Prepping for MAAGI

Syllabi Prepared for the Inaugural MAAGI - Genealogy Institute in St. Louis

I must admit, that I am so excited!

After more than a year of planning the first Midwestern African American Genealogy Institute will unfold. The idea came out of conversations with a handful of people about 18 months ago, and now, a year and a half later, the institute will no longer be an idea, but an idea whose time has come.

Known unofficially as MAAGI, July 9 - 12th  promise to be exciting with speakers from the Atlantic to the pacific and attendees from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico, and from Baltimore to Burbank.

I have been working with many of the speakers and also getting myself prepared for this event and as I am working on those last minute details (tweaking power point presentations) the days get closer and closer. I am excited to be on a program with people of many talents, and MAAGI will provide an opportunity for many of us to meet people whom we have known online in Social Media.  The talent of the speakers is a cadre of leaders in the genealogy community and I am honored to share this event with them.

The institute will be hosted on the campus of Harris-Stowe State University in Mid-town St. Louis, and the event promises to be an exciting one.

I had the honor of working with Institute director, Charles Brown who is also President of the St. Louis African American History and Genealogy Society. He is one who is organized, and knows how to get things done. Thanks to him and a team of dedicated coordinators of the tracks, we have a dynamic group of faculty memnbers. Eveyone  will all arrive in St. Louis on Monday with classes unfolding on Tuesday morning. Several of us will be blogging and posting images on the Facebook, Twitter and beyond.

MAAGI now has a Facebook page, and one can simply join the group and follow us next week as many of us will be live blogging from the Institute.

I am so excited as I pack and get ready to leave and to go and meet new friends in St. Louis!