A Diversion– the Professional Management Conference in SLC

This week, starting yesterday (Friday), I have been attending the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG) Professional Management conference and it has been a blast!  I have been meeting old friends and new, doing a little research in the FHL  and attending sessions oriented towards becoming a better genealogical business person, however one may define it.

Some highlights include:

• Seeing my friend Karen Stanbery from Chicago who was also my Mastering Genealogical Proof mentor
• Interviewing Jeanne Bloom who will be the Seattle Genealogical Society’s Spring Seminar speaker for our newsletter.
• Attending a session by Angela Packer McGhie on building a genealogical business plan– our ProGen assignment for this month
• Hearing (and subsequently talking to) Harold Henderson discuss the road to his NGSQ article.  A personal goal of mine is to submit and have printed an article in the Q.  It was also a thrill when HH complimented my blog.
• Meeting Barry Kline, a member of my ProGen group and mutual attendee next week in Tom Jones’s Advanced Methodologies class. I have also met about eight others that will be in the class as well . (I am told to buy groceries because there will not be enough time to eat!)
• Hearing Josh Taylor talk about his experiences with working with corporate clients and how that differs from working with single clients.  Josh will be the speaker at the Washington State Genealogical Conference in August in Arlington.
• Meeting and talking with Jay Fonkert, who will be a speaker at  the Ostfriesen Genealogical Society of America (OGSA) conference I am chairing.
• Meeting new friends including Mary, a researcher who specializes in Italian research; Anne, a Wisconsin genealogist; Margaret, a blog contributor and on and on and on….

Great fun but I must pace myself–Advanced Methodologies is next week!

Happy Hunting!

Jill