A couple of months back I was talking with Peter Van Garderen about personal and public archiving projects. One of the things that came up is that there seems to be a gap in how private companies like our family history site arcalife and the public / not for profit organizations can work together.  Peter and I shared the view that some of this is as result of profit making companies targeting national and provincial resources. Some of the attempts to secure exclusive access to national assets are badly thought out and not in anyone’s interests.  Still the appeal is there; for local, provincial and national archives the opportunities are significant in terms of the preservation of records and the benefits for companies are obvious – Is there a model that works for everyone?
 
Mistrusted motives is only a part of the problem in my view. A few months ago we realized that we had been spending a large part of our time and resources building our membership on a global basis, and not much time in our own back yard. Once we figured this out we started to create a program to reach out to family history and genealogy organizations inside of Canada. Maybe naively, with us being a Canadian company, I expected a warm welcome. People have of course been friendly enough, but disappointingly a bit ambivalent in their dealings with us.  Despite major success in a global context, it seems that forging links and partnerships with Canadian organizations is an uphill struggle.
 
I think this is because some not for profit organizations have the view that it is unethical to work with profit making companies. This idea is an anathema to me as we are based around a free membership [no time limit] and our offering is founded in a strong personal motivation. This is to encourage all of us to secure our family history, memories and experiences for future generations, either in a personal digital estate or as part of a wider contribution to the Canadian cultural record. I would be very surprised to hear any not for profit organizations say that my motivations are not genuine and from the heart.
 
I think these kind of objectives are important enough for us to overlook the difference in our profit making structure and I will continue to reach out to Ontario Genealogical Society and New Brunswick Genealogical Society with the hope that they will talk with us one day. Over the coming days and weeks, we hope to make some friends at Manitoba Genealogical Society, Family History Society of Newfoundland and Labrador, Alberta Genealogical Society, Genealogical Association of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island Genealogical Society, Québec Family History Society and the Saskatchewan Genealogical Society.
 
 And we look forward to working with you at the British Columbia Genealogical Society and the Alberta Family Histories Society.

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arcalife at the Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree 2009

I just spent the past weekend at the Jamboree 09 in California - Reconnected wtih some folks, met some new great people as well. I'm getting the hang of this genealogy community!

The venue for the event was smaller compared with the NGS we attended a few months ago, but there was much more traffic, and I spent a lot more time at the booth speaking with attendees about who we are and what we do. For the most part, they were enthusiastic about our services and take those handy fliers with them to learn more about the website and the company - a good sign :)
 
As for the companies represented, most have also participated at the NGS event so I used the opportunity to follow up with them regarding conversations we’ve had since then.

It was great to chat with and meet Leland K. Meitzler (thanks for the post!), Susan Kitchens, Thomas J Kemp, Allison Stacy at Family Tree Mag, Dick again of course, Michael Oddenino and Drew Smith, Co-Host of The Genealogy Guys Podcast - Paul should be on your show!

I've come to understand that attending these events is such an important part of the process: you can talk in email until you're blue in the face, and connect online through networks and blogs, but being able to meet in person and have that "offline" connection is essential.