Counties Leadership Team Discussion Notes

This page collates the main discussion themes in the Counties Leadership Channel.

What people are hoping for from this group

• A more holistic treatment of England profiles
• As a counties leadership team, to have more impact collectively
• Develop ways of involving, supporting and developing team members (including those with no leaders/inactive leaders)
• Clarity as to the different county roles and support for people who take them on

The plan/process

• We are collating feedback, getting different people's thoughts and noting down ideas, so that we can form a view as to what the County Teams should be about and how we should organise ourselves as a Leadership Team.

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Why do people join a county team after graduating?

• For support when developing their own tree

"When I finished OT1, I joined the county team knowing I had ancestors in that county"

"I really wanted to be given some county resources and help getting my family lines sorted out"

"I had no interest in the stats"

• Personal development opportunity

"I joined a small team as I wanted somewhere I could ‘stretch my wings’ and learn my way around without treading on toes."

• Being part of a team

"It was a relief to feel there were other people working in the county. I love seeing team member names on profiles"

"I quite liked the idea of joining a team, but it turned out there wasn't really a team - so I did my own thing."

How we (individually) developed

• We typically start with our own family tree and then move onto things that we enjoy

“My focus changes over time. When I was new to WikiTree, all I wanted to do was add my own family. Now I rarely look at them”

“I started on my own family and then expanded”

Over time, I have grown and my overall goals and focuses as a genealogist have changed

• After working on our ancestors, several of us decided at some stage to focus on a specific location

“I gave myself the challenge of improving Evesham”

“I did a similar thing with Chipping Campden. I decided I would try to connect all the profiles from that place. Like a mini OPS!”

“Initially I worked on my own tree, then on Warrington profiles”

People focus on what they like

"People do what interests them"

"If there is a challenge, or a team is doing something and it does not fit in with what I want to do at that particular time, then I just ignore it."

“I am all over the place and don’t have clear plan. I play about with everything. Barnsley, 1800s not early stuff. One day I might be sourcing or finding Unknows, another helping with some challenge or other, and on another it could be mining disasters.’

Not all members are like us

"Some people join a county team just because they have to join a team; not because they actually want to work on Warwickshire profiles or data"

"When thinking about how we take things forward, we need to be realistic about people's time and motivations after graduating."

"I used to send an email once a month because only maybe 1 to 3 people responded, and the response was usually that they were doing their own thing. It seemed a better use of my time to let them do their own thing than keep on emailing."

Why we became County Leaders

"I was asked and I like to help"

“To try to restore peace after the Yorkshire team leader had their account closed for refusing to comply with what the project was doing.”

County Leadership’ can give a sense of ownership and you feel as if you are making a difference. Interest can be boosted if you have a personal connection to the area

“I found I find it easier to work in Hampshire where I know the places and how far they are from each other rather than where my ancestors lived”

“I became the Team Leader for Northamptonshire because that was where I lived but I was born in Cambridgeshire so I took that over as well.”

“I've been in Northamptonshire for a while. I've been trying to sort out profiles ever since and I finally feel we are getting to grips with the area. Cambridgeshire is still in its early stages and is improving. Huntingdonshire is only a small area so I’m trying to get that up and running as well.”

“Worcestershire is my baby”

I now focus on sourcing/connecting pre-1600 profiles. I figured that as so few people are pre-1500 qualified it was a good use of my "resource" and a way to make a significant impact on our stats.

A role of some sort makes people feel valued. In the England Project there are a lot of opportunities.

If the challenge/county is “too big”, it can be daunting

I do not really try to improve Yorkshire. It’s too big and overwhelming. I tend to focus on the Barnsley area and Dearne Valley. Another thing about working a small area is that you get to know family and place names.

With the big counties, it's hard to feel that you're making much of an impact. I quite enjoy 'sorting out' Greater Manchester each week as I look at the reports and can work through them

What (some of us) do as County Team Leaders

Try (personally) to improve our county and monitor progress

• Work through our county Suggestions, Unsourced etc
• Update county stats monthly or more frequently
• Do county related activity in Thons and challenges

Be a point of contact for team members

• Welcome new members and add them to the county page
• Communicate with active county members
• Watch county team page messages, G2G, Discord

Deal with people creating problems

There are people creating problems in my county. It is useful to identify the ones that create work, either to coach them, monitor them/MIR or in extreme cases to have their accounts closed.

“I'm aware of who's doing the work and who's making the work!”

I check a few of profiles of high volume contributors with a view to giving them guidance at an early stage if needs be (before they do too much damage). I’d had a couple of successes with this approach but it’s quite time-consuming.

but 'Leading the Team' is difficult/frustrating

I emailed the team periodically. There was invariably minimal response – so I stopped. There are better things we can do with our time (Updates might have been appreciated even if there’s no feedback. The emails make people feel valued even if they don’t seem to be involved, and it keeps people informed about what’s going on.)

“it's discouraging that there aren't ever any new members”

There are motivational benefits of working with others on a common challenge

"Having good team members certainly helps – if you have a couple of other people on your team working with you on an issue it's great for everyone's motivation and gives you a sense that you're making a difference."

"Gillian is also a good team member who will work on the profiles as well."

What some of us do/have tried as Regional Co-ordinators

• Update regional stats and celebrate good performance Only one RC does this
• Team integration when there is no Team Leader for a county Very few new members have joined County Teams over last 12 months
• Communicate with County Team Leaders Response was minimal; we stopped

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Ideas and Initiatives

Recognise distinct motivations: developing your own ancestor lines v making improvements to the bigger tree

"There are those in county teams who are working to improve things; and those who might need help in working on their family lines and knowing how to research in the county."

"I can't help thinking there's a genealogy side of county teams, and a statistical side. I have no clue how those two things work or live together."

County of the Month - focus each month on improving a county

Links to the unknowns, unsourced, unconnected, poorly formatted locations (eg Devonshire") as well as a gedcom. Let people pick something and see how much we can achieve together.

Maybe include a disaster and a list of famous people from that county who do not have profiles, or need their profiles improving.

Deal with people who do not know what they are doing (in a county), getting in touch with them and helping them to improve their work.

Post on G2G each month, get the England Project noticed to attract new members.

Adopt your town/village to keep members engaged

Development tool (after the Orphan Trail) to to encourage members to tackle suggestions, add sources, connect etc outside their family and to show them how Wikitree+ works

Some wont do anything, but others possibly will (potential future county leaders?)

Start a topic - encourage people to do topics within their county too.

Examples: Nail Makers in Hoyland Swaine, and one of Wortley Forge; the Barnsley Cinema Disaster; the Masbrough Boat disaster; London Beer Flood.

Survey of team members might establish what they want from county team and what might appeal to different types of members.

Get the questions right, or you just annoy people and don't learn anything.

What we already know about our members

• How long they’ve been a member of the England Project
• Number of contributions made (including last 3 months)
• What teams they are in (How accurate is the member/team database?)
• What leadership roles they have

What we don’t know

• Do they purely focus on their own family line or are they interested in improving/growing ‘the bigger tree’
• Are they predominantly ‘England’ focused or do they do significant work on other countries too? (Roughly how much 75/25; 50/50?)
• Do they work predominantly on their own county/counties? Or more widely?
• Do they have specific interests? (eg Suggestions, Unknowns, Connecting, Sourcing; a particular town/village)
• Do they participate in Wikitree/England Project challenges?
• Would they like more involvement with their county/team or are they happy as they are?

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Possible County Leaders

• Alan Purchase for Wiltshire and Alison Breton for Gloucestershire. approved by Leadership Team; High contribution levels and clearly engaged
• Nikki Orvis suggested by Jemima Winder for Herefordshire
• David Cooper (Bedfordshire) unresponsive – may need replacing
• Elizabeth Greet stepping down from Gloucestershire (to be replaced by Alison Breton)

Review current county leaders when we have reviewed and clarified the role and how we will support them.