Coming Soon from Projectkin
Perhaps you already know us for our events, resources, or project recipes for family historians. But did you know about the inspiring new events coming in the next few weeks?
Community Events
At its core, Projectkin is about a community of family historians hooked on stories. We gather online, and conversations flow. You’ll see them in comments on articles and at live Zoom events. Discussions cover topics ranging from the inspirational and practical to the mundane and humorous. In between, we explore our stories and the hooks that pull us in.
As your “ringleader,” I take my job seriously. I do my best to schedule compelling events and share thoughtful posts. The idea is always to keep our community centered on family stories — and have fun while doing it.
What’s Ahead
With August sneaking up on us this week, I thought it might be helpful to circle back and share an update about upcoming events. As always, you’ll find the current calendar with links to registration pages at Projectkin.org/events:
Ongoing Series
We have two ongoing series, plus a third coming online in October.1 Series-based programs allow you to pop in on specific episodes that interest you. You can also join in or view recordings of every series episode. Along the way, you’ll get to know our speaker and a cohort of members. Our ongoing series currently are…
Emma Explores with Emma Cox
As a professional genealogist, Emma explores archives, churchyards and online to compile histories, charts, tours and books for clients. When collecting material for clients or engaging experts in discussions on her podcast, Journeys into Genealogy, and substack of the same name. She’s also now exploring her own family history and looking for connections.
The secret link to the archive is Projectkin.org/emma-explores
This recurring event is scheduled on Zoom for the third Thursday of the month.
Emma varies the topic each month, drawing from her research discoveries. Watch her Substack notes for updates on our next episode.
Kathy’s Corner with Kathy Stone
This popular monthly session focuses on a critical challenge for every family historian: Sorting and digitizing collections of inherited family photos and heirlooms. Our speaker, Projectkin member Kathy Stone, has decades of experience as a professional photo organizer and is now working on her family history projects.
The secret link to the archive is Projectkin.org/kathys-corner
This recurring event is scheduled on Zoom for the fourth Thursday of the month.
The first eight programs from Kathy’s Corner events featured each of the eight steps from her article 8 Steps to Take You from Tubs of Photos to Tales of Yore. Since then, the program has featured topics challenging family historians.
Watch for Substack Notes from
to learn about our next program.
Special Programs & Occasional Series
As Projectkin, we also weave special programs and series into the lineup. Watch for short runs or special events with these.
Project Recipes 👩🍳
With some Julia Child-like magic, you’ll see how a project can come together to share a family story. All events are based on real projects, not casual ideas or explorations. The idea is to guide you to something you can replicate with a project recipe. Our speaker will share the problem they were trying to solve, how the project accomplished the objective, and changes they might make if they were to try it again.
The secret link to the archive is here: Projectkin.org/recipes
Our next project recipe is on August 8, “Memory Loss, Conversations, and Family History,” featuring
of Stories of Our Generations. You can register for the event on Zoom.The following event is September 12, “Private Podcasting,” with
, as your presenter (that’s me 😉). You can register for the event on Zoom.
Have a project recipe to share? Let me know, I’d love to feature it.
Project Festivals
Though a new concept with just one Project Festival so far, the model described in our announcement last month was a hit! The idea is to create an event with 3 or 4 speakers, each giving 10-minute talks. Each talk will describe a project they’re working on. Each festival will include short discussion periods for each speaker to receive feedback, encouragement, and ideas. As compared to project recipes, this is the perfect place to share crazy ideas you think should work. 😉
These programs only happen when we’ve mustered at least three speakers for a session. We use a voting mechanism to find a date everyone can work with.
⮕ The updated Project Festival Date Poll is here. I’ve refreshed it with dates from August through the end of October.
The secret link to the archive: Projectkin.org/ideas
All About That Place
At the end of September, we’ll be sponsoring a very special program, the Pacific Edition of the Society of Genealogists’ 2024 challenge program, “All About That Place.” This annual event is presented in collaboration with the Society for One-Place Studies, the British Association for Local History, and various generous sponsors. Learn more here. We’re thrilled to collaborate with our Pacific Edition from September 27 to October 6, 2024, adding our own twist to the London-based program:
We’ll be offering just five one-hour events during the ten-day challenge event.
Each event will feature one to three speakers and be hosted over Zoom with a live audience to encourage a lively discussion.
Recordings, notes, and resources will be shared with the public for free on Projectkin.org, as well as on the All About That Place YouTube and Facebook pages.
See Projectkin.org/AATP24 to learn more. Talk proposals are due by August 15 (and the slots are filling up quickly).
Watch for a special theme to our popular Members’ Corner program in September. We’ll be announcing a focus on stories of “place.” Learn more.
About Projectkin Events
Our programs are generally scheduled for 60 minutes. After about an hour, we end the formal portion of the program and allow those with tight schedules to step out. When lively discussions get going at the end of a program, we generally continue it in the “after party” for another 30 minutes or more. This portion of the program is not recorded so that everyone can feel comfortable about sharing stories and personal insights.
As you may have noticed, we’re starting to collaborate on events with more individuals and organizations. Since these are Projectkin events, they’re all free, with recordings, resources, and recipes available to our Members at Projectkin.org.
Most recordings include links to relevant resources like project recipes and a robust, threaded commenting system. Everyone with a Substack account is welcome to participate in these discussions. Creating a Substack account is free and requires just an email address.
The Economics of Platform Independence
At Projectkin, we maintain our platform independence by not accepting corporate support or participating in affiliate programs. We will share opinions, but they are simply our own.
As a practical matter, this also means that Projectkin cannot offer our speakers honoraria. We deeply appreciate their contributions to the community and their effort in preparing for these talks. We’d encourage you to thank them individually and to take the time to get to know them.
More about our policies here. Our operational costs are currently very low and mitigated by generous voluntary contributions from members like you.2
Was this post forwarded or shared with you? Welcome to the community.
(That one’s still hush-hush. Stay tuned. 🤫)
At $20/month, it doesn’t take much. Many thanks to our generous donors.