It feels good, brethren, to have accomplished this much in a year. Our primary goal in 1998 has been to obtain the hardware and personnel we need, or to "Get Big." Our goal for 1999 is to "Get Smart," or get the training, software, and genealogical finding aids we need to allow stake members to effectively research their kindred dead. By 1 Jan 1999 we’ll have 6 computers that can run the church’s FamilySearch programs. However, we own FamilySearch CD-ROMs for only two of the six computers.

The fact that we have FamilySearch software for only two of six computers is an obstacle which blocks us from our goal, which is to train classes of Sunday school students, Relief Society members, Elders’ Quorum members, High Priests, Young Women, and Scouts in the use of the FamilySearch programs. Judging from the experiences of other stakes, this should greatly spark temple attendance and the reactivation of inactive members. In order that we may teach groups of stake members in 1999, we want to spend $400 on 4 more sets of FamilySearch CDs, and $180 for the sleeves and caddies that will protect them. These sleeves and caddies probably seem expensive, but they last. We tried using cheaper sleeves and caddies in 1997, and they broke within 2 months. Together, the CDs, sleeves, and caddies are $580. This is the largest chunk of our budget, and the most important.

A Family History Center’s usefulness is directly tied to the quality of its collection of genealogical finding aids. Our collection is horrible. We own not one of the finding aids which are most basic to genealogical research today. Inasmuch as finding aids help one determine which records he should be ordering from Salt Lake, the fact that we have none cripples our library. I’ve itemized the cost of a basic set of finding aids; it is $393. This is another large chunk of our budget, but it is a vital one.

Have you seen the Family History Center lately, brethren? Our room is too small for the machines we have, let alone for the two more computers we’ll have next month. Currently, there is no room for a researcher to place his open notebook as he uses his pedigrees to help him search out his people on the computer or enter them into PAF. When the two other computers come, we won’t even have room for a mouse by the computers. We need more room, brethren. Now, we don’t want to have to permanently appropriate the room across the hall; it is part of the baptismal room, and besides, its folding door is not secure enough to guard our machines against vandals. We have a good solution, though. We want eight rolling tables, 48" L x 24" W x 29" H. Five will house our film and fiche machines, and three will serve as a central work table, which will replace the round table we currently use. When we open the Family History Center, we can roll all our film and fiche machines to the room across the hall. Housing our film and fiche machines on rolling tables will open up the tables these machines are currently on, allowing an ideal amount of room between our nine computers. The three other rolling tables, which will serve as a central work area, can be moved to the room across the hall when we need extra room in the Center to teach computer classes or Sunday school. Staples sells tables whose legs we can hacksaw in order to make them the right height after we add casters to them. These tables will cost a little more than the $400 I’ve budgeted.

Now that we have hardware, we must maintain it. We need spare printer ribbons and toner cartridges for all the printers and the copier. Although the PM group is charged with maintaining our printers, we are responsible for our photocopier’s maintenance. As old as our photocopier is, we will need to replace it in the year 2000, so please brace yourselves for the budget proposal we will give you next year, for it will include the cost of a new copier. Parenthetically, I should mention that putting off a large portion of the items of the 1999 budget for purchase in 2000 will bite us in the rear, because we will need a copier in 2000, and it will not come cheaply. As old as our current copier is, we ought to have a full service contract this year, but instead have budgeted only a service overhaul. Even so, this and a couple bottles of toner will cost us $250, and the printer ribbons and toner will be $133, for a total of $383.

We’re doing everything we can to save money, and one of the things we’d like to do is reduce our equipment service costs. Normally, it is smart to have heavily-used printers cleaned once a year. We currently use 6 printers, and will need to hook up two more when we get the computers that are coming next month. We don’t want to spend $400+ per year to clean them. We’d also like to save room in our center by reducing the number of printers. We’ve found a solution that will accomplish both goals. We want to use printer switchboxes and cables to allow each printer to be shared by two computers. This means we would need only four printers for eight computers. This would reduce our printer cleaning bill by about 50% per year. The cables and switchboxes, which cost $210, would pay for themselves within a year, and would save us hundreds of dollars per year thereafter.

Last year, as you know, I budgeted only $100 for office supplies, and ended up spending $400 out of our $500 budget on them. This year, we won’t need as many supplies, because we already have much of what we need. I’ve submitted a low estimate; $215.

As you have heard in Conference, the church is producing new LDS databases which are so inexpensive and valuable that it would be foolish not to purchase them. These records are so good that if a professional genealogist were researching for a client and did not find the client’s ancestor because he hadn’t searched these databases, he could be successfully sued. They are definitely worth the cost, which is $119.

We’d like the center’s atmosphere to reflect the purpose and goals behind family history work. The rest of the building is adorned with framed prints of Christ and the temples. We’d like to begin to cover our center’s naked walls with four framed prints, which, it appears, will easily cost the $200 I’ve budgeted.

I realize, brethren, that this 1999 budget is high. We have come a long way on donations this year, but we need to get over a big hump in the road to become an effective center which will involve hundreds of stake members and inactive saints each month. Understand that with this large budget, I am not trying to set some precedent for high stake expenditures in the future: Many of these items are one-shot deals which, once they’re paid for, won’t need to appear in future budgets. These items are the FamilySearch disks and caddies, the finding aids, switchboxes and cables, printer toner and cartridges, framed prints, and rolling tables, which total $1966 out of the $2528 budget. This leaves $562 a year that we’ll need for regular operations once we’re over this hump. As you know, I submitted a $1500 budget extension proposal early this year to cover many of these same items. This hump won’t go away, but once we’re over it, we’re over it, and we’ll need only around $562 a year after that.

To rate whether the Family History Center merits this large an expenditure, it might be instructive to see whether we’re using our resources wisely, whether we’re getting plenty of bang for the buck. To do this, I’ve compared our statistics this year with those in 1994. Unfortunately, the only month we can use to compare our relative efficiency is April, for this is the only month in which a 1994 report survives. Using the 1994 annual budget of $690 and April’s total of 78.5 patron hours, it is clear that the stake spent $.73 for each patron/hour in April. This means that for each hour a stake member used the center, the stake paid $.73. Using the 1998 budget total of $500 and April’s total of 225.75 patron hours, it becomes clear that in 1998 the stake spent only $.18 per patron/hour. This April, we pulled in over 2 ½ times the stake members pulled in during 1994. We did it with 28% less money, and without being able to train stake and ward members how to do genealogy. Think what we could accomplish next year if we got the resources we needed for training and effective research!

Thanks for your time, brethren. I cannot express how thankful I am for being called to serve as our center’s director. This calling has improved me spiritually and professionally. It has brought me closer to Christ and closer to the wonderful people I’ve served with. It has forced me to learn how to serve, inspire, lead, organize, and delegate many people at a time. It has increased my desire to read scriptures, pray, and visit the temple more often. If I could give these new feelings to just one other stake member, it would be worth the work it has required, but I thank our Savior and thank you that I am asked and called and enabled to reach many more people than that. Thank you for letting me do it.
 
Sincerely,
 
 
Michael T. Ritchey

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