• Create buzz by tying your project to a Facebook page and a Project website. Web sites are dirt cheap and now easier than ever to manage, and Facebook and social networking sites are free. There is no excuse for not maintaining a robust internet presence that attracts participants to your project.

• Seek to add links to other Web sites and social networking pages so prospective members can find your project on the Internet.  The more you can get people to log into their account and check out your project, the more likely your member will be interested in getting more involved.

• Hold hands with your new project members. Hand holding at the beginning pays off in the long run.  Lots of newbies have difficulty navigating the website and really don’t even understand what they have purchased.   We’ve even offered to upload GEDCOM files for them and called them to give them persona walk through of the site and input on their results.  We understand that this isn’t manageable in a project with hundreds of members, but if you have the time and initiative to make personal connections to your members, it will pay off in the future.

• Combine DNA analysis with genealogy. Most people come to Family Tree DNA to connect to distant family.  So it is important to remember that a DNA test by itself isn’t going to be of much use to them unless you combine it with their genealogy.   Surname projects especially can benefit from a database of member information. We create pedigrees for many of my members.  That means that all of this information is in my database, which enables me to make connections that I otherwise not notice.  (Just today I got a new member whose oldest known ancestor was born 1690.  After he sent us a huge file of information we connected his line all the way back to 15th Century!)

• Educate yourself about DNA.  As a new administrator you need to at least read all of the helpful information on the website.   Once you have a mastery of the basics, attend the annual Family Tree DNA conference in Houston so you can network with other administrators, learn what is going on in the field of genetic genealogy, and learn what new changes you can expect to see in the near future at Family Tree DNA that will effect your project.

• Direct all new members to join as many relevant Family Tree DNA projects as possible, in addition to your own.  Also suggest that they subscribe to blogs for their haplogroup.   If you are a surname or regional project, it is especially important to direct them to a haplogroup project so they can benefit from the knowledge specific to their group.  The more your members understand their own results, the more likely they are to be active in your project.

• Develop an atmosphere of trust – The word DNA often elicits fear in the minds of some that their privacy is at risk.  So you as an administrator and keeper of their DNA information must make sure that your members trust you.  Do not take liberties with someone’s account that are not appropriate, such removing or adding people to projects without their consent or changing names of their ancestors.

• Find ways to draw members back to the site. Update your members about sales or new discoveries, new members in their cluster, etc.  Now that FTDNA has unveiled their new groups where members can ask questions, create photo albums and navigate to other pages from one,

• Maintain the quality of your website. The appearance of the website will either attract or detract from membership.  If an administrator is too lazy to sort members, describe goals and provide updates, that’s a telling sign that it’s going to be a waste of time to join that project.   If you are a project that requires prior approval to join, make certain that criterion for joining is spelled out clearly.

• Don’t take on more than you can chew. Don’t offer to administer a project that is too big or overwhelming for you to manage. And in the same vein, don’t take on a project for purely personal objectives.  Sometimes administrators in very large projects spend all of their time helping those who know the most, or networking with others outside of the project to the detriment of newer members who need guidance.  Of course it’s important for a haplogroup administrator to be on top of what is going on, and he needs to relay important information to his members. Failure to do so can lead to great frustration among members and a feeling that membership is a waste of time.   Haplogroup admininistrators need to be resources that other FTDNA surname and geographic projects can rely on for help.

 

Avotaynu Online
DOI: 10.17228/AVOL201503232