Please help us spread the word about this. Mike St. Clair says it all,
below. (Note that action needs to be taken by 9 Sep 06 or this will take
effect.)
Thanks,
Sherri
----- Original Message -----
From: Mike St. Clair/TT
Sent: 04 September, 2006 8:55 am
Subject: Petition on reduction in hours for National Archives
In late July, the National Archives announced they were planning to cut back
the hours of the Washington DC area facilities of the archives. This would
eliminate all evening and Saturday hours and greatly harm the ability of the
average genealogist to access the records. For full details, see
http://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2006/nr06-125.html
While the Archivist of the United States was at the FGS conference he
reported that they had received very little feedback from the country's
genealogists asking for reconsideration. He was also presented with a
request from the chair of the FGS Records Preservation Committee to consider
some alternatives and a petition was started to allow genealogists to
express their disagreement with the changes and to endorse alternatives that
will allow the evening and Saturday hours to continue.
You can see more details about that in Dick Eastman's weekly newsletter at:
http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2006/09/quick_please_jo.html
The petition can be signed at:
http://www.petitiononline.com/FGS2006
I would encourage each of you, as board members of The USGenWeb Project to
use your influence to publicize this information throughout the project.
Note that the deadline for receiving comments on the proposed changes by the
archives is September 9, so there isn't much time. And I suspect that if
they succeed in reducing the Washington hours, the regional archives will be
soon to follow.
I appreciate all that each of you do in support of the project membership
and all genealogists with US ancestry. I believe that a little effort in
support of this effort by FGS will pay off long term in enhancing our
ability to deliver free information to our clients - genealogists
everywhere.
Mike St. Clair
.
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