Help Wanted

The number of projects the Society has undertaken over the years is very large. Each must be led by a volunteer. At times, volunteers are obliged to drop their involvement, and a project goes dormant. We retain these projects, and restart them once a new volunteer appears.

This page lists projects that either need a Chairman or Coordinator, or which need additional help. Not all active projects are listed, as some Chairmen feel they have sufficient help, or there is some reason why the project cannot be expanded.

For information about any of these posts, or to volunteer, please contact Headquarters.

Chivalry:

1. Chivalry Committee members—You would participate in the program to recognize the chivalric membership and rank of petitioners; the program to recognize valid orders of chivalry; and the development of articles and video programs on chivalry.

Genealogy:

1. Genealogy Vice-Chairman for Lineages—You would be in charge of a program to certify lineages for members and others petitioning for membership in lineage societies, or simply to get outside confirmation of the quality of their own work. Additional activities might include providing research assistance and developing publishable standards for lineages.
2. Genealogy Committee members—You would assist the Genealogy Committee by reviewing and approving lineages submitted to qualify for the Society's lineage groups. Competence in genealogy needed.
3. Lineage Standard Project—You would be responsible for contacting a variety of lineage societies and determining their requirements for lineages submitted. Compiling from this a specification for same, you would work with Society technical staff to implement an enhancement or plug-in to permit the generation of compliant lineages from GEDCOM data.

Heraldry:

1. Justiciar General—You would chair the Heraldry Department, and be in charge of managing petitions for registration of arms, including arranging for the emblazonment of same. You would supervise the Vice-Justiciars, and name all members of the Department.
2. Assistant Editors, Roll Translations—You would create or otherwise obtain English translations for blazons already registered with the Society. This is a temporary position, though not a brief one. Editors for each language are desired.
3. Vice-Justiciars, various jurisdictions—You would serve as a member of the Heraldry Committee, ruling on the registration of arms, and providing special knowledge of your chosen jurisdiction. At present, we have vacancies for Vice Justiciars for German, Irish, South African, and Spanish Heraldry, and there is room for other jurisdictions not presently covered.

History:

1. History Committee members—You would work with this committee to direct and oversee all historical programs of the Society, and to solicit articles for the Omnibus and books for the Library on ancient and medieval history. As this area has been inactive, you would have the opportunity to help define and develop all history-related programs.

Study Groups:

1. Photo Collection Study Group—The Society has a large collection of photographs of our history, members, and headquarters. You would download scans of these photos, clean them up, crop them, de-duplicate, and organize them. You would then work with senior members to identify the individuals, dates, and places.
2. Royalty Study Group—You would develop and keep current a list of royalty worldwide. This would build on the list of extant fons honorum, but would identify contemporatry individuals, and perhaps heirs apparent and senior nobility.

Communications:

1. Editor-in-Chief—You would be in charge of all communications projects, including periodicals, books, websites, and others. Largely supervisory in nature, you would allocate human and financial resources as seem fit.
2. Omnibus Advertising Manager—You would be responsible for soliciting and organizing advertising for The Augustan Omnibus, working with the Production Editor to develop designs and artwork as needed.
3. Omnibus Assistant Editors—You would be responsible for working with contributors under the direction of the Omnibus Editor, preparing articles for publication. Duties may be expanded to include formatting for printing.
4. Omnibus Review Editor—You would either write or delegate reviews of books collected for the Library. Some books would be drop-shipped, others sent out from Headquarters; all would need to be returned. You would also be invited to recommend book purchases.
5. Omnibus Memoriam Writer—You would with the Omnibus Editor to create advanced versions of obituaries for senior members of the Society and select members of royalty/nobility. Some digital research might be involved to notate a list of an individual's performed charitable works, accomplishments, and honors awarded.
6. Book Editors—You would adopt one of the book proposals and edit that title, working with the Books Editor, Production Editor, and the Marketing Committee.
7. Book Editor—Colonial Families of America, a compilation of a series of the same title published in The Colonial Genealogist from 1970 to 1996. You would edit these to current standards, including any corrections or additions. Contact HQ.
8. Book Editor—The Childes Family of Virginia, a compilation of a number of articles on this topic published in The Colonial Genealogist and The Augustan. You would edit these to current standards, including any corrections or additions, possibly merging them all into a coherent whole. Contact HQ.

Technology

1. Assistant Webmaster for Main Site—You would assist the Webmaster by creating forms, generating mailing lists, and other technical tasks. Experience with CMS is helpful, but not required.
2. Webmaster for Wiki—You would take responsibility for the Staff Wiki on our server, making updates and being responsible for maintenance and assisting officers of the Society in making updates (which could range from proofreading to formatting to writing the material for them). Familiarity with WikiMedia is needed. Note: The Wiki presently has over 700 pages.
3. Assistant Webmaster for the Store—You would be responsible for transferring all of the items in our Online Store to the main web site. Due to the two systems being incompatible, it appears this needs to be done manually. Thus the prime requirements ares patience and attention to detail.
4. Technical Writer—You would work to build a user's guide to our new web site, using the obsolete and incomplete guide published by the vendor as a starting point. Staff support will be available. Contact HQ.
5. Library Catalog Technician—You would assist the Librarian in maintaining the Koha-based library catalog and supporting Linux server. Contact HQ.
6. Postmaster—Would be in charge of setting up and maintaining the email forwarding system using "25Mail.St", and helping to decommission the existing Postfix server.

Library:

1. Library Committee Chairman—You would provide direction and oversight to Library programs, including accessions, the classification system, cataloging, and deaccessions. You need not be located near Headquarters for this role, but it would be advatageous if you could make occasional visits.
2. Library Accessions Chairam—You would work with the Librarian to create lists of desired titles to add to the collection, and to obtain same within the limits of the budget, giving due deference to recommendations of the various Committees and Study Groups.
3. Library Deaccession and Sales—You would work with the Librarian to determine which items in the collection are surplus or inappropriate, and organize their sale to support additional acquisitions.

Administration

1. Legal Committee Member—Florida and California bar members particularly needed.
2. Candidates for election to the Board of Directors—Contact the Nominating Committee Chairman or Headquarters to volunteer. You need not wait for the annual election cycle or an invitation.
3. Assistant Treasurer—Would receive scans of financial documents and load them into our accounting software, sending reports and occasioal backups to HQ. This position is elected annually by the Board upon the nomination of the Treasurer. This could be a temporary post while the present officeholder recovers from surgery. If permanent, a change of software is possible with the Treasurer's approval.
4. Sales Manager --Would make pricing and stocking decisions about material sold from the Online Store. You would be responsible for advertising items for sale, including the production of topical flyers for inclusion with sales and other opportunities. Actual production and shipping would continue to be handled by Headquarters Staff. Contact HQ.
5. Custodian of Insignia --- When orders are received at Headquarters, they would be relayed to you for shipping. You would hold the insignia, and provide an annual inventory and monthly statements of your expenses for reimbursement. Contact HQ.

For more information about any of these positions, or to volunteer, please contact Headquarters or the President; we would be delighted to tell you more about them.