User group meeting agenda & minutes 23 July 2008

= Proposing ideas for this agenda =

To propose or discuss ideas for this agenda, please use the Discussion tab above. As the meeting draws near, we will review the items proposed on the Discussions page and decide which ones should get highest priority on the agenda.

= Agenda =

Administrative items

 * 1) Assignment of time keeper and note taker
 * 2) Introduction of new members: 10 seconds for name and desired takeaways.
 * 3) Prayer --
 * 4) Review of Minutes
 * 5) Today's agenda preview

Information items

 * 1) Next week is the BYU Research Seminar. Wednesday is the Family History Department day. Several staff members will be making presentations there.
 * 2) Parking -- Mollie Forbes -- We can arrange for nonemployees who are attending this meeting with free parking at the conference center. Contact Mollie for details and to get your name on the list.
 * 3) Partnering with others -- Check the news section of the main page. FamilySearch is working with some of the other giants in family history on new projects. Brother Shipp asked about the usefulness of Findmypast and British Origins which are both excellent online resources.
 * 4) Involvement of U.S. and Canada Missionaries in Family History Library -- Wilma Adkins has volunteered some of her staff to get more involved in helping to add information. Contact Wilma Adkins, Carol, or Vicki Standing for input on the design and implementation. A demo was done using Franklin County Kentuky. The terminology seems to be better for beginners.

Vicky Standing stated that there is a need to simplify information for the average researcher. Missionaries have been inputting county level information.

Carryover from Last Week
Image Approval Process -- Jimmy Parker -- This is still being worked on. The process is partially broken. We are making progress.

New Items
Using Categories and Topics -- Darris Williams -- There are questions about how to use categories. Jimmy uses them to provide another way for users to find information in the wiki. He has used the Library of Congress Subject Headings as a guide for category titles. This enables users to make the leap from finding things in the wiki to finding things in the Library of Congress and vice versa.

Tabs and Indents -- Mollie Forbes -- This can be done in the wiki text mode with a : and add one or two more to increase the indent.

= Minutes =

Facilitator was Jimmy Parker, Note taker was Darris Williams, Time keeper was Jimmy Parker.

Prayer by Carol Smith

As of the start of today's meeting, the total number of registered users stood at 3,350 which is a net increase of 122 registered users over last week.

Attendees
David Samuelson, Charlie Shipp, Steven Bobowski, Jimmy Parker, Joan Healey, Mollie Forbes, Geoff Morris, Vicki Standing, Darris Williams, Carol Smith, Charlene Pipkin

Attempted Remote Attendees (appears to have problem getting it started, again): Thomas Lerman