Hello to all our members and their families. We hope you all enjoyed Christmas and New Year with your family and friends. Members attended our Christmas luncheon at the RSL Cub enjoying a two course meal and friendly conversation for the afternoon. Thank you to everyone that attended.
We are experiencing very hot temperatures and drought throughout the Bathurst region and we hope members from this region and across our membership are keeping safe and hydrated. We are especially thinking about our rural communities who are in the grips of a terrible drought.
REVAMPED CHIMES:
We enjoyed our usual break from the research days at the library and the team resumed our weekly sessions on 15th January. Although we had a break things were still ticking over in the background. 2019 has heralded some changes for the Group. One of these changes you will notice straight away with the new format for our quarterly Carillon Chimes magazine. Over the time we have had comments about the size of the print in the old edition and its layout so a Chimes sub committee was formed to look at how we could revamp our magazine. With the expert help of our editor Barbara Knox we have now produced a larger magazine with larger font and clearer spacing. This new format will allow us to publish more stories and articles from members and be in a clear and easy-to-read format. The cover of the magazine has a standard white glossy face but different editions will have coloured, glossy covers. So keep your eyes out for these. We would like feedback on the new style and we encourage members to let us know what they think of it. Your feedback is most welcome. Interestingly, the new look magazine which is bigger than the old editions cost very similar to produce.
“NEW HOME” FOR THE GROUP:
The other big change for 2019 is that we have found a “home” for our Group. You will be aware from past editions that the Bathurst Library in which our group was housed for over thirty years was refurbished last year. This meant we had to remove all our assets that had been accumulated over those years and house them at various members’ homes until we could find a place for them. We were only able to keep a cupboard in a spare room at the library but this does not allow us to have access to it when needed. We have an asset register and a specific register of assets in the form of our books and papers and we have digitised years of research material. But we require a lockable premise that allows us to access our assets when needed by members. After quite some months trying to locate a safe environment for our assets, I negotiated with the Committee of the local Seniors Centre in Russell Street and they have agreed with us renting a portion of their building to “house” our group.
Why this centre? The Seniors Centre has a membership covering the same age demographic as our membership. The building and grounds are owned by Bathurst Regional Council but administered by the Seniors Committee. The benefits of the building are – a building in the centre of Bathurst, easy walking distance to local resources, plenty of parking available, a single storey building with amenities. The area we are renting consists of a large lockable room with a kitchenette that is ours to use. The ability to secure the room allows us to store group assets etc. as well as set up a research space for members to use our resources. There is also a large room off this room with outside entrance which allows our members to come and go freely if the centre is being used by other groups. We envisage setting this room up as a meeting and training room which will allow us to run focus groups, training sessions and small group meetings in comfort.
There are a number of things to work out before we move in such as some electrical and plumbing work; air conditioning and curtaining to ensure the comfort of members and these are being worked through. This is a very exciting time for us and we hope members are happy that we will be able to have a genuine space that is our own for members. Now we only have two hours a week at the Library for members to get together. Our new home will potentially allow us to offer up to eight hours a week. This has to be better for members who find it difficult to get to the Library on Tuesdays. We will keep members informed as developments happen.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
The Bathurst Family History Group Inc. is involved again is some of the community events coming up. The Seniors Festival is on between 13th and 24th February and we are participating by running two events. One is a bus tour to the historic village of Sofala to learn about its rich history and then enjoy a handcrafted lunch at Tanwarra Lodge on the Hill End Road before returning to Bathurst. The second event is a scrumptious morning tea held at Chifley Home with stories and music from World War II. It is an unique event with the guests taking part in the show. Information on these events can be found at https://www.bathurst.nsw.gov.au/seniors-festival.html where the program and contact phone number is available.
The other event that the Group takes part in each year is coming up with the Autumn Colours Program again running this year. This is the website for information https://www.nsw.gov.au/news-and-events/events/autumn-colours-program there will be tours, walks and cemetery wanders. A must-attend for history buffs.
WEBSITE:
I would like to thank our web co-ordinator and members’ secretary Graeme Hill for his continued work on our website which has great resources for members and these are being updated all the time. Graeme also sends out Mail chimp notices to your email addresses letting you know about new resources to check out and links to other groups etc. Thanks Graeme we couldn’t do it without you. The link is here to our website: https://www.bathurstfhg.asn.au/
THANKS:
First off I would like to express my gratitude to our editor Barbara Knox for her suggestions and expertise in giving the Chimes a revamped look. Barbara’s work is much appreciated as she works hard to get each edition out to our members. To all the members of the committee who give their time to ensure the Group is a success and to those members who come in each Tuesday to the Library to help with research. Our Group exists for our members so we encourage feedback and comments from members, if you wish to give us feedback, make a comment or suggestion or contribute in any way please either email us on info@bathurstfhg.asn.au or call in and talk with us face to face at the library or contact me.
Kind regards
Dianne Barnes
President