Earlier this year the committee asked the membership about their thoughts on the way Family Roots was being run and for suggestions for the future.

We received a total of 89 responses to the questionnaire, 50 by email. 89 is just under a third of our current membership; not a very impressive outcome, but one which we feel is large enough to regard as representative. 55 of the 89 claimed to attend the monthly meetings.

A detailed analysis of the replies is available from me for those who are interested, but by and large, the responses were encouraging. There were very few negative responses to the eight statements and in every case well over half the respondents agreed or agreed strongly with the statements that formed the questionnaire.

A majority of the responses included comments. These varied from commending us on doing a good job to some making some interesting comments and suggestions. Again the details are available on request, but there follows a consolidated reaction from the committee to the main suggestions, some made by more than one person.

• It is impracticable to record and distribute talks.

• Increased costs in hiring suitable venues have made the computer club too expensive to restart. (However, Bob Spilsted is prepared to run a series of unstructured workshops on a variety of applications for computers. These could possibly be extended to include a structured series of sessions covering file handling, word processing, spreadsheets, powerpoint presentation, e-mailing, etc.)

• Purchase of a projector was currently ruled out on the basis of cost, but would be considered in future as prices would undoubtedly fall.

• It was felt that subjects outside the strict limits of genealogy were of interest to the membership in general and speakers on a range of subjects would continue to be sought.

• Small potential numbers meant that hiring a coach would be uneconomical to visit destinations other than Kew (e.g. regional county offices, museums, etc). It was considered that members wishing to visit such places should be encouraged to share cars. Announcements could be made at monthly meetings.

• As already decided by the committee, the society would not renew its contacts with the local history museum project.

• Members would be encouraged to speak at members’ evenings about their individual research experiences, including the use of computers in research.

• The problem with the availability of the microphone for monthly meetings has been addressed.

• A chat room facility (Message Board) has been added to the society website.

This exercise has proved useful. Assuming those who didn’t respond have no complaints, we can regard ourselves as having the support of the membership and a fair proportion of these have ideas to offer. However, nobody has identified any serious omissions in our current pattern or any substantial suggestions for a change of direction.

Our thanks go to all those who responded, but we don’t want this to be seen as the end of the exercise. If there are any late thoughts or questions, members of the committee are more than willing to be approached either at one of the monthly meetings or by email.

John Crane Secretary