The first Monday of each month is Civil War Roundtable. I love this group and we have a variety of programs, mostly done by the people that meet together to learn about this event that changed America forever. I was originally scheduled for the January meeting but a group called "American Tapestry" wanted to do Civil War music and January was the only month they could come, so I moved over to February. It is a good thing because I had my annual "Worst Cold Of The Century" in January, so it worked out better for me. On Monday, February 4, I did my program about two of my Civil War ancestors that wrote about their experiences. This was the story of William Oliver Sanford and Eugene Casey. It was a fun program to present and I tried to not just talk genealogy, because there is not anything much more boring than hearing about other people's genealogy. The group seemed to enjoy the program. I tried my new Power Point feature of a You Tube inserted that was not dependent on Internet connection -- and it DID work beautifully. This was my first attempt at it. It was a "Tribute to Abraham Lincoln" and included the haunting melody of Ashokan Farewell. Needless to say, I breathed a big sigh of relief when everything worked great.
Three days later, on Thursday February 7, I presented a program to the CSU Women's Association. They wanted something on genealogy so I did a program entitled "Falling In Love With Your Ancestors". It was a fun program and my red heart theme went well with their Valentine's theme. This program tested my innovative set up skills as they had nothing there to help get set up. It was held in the meeting room of a Presbyterian Church on West Elizabeth Street. We had to use things found in the kitchen to set up the projector and my netbook. In the end my $600 projector was perched on stacks of Bibles three high --- and a very precarious set up it was. I was very nervous that someone would bump it and it would all come tumbling down. My Power Point feature of a You Tube inserted without Internet connection did NOT work, but the set up was not good, so I blamed it on this. The program was well received and the room was filled with about 60 women.
One week later, on Thursday February 14, I was the speaker at the Estes Park Genealogical Society for their regular meeting. The big challenge for this meeting was the weather. Why would I agree to speak in February in Estes Park? I have no idea except I have a problem saying "no" especially when I am invited to speak about genealogy. I had rented a car because I didn't trust my pick up to get up there and back without having a problem. Then it snowed all morning as well. Cathy E rode up the Big Thompson Canyon with me and we actually had a nice ride as it was pretty dry most of the way. We were anxious to get started home at 5pm when the meeting was over, and it was a good thing we did as it was worse as we came down the canyon. Loveland was a complete white out as we headed east to Windsor where Cathy lives. I was really relieved to get back to Fort Collins. The program was "Two Genealogical Gems -- PERSI and Directories". My Power Point feature of a You Tube inserted without Internet connection DID work beautifully. It was "Fall In Love With Your Ancestors". The group seemed to enjoy the program, and the You Tube, so it was a fun afternoon.
One week after that, on Thursday February 21, I gave the first program at my own Larimer County Genealogical Society in their new meeting room at the Old Town Library in Fort Collins. This was a very cold, snowy, slick, icy night and I was surprised that the room was filled. I am not sure how many were there but well over 50 in attendance. The room was nice and everything worked great. For some reason I didn't want to share my new Power Point feature of a You Tube inserted without Internet connection, so this group never saw it. It seemed we were pressed for time to be out of there at a certain time so I didn't want to take the time to do the You Tube. The program was "Two Genealogical Gems -- PERSI and Directories". It was well received and a lot of good questions were asked.
Thus ends my marathon month of February 2013. Will I ever do it again? No. Am glad I did it this year? Yes. If nothing else it proves to me that I CAN do it. Am I done for the rest of the year? Hmmm ---- I think you can guess the answer to that one. Patj
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