nomination letter

OGS Volunteer of the Year Nomination Letter

Outstanding OGS Chapter Volunteer

I would like to nominate Donald Rogier for Outstanding OGS Volunteer of the Year. Unlike some volunteers, Don has done nothing extra this year for the Society and genealogy. That is because he has perennially given 150% to the chapter. Since the Seneca County Genealogical Society was founded in 1981, Don has been an active and hardworking member every single year, without exception.

He has been Treasurer and President for several terms and served on the Executive Committee for almost the entire life of the Society. For two strenuous years, he simultaneously held the office of President and was the editor of the newsletter, Seneca Searchers. He has been editor since 1994 and consistently produced an excellent and well-balanced newsletter every two months on time, loaded with original material and professional-looking.

A retired principal, his skill at educating is obvious in the lengthy articles he writes which summarize the Society meetings. For members unable to attend, these articles are truly an excellent substitution, which Don has provided for over 10 years, even before he became newsletter editor.

Besides holding offices, Don, and his wife, Shirley, are the first to step forward when volunteers are needed. They organized the hospitality suite for the last OGS conference in Toledo. They helped man booths at the Seneca County Heritage Festival and County Fair and OGS conference. Don has copied tombstones when the Society did the cemetery book. He recorded church records when it did the inventory. He worked on the 1870 and 1880 census index and other publications. He personally loaded his van with old wills and estates and helped move thousands of these case files to another location so that these valuable records would not be discarded. He has missed fewer than 10 meetings in 20 years.

Don is the " go-to" man when a level head is needed. His fairness is an attribute hard to quantify, but priceless especially when the Society has a tempest in a teapot, to which all groups are prone. His input is always respected and usually heeded.

Don looks beyond the county lines and regularly attends the OGS conference and frequently other local and national meetings. He then reports back to the Society to encourage others to participate.

No, Don Rogier has not done anything particularly special this year, but he has consistently been someone special for the entire life of the Society and that, indeed, makes him our nomination for Outstanding Volunteer of the Year.

Rebecca Hill, Fellow, OGS
and the Seneca County Chapter,
Ohio Genealogical Society
15 January 2001