Vendor Spotlight: Association of Professional Genealogists, Puget Sound Chapter

We received the following information from the Association of Professional Genealogists, Puget Sound Chapter, another one of our great vendors that will be exhibiting at the Washington State Genealogical Society's 2009 State Conference in Spokane on September 11 - 13:

The Puget Sound Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists (PS-APG) was established in the Summer of 2002. The Chapter was composed of genealogists who were all members of the national Association of Professional Genealogists (APG) www.aspgen.org PS-APG is now one of twenty-two APG sponsored chapters that have been established throughout the United States. You can learn about those chapters by going to this link: www.apgen.org/chapters/index.html. These active genealogists wanted to provide a venue for genealogists to network with other genealogists and improve their research and business skills. The PS-APG chapter was approved in August of 2002 and held their first meeting in October of 2002. We have been active in the State of Washington for seven years. PS-APG continues to hold their meetings 5 times per year: February, April, July, October and December. The meetings start with a lecture on a genealogical topic for we feel education is important. Sometimes we will take a field trip to a local archive to learn about the holdings. In October we will be visiting the King County Archives in downtown Seattle. After the presentation we have our business meeting. Go to this link to learn more about our meetings and the educational presentations that we have sponsored both currently and in the past: http://www.psapg.org/meetings.html.

In January of 2009 PS-APG launched the new updated Chapter website and we are very proud of it. We invite you to visit our webpage at: www.psapg.org. You will find a link to our Chapter Officers and we encourage you to contact them with your questions. Our Meetings link features our up and coming Meetings and those we have held in the past. Our Events page features local and national workshops, seminars and conferences. Our Member Profiles house the biographies of each of the PS-APG members. This includes their knowledge, skills and accomplishments in genealogy. Hopefully our Membership link will answer questions about how you can become a member of PS-APG and the national APG. Our Project link currently features our Scrapbook Project which we are working on in joint cooperation with the Seattle Public Library. PS-APG is the first Chapter to be awarded the national APG Grant for funding a special project. PS-APG Chapter News features each of our members involvement with the field of genealogy and local events. Our Education link is there for those aspiring genealogists to obtain information about educational opportunities of a more advanced level in genealogy. In the next few months PS-APG will be launching a new Resources page with lots of links to genealogical research in the Puget Sound area.

On our PS-APG Home page is our link to the national Association of Professional Genealogists www.aspgen.org where you will learn about the national organization. One of the best features of APG is the Directory where one can go to find and hire a professional genealogist. This directory features the biographies of of the members of APG. One can search on a name, a research specialty, location and more. They also have a membership page giving all the features of becoming a member. The About page is filled with information about APG as a professional organization for genealogists.

The Association of Professional Genealogists was created in 1979 to provide an independent organization whose goals were to support professional genealogists in all phases of their work, from the amateur genealogist wishing to turn knowledge and skill into a vocation, to the experienced professional seeking to exchange ideas with colleagues and to upgrade the profession as a whole. In 1980 they held their first conference. Today that conference is held the day before the Federation of Genealogical Society Conference. It was named the Professional Management Conference for APG. It is a day filled with lectures on research and business building.

The APG has two functions. To provide a professional organization with conferences, publications, education and member advertising and to promote the individual members. The second function is to bring to the field of genealogy to a higher standard of excellence. The APG members include: Adoption specialists, archivists, authors, booksellers, columnists, heir searchers, instructors, librarians, lineage society experts, publishers, reunion planners, researchers, lecturers, translators, web designers and many more talented individuals. There are many talented individuals that are members of APG. When you hire one of the members of APG you can be assured that they are bound by the APG Code of Ethics. We believe that by hiring a member of APG you will not be faced with a problem; however, if you are you can file a complaint and it will be researched, see the guidelines at http://www.apgen.org/ethics/index.html.

APG is not the Board for Certification of Genealogists which is an entirely different organization. Their website is at: www.bcgcertification.org/index.html. The BCG certifies genealogists by having them submit a project based on their rigorious guidelines. A BGC certified genealogist has to resubmit every 5 years to keep current. APG does not have as strict a criteria. However, everyone who is a member of APG must agree and abide by the Code of Ethics. You do not need to be a certified genealogist to be a member of APG. However, many APG members have advanced degrees which you can view at the APG directory online at the website. If you are a certified genealogist or an accredited genealogist you can be a member of APG. APG encourages certification. Accreditation is secured through the International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists (ICAPGEN) http://www.icapgen.org/Programs/process.htm.

For more information please feel free to contact the President of PS-APG, Bonnie Jean MacDonald at BON_MAC@msn.com or view her Members profile at the PS-APG website: www.psapg.org. You can also find Bonnie at the PS-APG conference table she would be happy to meet you or answer any of your questions about becoming a professional genealogist or hiring one to help with your research challenges. At our table will be plenty of brochures for your information.

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If you have any questions please ask.

Bonnie Jean MacDonald 206-365-5422 or 206-250-7833
BJM Genealogy Research Services,
President of the Puget Sound Chapter of APG www.psapg.org
Region #2 Representative of WSGS http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wasgs/index.htm

We look forward to having the PS-APG as a vendor at the state conference and hope you drop by their table for more information!

It's not too late to register for this terrific conference! Click on the link below:

Online Registration
(need help with the online registration? read our tutorial here)

Brochure and Saturday Schedule
(to help you choose your classes and activities)

Mail-in Registration Form
(for those who prefer registering offline)

If you are interested in being a vendor at the Washington State Genealogical Society's 2009 State Conference, would like to advertise in our syllabus, or if you have an item or service which you would like to donate as a door or raffle prize, please contact Miriam Robbins Midkiff.