Executive Committee Meeting Minutes 30 January 2011 | Bennion News | Forum

January 30, 2011

The meeting was held at John Bennion’s home, 2166 Parleys Terrace, Salt Lake City, Utah on January 30, 2011 commencing at 7:00 p.m.  In attendance were John E. Bennion (President) , David Sharp (Treasurer), Helen Madsen, Don Bennion, Julie Goodro (Secretary), and Gwyneth McNeil.  The opening prayer was offered by Julie. The minutes of the previous meeting, held April 18, 2010, were reviewed and approved.

The Executive Committee voted to appoint two new members to the Committee – Don Udell Bennion and Gwyneth McNeil.  We extend a warm welcome to them.

Brenda Bennion Barker (brendapar at comcast.net) joined the meeting via telephone from Manteca, California to report on her efforts in updating the Bennion family genealogy as contained in the New Family Search database at the Family History Center of the LDS Church.  A lengthy discussion ensued.  Brenda and Helen are working together to resolve as many of the issues as possible, and all changes are being submitted to Family History HQ by both Brenda and Helen under the name of Helen, as she is recognized by them as the primary Bennion family representative.  Family members who would like to help are encouraged to do the following:

1. Use the GEDCOM file on the BFA website as the “true” document.

2. Examine Bennion data in New Family Search for consistency with the “true” document.

3. If and when discrepancies are found, Family members should contact Brenda for coordination to avoid duplication, and further instructions on how to proceed.

Dave reported on a meeting that he and John had with Charmaine Roper of the LDS Family History Department in which the Bennions were designated as a “Pioneer Family”, which implies that special attention will be paid to their records to clean them up and avoid further duplication.  David will give Charmaine’s contact information to Brenda. 

Gwyneth reported on her personal efforts on http://www.geni.com, a public website for establishing and expanding family trees.  A discussion ensued.  Geni has certain advantages (ease of use, linkages to other family trees), but also certain disadvantages (membership control, data quality control, no ability to include temple ordinance data, membership fee required for full access).  She will provide to the Committee a written summary of the status of the Bennion Family Tree on Geni, which will then be posted on the BFA website along with a link to Geni.  The Committee thanked Gwyneth for her work on this important project which helps link our genealogical information to the outside world, and establishes expanded possibilities for further cooperation.

The Committee reviewed the recently updated http://www.bennion.org.  Several enhancements were suggested, including:

- A note asking family members who have genealogical data which differs from or adds to the currently posted GEDCOM file to contact our Committee.

- Addition of pedigree charts and/or family group records that contain photos.

- Addition of more stories regarding the early descendants of John & Samuel.

- Links to additional Bennion-related websites / blogs.

- Offering Bennion Family Volume 1 books (of which the family has a full storage unit) for free to family members willing to pick them up, or for $5 per book for shipping if needed.

David gave a brief informal financial update since the last board meeting.  Approximately $4700 have been spent on improving the website, approximately $450 on our storage unit for Bennion Family Volume 1 books, and a bank account balance of approximately $51,000.

John reported on the status of the project to refund deposits received several years ago (totaling approximately $15,000) for reprints of the Bennion Family Volume 2 book, which project has been cancelled.  A master mailing list containing about 300 names of people who made deposits is ready, and a corresponding letter was presented and approved, but John would like to postpone the mailing until:

- The project to enter all the data from Bennion Family Volume 2 into Personal Ancestral File (PAF) software is completed (see below);

- Daniel Bennion (developer of new Bennion website) completes a project to make Volumes 3 and 4 available for hard-bound book printing at http://www.lulu.com;

- We are prepared to send a mass mailing to all Bennion addresses announcing the updated site.  

John’s laptop was stolen last summer, so he lost the master address file sent to him by Steve Bennion.  John will contact Steve to get another copy.  Following lengthy discussion, it was moved, seconded, and unanimously approved to let John proceed with the project as outlined above. 

John provided an update on digitizing Bennion Family Vol. 2 book into PAF.  Stephanie Draper has been hired to enter the data into PAF for 35 cents/name (approximately $1500).  The project is about halfway finished and going smoothly.  It will become a “living” document – names can be added as births, marriages, and deaths occur in the greater Bennion family.  The Committee will develop a quality control mechanism as additions are submitted.  David will send to Stephanie Draper a second $350 progress payment, as she is currently about halfway through with about 2500 names entered.  

John mentioned that he is going to England in early April and may be able to visit some Bennion sites and/or relatives.  Helen said that she has met 18 relatives in Wales, and will send John a note with her experiences and contact information.  Gwyneth’s brother was also in Wales recently, and she will also send John a summary.

In “other business”, the Committee discussed producing a master catalog of Bennion books and documents available in libraries at BYU, University of Utah, and the Utah Historical Society.  No decision was made.

We discussed the Bennion monument at the Bennion homestead site near Vernon, Utah.  Don said that he would send to John a map of how to find it, so that John can put it on the website.

The next Committee meeting was not scheduled, but we agreed to try to meet quarterly, or at least semi-annually.

Don offered the closing prayer and the meeting adjourned at 8:30 p.m.

Sondra Bennion provided a most excellent yogurt cake for refreshments.

Respectfully submitted,

Julie N. Goodro, Secretary

David:

• Send $350 progress check #2 to Stephanie Draper for work on Bennion Vol. 2.
• Work with Helen to preserve her immense reservoir of knowledge.
• Give Charmaine’s contact information to Brenda B. Parker.

David & John:  

• Conduct inventory of the Bennion Family storage unit.

Helen:  

• Continue working with Brenda B. Parker on New Family Search
• Send to John her information about Bennions in England and Wales

Gwyneth:

• Produce paragraph for BFA website regarding Geni.com.
• Send to John her brother’s information about Bennions in England and Wales.

Don:

• Send Bennion monument map to John

John:

• Work with Daniel to put Bennion Volumes 3 and 4 on Lulu.com.
• Work with Daniel on possible implementation of BFA suggested improvements.
• Work with Stephanie to finish entering Volume 2 into PAF
• Contact Steve Bennion to get master Bennion mailing list
• Finalize and execute refund mailer
• Draft letter for mass mailing to master Bennion mailing list

Julie:

• Keep doing the minutes