conference exhibit hall.
Following is a selective Review of some recent annual meetings followed by a Listof the dates and locations of all the Fellowship's annual meetings and those scheduled in the near future.
Selective Review of Annual Meetings
The Fellowship's 2012 meeting was held at 4:00 Saturday afternoon July 7th, in
Room 126 of America's Center in St. Louis MO. The meeting was opened
by the FOBG President, Becky Young, who chaired the meeting. The business session discussed the membership
and the treasurer's report. Ron and Bert McAdams are retiring as membership services coordinator and
treasurer. They explained their responsibilities for anyone wanting to volunteer to fill these positions.
Tom Crago will become membership secretary and treasurer. The position of vice-president remains open.
Other subjects mentioned were the Brethren Digital Archives, the Membership Directory, storage of back issues,
and tax-exempt status for the FOBG.
Tom Crago had two presentations. He explained the proposal of a 'First Families' initiative, in which the Fellowship would recognize those members who could trace their heritage back to First Century Brethren, 1708-1807, Second Century Brethren, 1808-1907, or Third Century Brethren, 1908-2007. His second presentation was a clear, understandable, and interesting explanation of "Genealogy and Genetics," how DNA can be used in genealogical research. Using his own surname as the example, he showed how the traditional approach to family history research can be supplemented by genetic testing.
Video of the meeting is again posted on the Fellowship's Facebook page.
The Fellowship maintained a booth in the Exhibit Hall in the St. Louis convention center displaying back issues of the Newsletter and Journal and brochures from the Historical Committee.
The Fellowship's booth in the Exhibit Hall in Grand Rapids attracted new members who subscribed to the quarterly journal and provided a convenience to current members to renew their memberships. Back issues of the periodical were available for perusal and photocopying of pages of particular interest was done.
An informative thirty-two minute video, Widow Pence's Farm, was available for viewing at the booth.
The Fellowship's 2011 meeting was held at 3:00 Saturday afternoon July
2nd, in
Grand Vallley Overlook E of DeVos Place in Grand Rapids MI. The
meeting was opened
by Ron McAdams, who chaired the meeting. Emmert Bittinger, our invited
speaker, was unable to attend
because of health reasons, but sent a twenty-seven minute video of his
presentation .
Larry Heisey discussed the status of the project of the Brethren
Digital Archives
and the need for immediate help by volunteers to proofread the
searchable digital imaging
of all Brethren periodicals from 1851 to 2000. Brochures about this
project can be obtained
from the Brethren Heritage Center, 428 N Wolf Creek St, Suite H1,
Brookville, OH 45309
or by writing using their e-mail address of:
bda@brethrendigitalarchives.org
and checking their website at: www.brethrendigitalarchives.org
A five part video of the meeting is posted on the Fellowship's Facebook page. [One fun part is added to include an answer to a question.]
The Fellowship's booth in the Exhibit Hall in Grand Rapids attracted new members who subscribed to the quarterly journal and provided a convenience to current members to renew their memberships. Back issues of the periodical were available for perusal and photocopying of pages of particular interest was done.
An informative thirty-two minute video, Widow Pence's Farm, was available for viewing at the booth.
The Fellowship's 2010 meeting was held at 3:30 Monday afternoon July 5th, in
Room 331 of the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh PA. The well-attended
meeting was introduced to our new journal editor, Bonita Rogers, by Ron McAdams, who chaired
the meeting. Merle Rummel, the invited speaker showed an indepth Power Point presentation on the early
Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana churches, not only identifing them but tracing the associated
families' migration into the area and also their movement out of the churches. He included
the theological context and ecclesiastical history of the covered periods by discussing the
universalist, pietist and anabaptist beliefs of key individuals. Links to the online version
will be provided to the cob-net.org site after Merle sends his presentation materials and are posted
by Ron Gordon.
An overly clipped video
of most of Merle Rummel's presentation is posted on the
Fellowship's Facebook page.
The Fellowship had a booth in the Exhibit Hall at Pittsburgh. It attracted new members and was a convenience to current members to renew their memberships. Free copies of a nicely bound family history, HYLTON GENEALOGY From Castle to Cottage Hilton Hylton Helton by Hazel S. Moore and a supplement compiled by Wanda Hylton Almgren were available at the table.
This year's meeting was held on Saturday the 12th of July 2008 at 1:00 p.m. in the Dominion Room of the Marriott Hotel in Richmond Virginia.
Informal meetings among Fellowship members and interested church and family historians took place at the Fellowship's exhibit booth throughout the week in the Annual Conference exhibit hall from Saturday 12 July 2008 through Tuesday evening 15 July 2008.
The annual meeting for 2007 was scheduled for 1:00 to 3:00pm Saturday 30 June 2007 in the Cleveland Convention Center.
Twenty interested individuals were in attendance. Ron McAdams introduced our new President Becky Young Hoatland, who then
chaired the meeting. Bert McAdams gave the financial report which was accepted. Thomas Liby was elected Vice-President.
After the business meeting A. Wayne Webb presented an article on Burial Records of Elder Joseph Myer,
discussed his proposed Brethren Newspaper Initiative to solicit funds to digitize old periodicals, and offered for sale
his republication of the History of the Church of the Brethren Southern Ohio District. Numerous small group conversations
filled the remainder of the time.
[No photo was taken of the 2007 business meeting.]
The Fellowship did not have an exhibit booth at the Cleveland Conference due to financial reasons.
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