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Becoming a Co-Administrator at your Surname DNA Project
23 Dec 2006

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The new Becoming a Project Administrator page is located here.

 

This subject gets mentioned a lot.  What does it mean to be the Admin or Co-Admin of a Surname DNA Project?  As there are more than 3500 active Surname DNA Projects at this stage, ranging from "beginning projects" with a single order, to extremely large projects with 100s of members - it can mean a lot of different things.  There are many ways to run a project and most of them are effective.  Passion, focus, enthusiasm and a willingness to learn are very important. 

We at World Families Network (WFN) are working to distill our learning from running a number of Surname projects, including the 180+ man Barton DNA Project, into something useful for you.  These answers are tailored to give answers for those becoming a Co-Admin on a project hosted at World Families Network, using the leading testing company - Family Tree DNA (FTDNA).

Let’s start at the beginning.  Is your desired Surname available for you to manage? 

  • The Surname Project
    • needs to be already active at World Families Network (click search to see if your desired project comes up in the right hand column of the Search results)
    • Or there needs to be no surname project at either WFN or at FTDNA.  In this situation, we will set one up.  (However, we will not knowingly compete with an existing surname project at FTDNA)
  • If the project is a "WFN" Project and it already has a Co-Admin (other than Rich or me), we will discuss with the existing Admin(s) their willingness to add you as another Co-Admin
  • If the project based at FTDNA is already being run by someone else and isn't associated with WFN, we are unable to help you.  (You'll need to contact that Admin directly)

Here are the perfect attributes for a Surname DNA Project Administrator. 
Before you panic – this is in jest.  I doubt that any Surname Admin even comes close to meeting these requirements

  • Knows every researcher in the surname and all of the associated spelling variations
  • Knows all of the family histories, the theories on how they tie together, how the surnames evolved over time and where the questionable links are in each pedigree
  • Completely understands the use of DNA as it applies to understanding the surname’s genealogy
  • Is completely humble, very patient and never makes a mistake
  • Has an unlimited amount of time to devote to this project
  • Is able to create a fabulous website in one sitting
  • Has unlimited funds to help pay for testing

Now – let’s talk about reality.  Here’s what we expect from a Co-Admin:

  • An interest and willingness to learn
  • An enthusiasm for working with the issues of the entire surname grouping
  • An ability to contact and communicate with the other researchers in the family
  • A basic understanding of genealogy and the issues researchers face
  • An interest in learning how to compile the genealogy and integrate it with the dna-learning created by the project
  • A desire to share the knowledge gained
  • As much of the “Perfect Attributes” as you happen to have

Here are the resources that you will have as an Admin at a WFN-based Surname Project

  • Our Project Administrator Guidelines - written to help you learn as you go.  Click Here
  • Access to the FTDNA Group Administrator Pages (GAP) which have a wealth of general information and the specifics about every project participant and his test results.  (this information is confidential and we expect you to respect the privacy of each participant and to not share this code with other researchers)
  • A 6 page website just for this project based at World Families Network.  (The page navigation is in the rectangles across the top.)
  • Edit access to your Surname 6 Page Website through a tool called SiteBuilder that is built into the edit system
  • A Pedigree Forum for your Surname at http://wfnforum.net
  • A Family Forum for any discussion your family wishes to carry on at that site - also at http://wfnforum.net
  • Our support and coaching

Here’s a fairly typical progression of duties (but this can be flexible to meet your own skills, time and interest.  Co-Admins progress through these stages in a different ways)

  1. Work with the various surname families and their researchers.  If you can get “each family” to post their pedigree and to have a dna representative in the project, you have a wonderful start.

  2. Editor access to the FTDNA administration page and to the WFN sites so that you can customize the project to your needs – and to the specific issues that your surname families face.

  3. Post the pedigrees and results and keep them correlated

  4. Assume the lead role in understanding the dna results in your surname and answering questions from your participants

  5. Fully take over management of the Project and/or start training a co-admin of your own

My role becomes coach as you gradually take over.  Still Interested?

Contact Terry Barton for more information.
(Please identify the surname(s) that you are interested in working with.)
 

And, here are some Q&As

  1. What is the time commitment?  It is as little or as much as you choose to give.  A modest sized project will probably take 2-10 hours per week.  It depends on how hard you work and how many other people you can get involved to help create the interest and bring in the families.  Recruiting and answering questions will take the bulk of your time.  Smaller projects which are allowed to develop at their own pace, with very modest recruiting efforts, probably take only 1-2 hours a week.

  2. What kind of Computer Knowledge do you need?  You need to be able to navigate and use the resources available on the internet.  It will be helpful if you are able to create a word document.  You'll also find that working with an Excel (or similar) spreadsheet will be very helpful - but it's not critical.  You do not need to be able to program or to create a website.

  3. Are there other ways to become involved?  Yes, you can be a volunteer helper to the admin - doing only what you choose and when you choose.  You can also become a "Line Leader", with responsibility for recruiting the appropriate members of your paper trail family, resolving genealogy conflicts, and becoming a resource for other researchers in your own family.  Again, the time commitment is up to you.

  4. Can I manage more than one Surname Project?  Yes - we have Co-Admins who manage 6-8 surname projects.

  5. Do I have to be associated with WFN to use one of your websites?  No.  We will set up our website structure for you upon request.  The website is free and the requirements are modest.  If you prefer to take a project we have already established and operate it it at another site - that is fine.

  6. Why are you doing this?  We do this because we love doing it.  We are proud to provide a service to the genetic community be helping surname projects get started - that might not otherwise be started - or that might not get the support that we can provide.

  7. What is it that are you actually doing?  We are setting up Surname DNA Projects at Family Tree DNA where they do not already exist.  This is a service that we are pleased to provide – as no one has stepped forward from the families to do it.  However, most of the Surname Projects that we set up are not our ancestral surnames.  Our goal is to find 1 or 2 people who are interested in the Surname DNA Project who will gradually (or immediately) take over the management of the project.   We do not have time to promote the project, so it is up to the participants to help do that.  The more people involved, the better chance of finding your genetic family and breaking down your blank wall.

  8. What if I want to manage a Surname Project at a different testing Company?  You will need to make that arrangement with them.  Our sites are for Surname Projects based at FTDNA.  We do allow results from other testing companies to be posted on our Results page.. (The admins of WFN-based projects may also manage the same surname project activity at another testing company.  Any admin doing this is expected to discuss this arrangement with us.)

  9. Do you make any money from doing this?  Yes, we do - but not enough to compensate us for our time and effort.  Our goal is to earn enough that we can continue providing this service from now on.

  10. How do you make your money?  Presently, our income is from modest payments we receive from FTDNA, who values our service.  Our compensation is correlated to kit sales, which makes sense to us - as the more people who test their dna, the more help there is to genealogy.  We have several ideas for additional services that we expect to provide, but these are not ready to discuss.

  11. If you get paid based on volume, does this make you encourage excessive testing?   We try very hard to avoid that.  I regularly suggest that an additional close family member not be tested and work to encourage folks to test the appropriate representatives of a family at the appropriate level of markers.  Our philosophy is to make the same recommendations to you that we would make to our own beloved elderly aunt, favorite cousin, best friend or next door neighbor.  You will regularly hear me encourage folks to test at the higher marker levels - if they can afford it - as 12 markers are generally not sufficient for genealogical purposes.  

  12. What if I want a Surname Project that you have set up - but I don't want you to be involved.  That is your decision.  If that is what you want, we will turn over the project to you and discontinue our involvement.

  13. But, what if I want to keep your website and not have you involved?  That is possible, too.  We will allow you to keep the 6 Page Project site, Pedigree Page and Forum Page. (we have modest (and fair) requirements for this)

 

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Last Published: 07/30/2005 09:27:16

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