CGSI Blog Goals for 2021

I love the freshness of a brand new year. The hope, the promise, the possibilities that lie ahead waiting to be seized.

In case you were not aware, CGSI has long had the following mission statement:  

Czechoslovak Genealogical Society International (CGSI) is the leader in providing educational, cultural, historical, and genealogical resources, with a special emphasis in providing opportunities for our members to discover their heritage.

I strongly believe in CGSI's mission statement, and that the blog holds the key to fulfilling this promise to the world. Our new website is the first face that most people will see when they deal with CGSI. It is the way that we can truly put the "International" in CGSI. The website has been in the works for a long, long time. All of the people involved have put in countless volunteer hours trying to organize, create, and deploy something that will propel us into the new decade. While the previous website was a leader in its day, everybody in the executive committee agreed that it needed an upgrade. When I took the marketing chair position three years ago, this was the first suggestion I made: update the website to make it more user-friendly, and include a blog to draw in traffic. Well! The time has finally arrived. I am so deeply honored to be the curator for our new blog.

Part of me worries about the time commitment of this volunteer job. I am a busy woman with many forces tugging on my time: family, graduate school, work, home, etc. Why would I choose to commit a sizable part of my free time to bringing the world fresh content that has to do with the cultural heritage and history of the Czech lands? What is in it for me?

There is deep joy in helping others connect with their family. I feel a sense of pleasure and fulfillment with every genealogy problem I help solve, every record I help transcribe and translate, and most of all, by connecting with other people who care about our shared history. Quite frankly, I just love it. I don't know where this love comes from, but I'll take it! It's a good thing in my life, and if 2020 has taught us anything, isn't it that we should seize on the good things available to us!

I have been blogging since 2008. I know that it's easy to get excited about a project and then just drop it when it becomes inconvenient. I also know that there's nothing quite like public accountability through "meta-blogging" (blogging about blogging) to keep me motivated. In fact, when I finish with this post, I'll probably quickly jump over to my personal blog (Czech Out Your Ancestors) and write some New Year's Blogging Resolutions there, too, for good measure. 

Here are my personal goals for our new blog:

1. Have multiple posts per week. I think this is a doable goal. It allows for some flexibility, too.

2. Reach out to somebody every week about writing a guest post. (Interested in writing something? Scroll down to our "Submit A Post" section here!) Framing this goal this way allows for me to have success even when people reject or ignore me. 

That's it. Really - it could be so much longer. But I think this is enough to start with!

Czech Genealogy is an endless well of interest for me. I hope that I will be successful in my efforts to share this deep, lasting interest with you. 

Se srdečným pozdravem,

Kate Challis, CGSI Blog Curator