The Hampshire Family Historian | Volume 50 No.3 | Dec 2023

HGS News

being reviewed. You will read or hear more from me on these subjects as time goes on, including another important area we have just started to look at – Governance, e.g., Safeguarding and Customer Care policies. Moving away from business matters, there is some information of a more social and, hopefully, enjoyable nature, that I’d like you all know about. Firstly, on Wednesday December 13th in the Hampshire Record Office (HRO), HGS will be hosting a Christmas Open Day for our Volunteers. a I, together with the other Officers and Trustees would like to thank those local members who volunteer their services freely so that, for example, we can staff the HGS Help Desk situated just inside the door to the HRO Search Room while others carry out particular tasks for our Research Manager, Lorraine Whale, for our Operations Manager, John Bowman, and for our Sales Manager, Sue Stannard. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the many other Volunteers, some of whom live overseas, who have been of enormous help in digitising all our records, such as the huge ‘Britons Dying Overseas’ project, as well as those members who organise the local Groups into their monthly meetings throughout the year and who, unfortunately, will not be able to get to Winchester. Another date for your diaries is the weekend

of July 6th / 7th. 2024 marks the 50th Anniversary of The Hampshire Genealogical Society and, as part of the year’s celebratory events, we are planning to hold a two-day Conference over that July weekend, including Exhibition Stands from around the UK, plus Workshops, five Speakers and “Ask the Expert” sessions. More on that exciting weekend nearer the time. Look out for updates on our website, on Facebook and Twitter / X. In the meantime, I am still making my way around the County to meet our members in the local Groups, as well as speaking to those members attending Zoom Meetings of the National and International Groups. I am doing this in order to introduce myself in person as your new Chairman so that I can explain in more detail what actually happened earlier in the year which put the Society in such turmoil, to explain what we did to resolve it, what we have done since my chairmanship started and what we are planning to do in the coming months and years for the benefit of you, the members of Hampshire Genealogical Society. I look forward to hearing the views of our members as I make my way round the County. I shall write to you all again in March 2024. Until then I do hope you all enjoy a peaceful and Happy Christmas and that you are looking forward to a safe and better New Year. Tony Sinclair Chairman

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