July 1, 2007                                               

Welcome TGS Members, Friends, and Guests,

Having recently been elected to serve a second, three year term on the Board of Directors, I thank the general membership for your confidence in choosing me to represent you once again.  I wish also to thank the members of the ’06-‘07 Board of Directors for giving me the opportunity to serve as President of the Society for the coming twelve months.  The term of office begins July 1, 2007.  I am sincerely excited about the coming year and look forward to the challenge. 

Many notable achievements have occurred during the last year and deserve their time in the spotlight:

·        Policy and Procedure revisions followed upon the heels of By-law revisions which were accepted by the general membership in the 2005-2006 fiscal year.  The New P & P’s went into effect November 9, 2006, immediately following approval by the Board. The Revisions Committee consisted of  Janice Meredith, Chair; Linda Brown, Janis Evans, Trent Eyler, Michael Haugh, Pat Lutz, & Kyle Lynch.  Kudos

·        Our library collections (7,026 titles) have been inventoried and the catalogue brought up to date through the leadership of Librarian, Janice Meredith, and the combined efforts of Assistant Librarian, Linda Brown, and a legion of 20 library volunteers.  This was done in preparation for moving the catalogue onto the TGS Web-site. The Oklahoma and the OK/Native American sections were placed on-line first, as a salute to this, our Centennial Year. The remaining 49 states and other sections will be added in the near future.  Trent Eyler, Webmaster, handled the technical side of this transition with expertise.  Check it out – www.tulsagenealogy.org/library .

·        The TGS Website was given a boost with a shift to a new website hosting service via Dotster.com.  We now have 10 GB of disk space and a bandwidth of 1,000 GB at a cost of less than $4.00/month.  All files presently on our website take up only 20.5 MB. Trent Eyler located this viable and affordable upgrade, and transferred the files and domain pointers.

·        Grants were received from the following Foundations:  Kerr; Ann & Henry Zarrow; and  Ralph & Francis McGill.  Michael Haugh and Janis Evans were our miracle workers.

·        Two quilts were quilted.  One thousand eight-hundred forty-nine raffle tickets were sold.  Untallied hours were spent ‘round the quilting frame by Darlene Carpenter, Johanna Graham, Faye Rene Hanks, Betty Smyth, and Nancy Wood. 

·        The Publications Committee completed extractions and proofing prior to the publishing of the following:  Nine Tulsa Court-information Books, The Muskogee Indian Territory Court Book #18, and Funeral Homes, Volumes 11 & 12.  One book was published, titled Murder, Mayhem, Outlaws & Lawmen.  It contains original scans of articles plus transcriptions by Gloria Fortney, from the Indian Chieftain newspaper, 1895-1900.  For specific titles and ordering information use the Publications link.  True diligence from Jae Jaeger, current Chair; Linda Brown, former Chair; Charles Catlin, Arlene Crawford, Naoma Durkee, FayeRene Hanks, and Renee King.

Thank you for dropping in,

Patricia Lutz, ATGS

President, Tulsa Genealogical Society