Each meeting includes a presentation of general interest to all members plus frequent user group sessions for members running popular personal genealogy programs on their home computers. User group sessions include discussions of various genealogy programs used on DOS, Macintosh, and Windows computer platforms, researching genealogy on the Internet, digitizing family photos, and publishing a family history. The meetings are held on the third Saturday of each month (except December) at the LDS Church Meetinghouse on 4195 Camino del Rio South in Mission Valley, in the building that also houses the San Diego Family History Center.

Meetings start at 9:00am with the general session and then break into user group sessions about 10:30. The meetings conclude at 12:00 noon. Come and meet other computer genealogists. Visitors are welcome. Call the CGSSD telephone hotline at (619) 670-0960 to find out this month's program and confirm the meeting location.

Finding our meeting location: Several interesting new services on the Internet offer maps of any address in the United States. To see (and print out) a map with directions to our meeting location, view our map page.

COMPU.GEN

Our quarterly newsletter, COMPU.GEN, is cited frequently as one of the leading computer genealogy publications in the country. COMPU.GEN carries many original articles on genealogy software programs, Internet use, CD-ROM data technology, and many other computer genealogy subjects. Regular contributors to COMPU.GEN include several nationally known authors and lecturers. Many members throughout the country join the CGSSD just to receive our newsletter. COMPU.GEN is distributed exclusively to CGSSD members. You can read the cover page of our current issue online.

Did you miss an issue? Back issues of COMPU.GEN are available from our back issue librarian. Check the index to back issues online, then place your order. Further instructions to follow.

THE CGSSD ELECTRONIC MAILING LIST

We provide an electronic mailing capability using the Internet which allows members to exchange e-mail messages in a timely manner. The mailing list cgssd@ucsd.edu is hosted at the University of California, San Diego on behalf of and for the benefit of Society members.

To subscribe to this Mailing List, members need only send an e-mail message to the UCSD list bot at listserv@ucsd.edu and put in the body of the message: SUB CGSSD. (The subject line is ignored.) Thereafter, you may send a message to all subscribed members merely by sending it to "cgssd@ucsd.edu" and it will be relayed to everyone's e-mail mailbox.

To unsubscribe, send your message as above to listserv@ucsd.edu but instead put UNSUB CGSSD in the body. Messages sent to this mailing list will be archived on a server at UCSD. To read current messages directly in your WWW browser, access our message archive.

THE CGSSD PUBLICATIONS LIBRARY

Our Publications Library consists of newsletters from other computer genealogy societies around the world. These periodical are maintained in binders at the San Diego Family History Center at 4195 Camino del Rio South, San Diego, CA 92127. Members may peruse this library for information of interest to their particular research.

MEMBERS-ONLY WEB SITE

CGSSD's Web site (www.cgssd.org) serves the local genealogical community with public information and serves its membership with a special members-only section. Members must enter a special password to access this area. These web pages include:
• Guide to Software - Which genealogical program should you buy for your computer. Consult our guide to currently-available genealogy software programs, including references to software reviews published in recent issues of COMPU.GEN.

• Lindy's Links - Where to go on the Internet to find good genealogical information. Linda Tate searches out the best sites and consolidates them by subject for her column in COMPU.GEN. This is a hot-linked version of each article. The directory to Lindy's Links is not protected by password so that non-members can see what we have to offer.

• Online Information - Which Internet Service Provider should you choose? CGSSD is dedicated to helping its members get onto the Internet. This page shows you how.

• Who's Got What: CD-ROMs - More genealogical information is being published in CD-ROM form. Before you decide which CD-ROMs to buy, consult our directory to CD-ROM products that are available at San Diego County libraries and Family History Centers. Then visit the library so see if that particular CD-ROM will suit your needs.

• Corporate By-Laws - Here is an on-line version of CGSSD's by-laws, handy for member reference at any time.

• Corporate Board Meeting Minutes - Official proceedings of the CGSSD Board meetings, posted here following their approval at a subsequent meeting.

• Member Directory - Names, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and Home Pages of current members. For society use only; not for commercial use.

• Special Offers - From time to time, various vendors of computer and genealogical products make special offers to members of societies such as CGSSD. Some items they offer are free and others have a reduced price. Your membership in CGSSD entitles you to take advantage of these special offers. We will list these offers here to reduce the amount of e-mail traffic these offers might generate into your mailbox.

• User Groups - CGSSD is enrolled with several genealogical software vendors as a "user group" for their product, entitling us to special offers and direct communication from the publisher. When we hear from these publishers, we pass it along to you. Also, members often contribute hints and tips for using particular programs. We include these in the "user group" area of the web site. Our first group is for Personal Ancestral File. Others will be added soon.

• More to Come - We plan to add other exciting features to our members-only area, including a chat area, help section, and more. Come visit us again to see how we're growing.