News from Other Societies - BAGHS & JGSTB

The Brandon Area Genealogical and Historical Society (BAGHS) will meet on Tuesday, April 8th, at the Bloomingdale Library at 6:30 P.M. This month's program will be presented by Pam Treme and Pattie Schultz, and will be titled "Connecting through Family Newsletters."

---

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Tampa Bay will meet on Sunday May 18, 2008 at 2:00 P.M. at Gulf Coast Jewish Family Services, 14041 Icot Blvd., Clearwater, Florida. “The Anatomy of a Family Reunion” will be presented by Bill Israel, a founding member and the immediate past president of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Tampa Bay. Bill had a key role in the planning and organizing of all fifteen of his Israel Family Reunions held over the past 28 years. He served as general chairman of two reunions and was program chairman and consultant for most of the others. He co-chaired and assisted his wife in establishing family reunions for her family as well. All totaled, Bill has participated in a total of 20 family reunions. He has documented his experiences with family reunions into a planning guide for use by his family in planning future reunions, which are held every two years with a rotation of chairmen and locations. These reunions typically average more than 100 in attendance and are weekend affairs with a program of planned activities running from Friday through Sunday designed to reconnect family members, tell the family story, and show everyone a good time.

Bill will review the key points of planning and organizing successful family reunions based on his personal experiences with twenty of them, plus a reunion currently being planned for next year. Handouts summarizing his presentation will be provided.