Volunteer
The IGRS is run by a Council of unpaid volunteer members who give up their time to steer the Society, organise lectures and other events, add value to the membership package and all manner of other duties. Their efforts ensure the core tasks of running the Society are fulfilled, but additional pairs of hands are always very, very welcome.
Could you offer a little of your time – either on-going or occasional – to help your Society?
Some of our current specific needs are:
Transcribing/Indexing
Some of our long-standing Council members are administering and creating hugely important databases of genealogically valuable records. More hands are always needed to move these projects along.
Whether you have previously undertaken part in transcribing projects or are a complete beginner, you will be made very welcome, and can be confident that your time and efforts will be adding to the richness of records available to all researchers.
Three projects currently underway through our members are:
Registry of Deeds: Webmaster Nick Reddan FIGRS set up this indexing project in 2007. The latest counts of the index databases is here.
Early Irish marriages,deaths and births indexes: The late Roz McCutcheon FIGRS established these indexes to include details of life events discovered in unusual sources (ie not civil registration or mainstream church registers). Find out how to contribute by contacting us by email. Click here
Index to The Irish Genealogist: The Society produces an annual publication, The Irish Genealogist. There is a backlog of issues that requires indexing of the names, places etc which appear in the articles. A short demonstration of the indexing process can be found here. Find out how to contribute by contacting us by email. Click here
Please provide a brief outline of any previous experience of indexing, use of Excel spreadsheets and your availability.
Website and database development
The IGRS website is constantly developing to meet member needs. It has a huge amount of material which is already or needs to be digitised to be made available to members on the website. Presently, we have only a small number of volunteers with IT skills who can help us review and improve the website contents and appearance. Please do contact by email if you have an interest or can offer knowledge and experience in:
HTML
Javascript
PHP (or other server side scripting language)
SQL (MySQL or any other)
Microsoft Excel (including VBA)
Microsoft 365 inc. Sharepoint
The website also has a Members’ Forum which is presently underused. We are looking for somebody who could act as a moderator and encourage and promote the use of the Forum amongst members.
Regulatory Compliance
Do you have knowledge or experience of drafting policies and procedures for an organisation? The IGRS, like any other organisation, is required to comply with relevant legislation (including that governing UK charities) and to have mandatory policies and procedures in place to comply with data protection, health & safety and other legislation. If this is something you do or have done in your work environment and can offer the Society the benefit of your advice and guidance, please complete the form below with a brief outline of your skills, experience and availability.
Contributing to these kinds of projects is hugely rewarding as you can so clearly see the value of what you are revealing. It is also the kind of volunteer work that most members could offer on an occasional basis as there is no long-term commitment, you can work as and when suits you, and you can work at your own pace.
Why not try it?
Please fill in this form for volunteer enquiries. You will be asked to provide details of your location (e.g. UK, Ireland etc), any specific skills you have, and the project or area in which you think you may like to volunteer. For some , but not all, work helping to run the Society you will need to be a member.
