Recruit
Involving All Ages & Skill Levels
Each age group is going to need to be reached differently. We all have different motivations for setting aside time to serve on projects like these. You'll want to make sure that you have something that everyone can do to contribute. Consider the following:
Age/Skill Level: Are they quick learners? Are they going to be afraid of making mistakes?
Time Commitment: How many hours per week that they contribute? Do they work best with shorter bursts through the week or longer activities once a week?
Equipment: Do they have personal computers/devices? Do you have laptops to loan out? Will all efforts need to be done in a lab?
Membership: Do you have volunteers of other faith backgrounds? Does everyone have a FamilySearch account?
Familiarity: How familiar are your volunteers with the community you're working in?
Children
Invite Classes as a Whole to Participate during or after church
Have parents bring their children when they come
Youth
Utilize Circles and/or Social Media platforms
Mutual Activities, Camps, Seminary Challenges
Adults
Direct Invitations
Ward Email Lists
Ward Facebook Page
FamilySearch Center Activities
Free Tools
Canva.com
This website has lots of free social media and poster templates to help create a eye-catching design to help recruit.
Places to Recruit
Local Family History Expos
Many communities are now starting to organize local family history expos where they can help connect people and is a great way to recruit for community projects. Most attendees have time or specialties that would be excellent for yours! If you currently don't have an expo, you can organize one yourself!
FamilySearch Centers
FamilySearch Centers as well as local Family History library can be a great networking tool as well as a hub for resources
Ward/Youth Activites
Ask your mutual leaders if you can have an activity to help on your project. Or you can ask to announce the project in their classes for a few weeks to recruit volunteers. Ward parties are a great way to connect with lots of ages and skill level as well.
5th Sunday lessons
Speak with your T&FH leader and see if you can help or speak at a 5th Sunday lesson about your project.
Newsletters
There are newsletters all over your community that have connections with tons of people. Some examples include: ward/stake newsletters, FamilySearch Center newsletters, local genealogy group newsletters.
Personal Invites
Don't forget the power of a one-on-one invitation. This a great way to hear about people's skill sets and trepidations first hand and find a great place for them to help in your project.
Justserve
Post a request for help to recruit others. Be specific and link to a video or website that explains more.
Newspaper
Many newspapers and mailers have a community calendar or announcements section. If they have space, they may even put you in for free! Classifieds are less noticed, but may be effective depending on your project and audience.
Social Media
Simply find out where your target audience is and start asking questions. This is one of the best ways to find people in bigger areas to help on projects.
Community Events
Start volunteering at different local events and you'll be surprised by how quickly you'll find volunteers that want to help out on your project too!
Handling Pushback
Pushback is inevitable when recruiting. So it's best to prepare for it. Here are some of the most common things we hear with community projects:
"You're not supposed to work outside of your tree"
"Projects like these just create duplicates"
"I don't want you baptizing my ancestors"
"I don't have time"
We've found that some of these responses can be good at handling these situations:
"You're just the kind of person we are looking for to help train our volunteers!"
"Can I show you our process on this project so that you can give me pointers/advice?"
"In reguards to policy, we are not taking unrelated names to the temple. We are simply attaching sources and working within all established guidelines of the family tree. But we do have handy tools that let us know if the families we're helping are related directly to us so that we can print off ordinance cards. It's really fun, you should come help and see if you might be able to find some cousins you didn't know about!"
"We believe that at Christ's second coming, he will have a feast for all those who wish to attend. We are trying to make sure everyone has an invitation to that feast. All living and deceased persons have their agency to accept that invitation. But we are making sure all are invited."
"Good news! We have ways to help that only take 30 seconds!"