StoryCorps sponsors a national day of listening each year. This year’s day is November 29th. They have put together a how-to video for a successful recording session. Here are the key points from the video.
Registration is now open for RootsTech 2014, which will be held February 6-8, 2014 at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. This annual family history conference, hosted by FamilySearch, is a unique global event where people of all ages learn to discover and share their family stories and connections through technology. Over the past three years, RootsTech has grown in popularity with attendees to become the largest family history event in the United States!
Whether attendees are just beginning their family history, an avid hobbyist, or an experienced researcher, RootsTech has something for everyone:
Pass Pricing and Discounts
Various pass options are available, with pricing set to make RootsTech an affordable experience. Early Bird pricing discounts for a Full Access Pass ($159) and a Getting Started Pass ($39) are available until January 6, 2014.
An additional $20 discount is available for a limited time. Attendees can get a Full Access Pass for just $139 simply by using the promotional code RT14EXCLSV before September 9, 2013.
To get more information and register, visit rootstech.org.
Once your story project is complete it is good to look at how things went. What turned out well, what not so good. What would you do differently next time. Here are some questions that might help you evaluate your story project:
Do you have someone who you can trust to be honest and yet supportive to give you feedback on your project? If so ask them to help you evaluate your results. I hope that you have enjoyed your story project and the journey that you have now completed. I hope that you are excited to do another story project. If so, armed with this knowledge you are ready to go back to step one and pick a new family story project.
I’d love to hear about your story projects. Let me know about it and you might just get featured on a future Telling Family Tales post.
Having made it this far, you deserve to celebrate! That is much of what this step is about, sharing your accomplishment with your family, friends and anyone else who might be interested. There is a good chance that your “why” included hoping that this story project would impact others. Now you are ready to make that happen. Depending on your project some ways of sharing make more sense than others. Here are some ideas on ways to share your story project:
Be excited to share your accomplishment. You never know who might be interested. Think about some creative ways to get your story project out there. Just be patient and look for opportunities.
Assess:
Now that you have gathered all of your resources it is time to take a close look at what you have. Is it enough to complete your project or do you need to gather more information from other sources? Be honest with yourself and your time. If you don’t have what you need and can’t see having the time to get what you need than take a second look at your project and adjust it to work with what you have. I think it is better to complete a story project than to get stuck on the “perfect” project and never get it finished.
Plan:
Think of planning as the blueprint for your project. You wouldn’t dream of building a house without a blueprint. It would be asking for disaster if you did. Think back on your vision for the project and how you want the finished product to look. I like to start at the end and figure out what I need to get there. There are lots of ways to do project planning so do what works for you. The main thing is to break it down into smaller tasks so you don’t feel overwhelmed and you can measure your progress with the completion of each task. The more detailed you are at this stage the less unexpected hurdles you will find later on. There is no substitute for good planning.
Time Line:
Next step is to give yourself some deadlines. If you have a concrete time when you need the project to get done, I would start with that deadline and work your way back to the present. If all your deadlines are self-imposed you can be more flexible. Look at each task a give an estimate of how long it will take. Add that all up and then give yourself a good buffer, maybe even doubling it to give yourself a deadline. Then I’d look at the first task on your list and give yourself as realistic a due date for that task as you can. Take into account all the other obligations you have. You don’t want your deadlines to make you discouraged. But you also don’t want to procrastinate getting your story project off for over and over so it never gets done.
Once you have taken on the challenge of doing a story project and having worked through the first step of deciding what you want to do, you have a pretty good idea of what you want your story project to be. Now it is time to gather and organize everything you have that might help you complete this project. Find any photos, documents, letters, etc. that you or your family already have. If you are already fairly organized this might be a simple step. But if you are like most of us, your family documents and photos are not very orderly and they are in many places.
Have a long-term strategy:
Take some time to think about a long-term organizing philosophy so that anything you do now will work towards that goal. I don’t recommend trying to put all of your family photos and documents in order before you tackle this story project. If you try to do that you might never get to the project. But if you have a plan in mind than with each story project your documents and photos will be come more and more organized and more easily accessible.
Digitize:
With this long-term plan in mind sort through you family memorabilia for those items that might be useful for this project. Those items like photos and documents will need to be scanned. Some other items may work in a scanner but others will need to be photographed. Make sure your scan resolution is at least 300 dpi depending on the size of the image and the project you have in mind. While usually jpeg is a good format, tiff files are better for long-term preservation and storage. It will be easiest in the long run if you come up with a good naming convention for your images that you can remember and give you the information you need. Metadata is a great place to store the little details about the images. If you are familiar with metadata you can add that later. Besides letters and journals it is good to transcribe them too.
Share your images:
While all this can be tedious remember that by scanning them you are helping to make sure that these priceless items are saved for the future even if something should happen to the original. Sharing your images with your family is a great way to help insure that no disaster will destroy all the existing copies.
Repeat with extended family:
Having digital files to share with your family could also help to smooth the road for you to get access to any items that they might have that would be helpful for your story project. There are good portable scanners that make it possible to visit a relative and scan their collection without those precious items ever having to leave their possession. Find any family histories that have previously been written. Also check for online sources of information from extended family.
So what shape is your family archive in? While I’ve made progress over the years I still have lots to do. I’ll keep working on it and slowly it will get there, one project at a time. Do you have a file naming convention that you like? I’d love to hear about it. I’m still not happy with what I’m currently doing.
If you have made it this far there is a good chance that you have decided that now is the time to commit to doing a story project. If you are still on the fence keep reading and hopefully you will be inspired to take on the challenge.
So how do you go about deciding just what this story project is going to be about? There are many ways to get there but we will help you through the process. You could be lucky enough to already have a person and/or project in mind. If so skip down to decide on a focus. If you already know what you want your story project to be about you can probably skip to Narrow the scope. Be careful about skipping all they way down to Pick a Medium because if your story project is too broad you might get discourage and give up before it is complete.
QUESTIONS:
A good starting spot is to ask yourself why you want to do a story project? From the BYUtv series called The Generations Project they asked these questions to help people find their why:
It is good to let these question percolate in your mind for a few days. Make notes and notice where your thoughts go. Listen to your intuition on what story project you want to do now.
Try looking at your family tree or start listing names of people in your family. Here are some more questions that might help you decided on your story project:
Again it might take you sometime to settle on a person or place or time that you want your story project to be about. Being thoughtful during this step will reap big rewards later on.
NARROW IT DOWN:
At this point you have probably come up with several possibilities for story projects. If one has come to the forefront then you are ready to move on. If not ask yourself more questions until you feel good about one. File your notes away for future projects. Just because you don’t decide on that project now doesn’t mean you can’t do it in the future. Chances are the project you have in mind is still rather broad in its scope and too big to tackle in a reasonable amount of time. Now is the time to narrow it down. Let’s say you picked a person. Now is not the time to take on telling their whole life story. Unless you are different from most of us you don’t have time or the experience to succeed in that kind of project. Instead pick a time frame to work on first. If you really do want to do that life history then keep that in mind and design this project to become part of that big future project. It is easy to think we can eat the whole elephant or maybe just one of his legs. A huge key to success in learning and sharing about our family stories is to break them down into palatable pieces. Don’t try to write “War and Peace” here. A short story is more what we are after. Down the road if you want to you can combine lots of story projects into your “War and Peace”.
FOCUS:
The next step is to bring focus to your story project. Go back to your “why” and how it relates to this project and what you want to do. Can this project be broken down into smaller pieces? You want to have a very tight focus on what this project is and how to accomplish it. I have a tendency to dream up the most elaborate projects but it is important to keep them from getting out of hand and grow into something that is difficult to get done and might not really carry out your purpose any better in the end. Now is the time to be honest about your available time and resources. It is better to break it up into several smaller project. You gain a sense of accomplishment which the completion of each story project.
Make notes and write a good description of what you want your story project to be. Give it some time and some serious thought. Always keep in mind who you plan to share your story project with.
MEDIUM:
Finally you want to pick a medium for your story project. Is it a book, an eBook, a video, a slide show, an audio, a song or something else altogether? There are lots and lots of possibilities. For many story projects once the first project is done it could easily be shared in another format. For example a book can be converted to an eBook. It might also be the basis for a video or slide show. Start with just one medium but keep in mind that other projects could spin-off from the original story project. Browse through our project ideas for some inspiration on the possibilities.
Are you still with me? Then it is time to move on to step two!
The thought of trying to put together a family history is daunting and few of us will ever carry out that task. But there are better ways to share your family’s history and that is through stories. Few other than genealogist will sit down and read facts about an ancestor but every one loves a good story. It is the stories that connect us to other members of our family. It is the stories that make them real. It is the stories that give us insights that have a positive impact on our own lives and the lives of our families.
So I’m here to help you tell your own family tales in engaging ways that everyone will enjoy. You can do it in small projects that won’t take hundreds of hours and years to complete. Projects that won’t make you feel overwhelmed and want to give up. If that sounds like what you want then you are in the right place. I’ll help you every step of the way. Here is an overview of the DOABLE approach:
Step One: Decide
First you need to decided that now is the time to commit to doing a story project. If you have done that then it is time to decide on a specific story project. There are so many options that it is easy to get overwhelmed. But don’t worry I’ll help you to narrow it down.
Step Two: Organize
Now that you’ve picked a focus for your story project it is time to gather what you already have that might help you to complete this project. Find any photos, documents, letters, etc. that you or your family already have.
Step Three: Analyze
Once you have your resources gather you can really take a close look at what you have. Is it enough to complete your project or do you need to gather more from other sources? In this step you plan your project, breaking it down into small steps with deadlines for each step.
Step Four: Build
This is an exciting step, to actually start building your project, to follow your plan. Keep moving forward and make adjustments to your plan as needed.
Step Five: Link
Now for the rewarding part, share your project with your family and anyone else who might enjoy hearing your story. Be creative in the ways you share it. This is an opportunity to strengthen those family connection and even make new links to extended family.
Step Six: Evaluate
Once your story project is complete it is good to look at how things went. What turned out well, what not so good. What would you do differently next time. Armed with this knowledge you are ready to go back to step one and pick a new family story project.
Are you still with me? Then it is time to get started with step one!
Since I’m following the DOABLE approach on revamping my blog today it is time for step two: organize. Yesterday I decided that it was time to refocus. I want it to be easy and clear for anyone to get started or complete a family story project and my current blog isn’t doing that. So that is step one complete.
Step two: Organize: I have over a years worth of content on my blog but it doesn’t automatically fit into the new DOABLE structure. The Ideas & Inspiration posts should work in the decide phase. When I’m decided what to do for a new project, I like to look at ideas and hope for inspiration and a vision of how I want a new project to be like. The How To post should fit nicely into the build step of the DOABLE approach. My Projects post could go lots of different places but I think I will also keep them together and keep a My Projects tab at the top along with My Life and My Puppies. I think I’ll combine the About Me tab with the My Life tab. I think the Mary Taylor tab will become My Grandma Mary. When that book becomes generally available there will be some content for the book that I want to keep in one place and easy to find.
Now I can see that I have lots of area of the DOABLE approach that won’t have any or at least not much content to start with, namely, Organize, Analyze, Link and Evaluate. Next step is Analyze: the planning stage where I will figure out all that this blog revamping will need to carry out my vision.
Did you decide on a new family story project? If so take the next step and organize. Gather together the information and resources you already have and see where you stand. Haven’t decided yet? It isn’t to late to get started.
As I’ve contemplated ways to improve my blog it occurred to me that if you are coming here for the first time there isn’t really any help in getting started. Since my goal is to help everyone (including me) to tell their own family stories that situation isn’t a good one. Over the past year or so I’ve written posts about my story projects and other things I’ve come across. While all of that is good I think I’ve missed the mark. Since my rather chaotic brain craves order I decided I’d come up with some sort of system anyone can follow to help them share their family stories. It is still a work in progress but I think it is a good start.
D – decide
O – organize
A – analyze
B – build
L – link
E – evaluate
Decide: the very first step is to decide you want to do a story project and the decide who you want to do it about or what story you want to develop and share. What do you want to do with this project?
Organize: the next step is to organize. This step will focus on the what you already know and what you already have in the way of documents and images etc. that might help you will the story project you are working on.
Analyze: in this step you want to really look hard at your goal. What do you need to do? Do you have all the information you need? What else do you need and where might you find it? What do you need to learn to complete this project? Plan your project out in as much detail as you can and give yourself deadlines along the way.
Build: do the work, follow the plan, keep on moving forward. Keep your purpose in mind and work past any obstacles that get in your way.
Link: share your story project with as many people as you can in as many ways as you can.
Evaluate: the good, the bad and the ugly. What would you do the same if you had to do it all again, what would you do different. Then armed with your new knowledge start the process over with a new story project.
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So what does this all mean? I’ll need to restructure my blog to show the DOABLE approach with the goal in mind that anyone can come here and find what they need to get started or keep moving forward with their own family story projects. Hey, I think this whole DOABLE approach might work for this too. I’ve decided on a new vision for my blog. Next step is to organize what I already have on here with the DOABLE approach in mind. Then I will analyze what is missing and make a plan for how to fill it in. While I’m working through the DOABLE steps I can learn more about how to improve it too! I’m really excited about my new goal.
How about join me on this journey? Start with step one, decide on a family story project (or even something else) that you want to do and we can test out my DOABLE approach together.
telling family tales 