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Becoming a Project Administrator or Co-Administrator
updated 18Feb2007
See also our
Administrator
Information page for more resources on project
administration.
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.
These answers are tailored to give answers for those
becoming a Project Administrator or Co-Administrator on a project
hosted at World Families Network, using the leading testing company
- Family Tree DNA (FTDNA).
To find out if you
can set or manage a project at WFN, 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 skills
you need to be a Project Administrator or Co-Administrator:
- 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
- An ability to type (two-finger
hunt and peck is fine) and a basic knowledge of using computers.
- As many 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 Guide - written to
help you learn as you go.
- 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.
(See
the Waddell Project website as an example.)
- 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.
Administrators and Co-Administrators progress through these stages
in a different ways)
-
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.
-
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.
-
Post the pedigrees and results and
keep them correlated
-
Assume the lead role in
understanding the dna results in your surname and answering
questions from your participants
-
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.)
[back to top]
Q & A
And, here are
some common questions we receive from potential Project
Administrators
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Can I manage more than one
Surname Project? Yes - we have Co-Admins who manage 6-8
surname projects.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.)
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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)
back to top
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
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