Dear all,

I regret to inform you that I have to give up my jobs as editor of the
Newsletter and as moderator. I have also had to give up various other jobs
both for JewishGen and for some Danish genealogical societies and journals.

For a couple of years my health has not been very good, but I have been
able to keep up the steam and get things done thanks to constant
medication. However, my doctor has now put her foot down and told me to
stop the medication, both because it is not good to be on constant
medication (cortisone) and also because we need to find out precisely what
is ailing me and what to do about it.

I know one thing that is ailing me: I feel very bad having to quit after
three years! But as I am getting too old to ignore my doctor's advice,
there was no alternative.

Besides the restructure of the Index-page which I have uploaded today:

http://www.jewishgen.org/belarus/newsletter/bnl_index.htm

I will finish the articles I have accepted. They will appear as soon as I
can get everything done. So some new articles will appear in the coming
months.

But I will not accept any new articles, those will have to be sent to the
new editor.

The problem though:
Who will take over the editorial job?

Another problem is:
Who will take on my part of moderation?

The Belarus SIG has experienced an incredible growth in information,
databases, subscribers to the mailing list, and the website is almost
exploding. (Thanks to Edward Rosenbaum's skilled webmastering, it is
still easy to find what you want!).

But we have actually been very few behind the scenes. If you want the
Belarus SIG go prevail, expand and get still more databases online etc. I
would ask you to please consider to volunteer to help.

I can promise you that you will not regret it. During these three years I
have not only learned a lot >from my jobs, but I have also got friends all
over the world. Furthermore, moderating gave me the necessity of reading
all the messages -- previously I had postponed it and left tons of e-mails
for perusal on a rainy day. What a lot I missed then!

So please write to me and/or David Fox if you would like to help.
Write what you think you are good at, what you do in daily life, if you
are an experienced computer user (what programs?), and, of course, what
you would like to do. There are lots of vacancies -- or should I say a lot
of things are waiting to be done before it can get out to everybody.

EDITOR:

As for the editorial job: You need to have some experience as a
journalist, editor or the like and knowledge of copyright-law! If you
can also HTML-encode (~layout) for the Newsletter-webpage it would be
good (there are templates that should make it easy).

However, if you have no experience in HTML-encoding, that does not matter,
so that should not keep you >from volunteering.

When the Newsletter started Bryan Polikoff was the editor, and I was the
HTML-encoder (given the title of assistant editor <G>). And I think that
it is best if there are more than one to do the job. So one can be the
editor and the other the HTML-encoder, all the while working together
with all it takes (evaluating, editing, proof-reading, layouting etc --
but also making sure to get new articles!).

Estelle Nemoy will continue as co-editor, but cannot take on the
responsibility because of her work. Lori Miller is still on the list of
the Newsletter Team, but she has very much else to do, so she has only
been called upon when absolutely necessary.


MODERATOR:

As for moderating: Joanne Saltman and Paula Ziselmann will continue
without me. But it would be good to have another moderator, so that the
shifts could be lighter.

It is not difficult to moderate - it is learned quickly, so if you write
e-mails and use the Internet, you can do the job.
(This is certainly not written to belittle the value of the job!!
-- on the contrary!)

An estimate of the work load is about ½-1 hour a day. It depends very much
on how kind the authors of the messages are (i.e. if they remember to play
by the rules), and of course also on the traffic - some days there are but
one or two messages, other days there might be up to twenty.

It is urgent that these vacancies be filled out as soon as possible.

But do remember that there are need for many more!

I am confident that among the approx. 1,500 members of out SIG there must
be someone who will volunteer. The number of Belarus-volunteers has on
average not exceeded 1%! The more we are working together, the lighter the
work-load will be, and the more we can get done!

So please do not hesitate to volunteer!

Write to me: elsebeth@...

or "David M. Fox" <fox@...>

We can also answer questions you might have before volunteering.

All my best wishes to all of you

- and thanks for all your kindness and support during the past three years
- and a very special thanks to David Fox, Risa Heywood, Mike Meshenberg,
Edward Rosenbaum, Joanne Saltman and Paula Ziselman, I will miss working
with them.

---
(I am, of course, still a member of Belarus SIG, and I plan eventually to
get back to work for Belarus SIG, but I must take a shorter or longer
leave right now).
---

Elsebeth Paikin, Copenhagen, Denmark,
e-mail: elsebeth@...
--