The Ontario Genealogical Society has announced that several branches and one SIG will wind up operations by the end of the year. They are:
Bruce and Grey
Elgin
Haldimand-Norfolk
Perth
and the Genetic Genealogy SIG
Other societies are facing difficulties.
Why?
The digital age has fundamentally changed how people research their family history. Websites like Ancestry.com and FamilySearch have digitized millions of the most useful records, allowing people to do research from home. This has reduced the need to visit local society libraries or attend in-person meetings.
Some societies are finding that an increasing proportion of their membership has ancestors from the area, but not where they presently live. Recruiting those remote members for leadership roles is a greater challenge.
Older generations founded many societies, which now struggle to recruit younger members and volunteers to take on leadership roles.
Some are slow to adopt technology, such as using social media, running webinars, and providing information on how technology can assist their research and help them tell family stories. This makes them less relevant to today’s genealogists.
Extended passive listening, as in the traditional 50-minute lecture, leads to mental fatigue, with people checking out, mentally drifting, or focusing on distractions. Studies show that maximum information retention usually occurs in the first 10 to 18 minutes of a lecture. This can be mitigated by incorporating breaks, Q&A opportunities, or scheduling several shorter presentations back-to-back.
With declining membership, societies find it harder to cover operating costs and maintain physical facilities.
It is sad that OGS Branches are forced to shutter operations after so many years of operation. We should never forget, however, that it was these and many other Branches that were real pioneers in the 1960s and 1970s. Local records, especially cemeteries, were identified and indexed, thus creating a solid base for the research we do today. Other societies will undoubtedly face the fact that memberships are dropping, a danger to their sustainability. The playing field has changed dramatically, so must we.
It seems that many people are no longer willing to volunteer to help run organizations like this. It’s not only genealogy but many organizations that rely on volunteers.
This is very sad news – just as Mr. Wright stated that many of these organizations were pioneers….Maybe it is time to join in with another organization, such as Historical Societies…especially in smaller areas. A few other OGS branches have established centres in Archives or Libraries and have been successful that way.
Very sad news indeed. I think Covid and the lock-down had an effect as well. Certainly the after-hours group I helped found didn’t work well during that period. And frankly, for me, after-hours was just getting to be too much, which is why I was happy when my director at the library allowed me to move the group into the library as an official program. The structure changed somewhat, but at least we’re still meeting, though many of the original members are no longer involved (many of them now have major health issues).
Even as a library program, it can be tough, as attendance is still low for a variety of reasons.