Personnel:

Our Center continues to thrive on volunteer help. Presently more than two dozen volunteers spend part of each week with us. We gratefully recognize the contributions of two valued colleagues not longer with us: Verna Crofton passed away in December 2006, and Jake Geddert moved out of the Fraser Valley. The regular volunteers include: Ben & MaryLue Braun, Erna Block, Marie Doerksen, Luella Enns, Elma Ens, Mary Epp, Nellie Epp, Hugo & Jean Friesen, Dolores Harder, Esther Harder, Lydia Isaak, Agnes Loewen, Sandi Massie, Jean & Wilmer Neufeld, David Nickel, Helen Nickel, Helga Rempel, Erica Suderman, Ethel Suderman, Clara Thiessen, Frank P. Toews, Laura Unger, Joe Kraftchick, and Blake Chursihoff.

This report also recognizes the important contribution of Mary Ann Quiring, our office manager. Her compensation package is calculated as less than the value of her work, including a substantial volunteer component. She contributes many hours of service at our public events and otherwise as required by her work load, and thus serves both as a volunteer as well as a paid employee.

Visitors:

Given the location of our Center, numerous visitors stop by to make acquaintance with our information collection and the services we offer. During the past year we welcomed some 1,714 visitors an average of 143 per month.

Membership in the Society:

Presently we have 520 Society members. Membership fees are maintained at a very modest cost of $25.00 per year. We invite interested persons to partner with us in this way.

Information Center:

In a relatively short period of time, we have developed a significant number of books and archival records in our collection, including more than a million pages of Russian Mennonite microfilm documentation. Receipt of family histories continues to be brisk. We welcome anyone wishing to discover their family roots, or needing assistance with some academic research, coming for help. We are also pleased to continue receiving donated materials reflecting the larger Mennonite story.

Book and CD Sales:

We are pleased to offer for sale an assortment of new and used Mennonite-related books, CDs and DVDs in our office, most of which are listed on our website. Please note that for prepaid requests, we will order books not in our inventory.

Genealogical Workshop:

Thanks to Richard Thiessen and Mary Ann Quiring, MHSBC annually sponsors a genealogical workshop. On November 11, 2006 Dr. Tim Janzen and Mr. Don Fehr presented two informative lectures on a variety of recent genealogical information finding sources as well as a lecture on the relevance of DNA testing to genealogical research. Volunteers are invited to participate in DNA testing. Please contact Richard Thiessen if interested.

Projects:

Owing to a large pool of volunteers, we are able to work at numerous information-finding projects, many of them on an ongoing basis.

1. Die Mennonitsche Rundschau
• a. have created an index of obituaries from 1930 to 2006.
  have extracted the data and entered in the Brother's Keeper program
  are currently working in the 1920's.
• b. are creating an index of marriages, 25^th, 50^th, 60^th anniversaries
  will eventually enter this data in the above BK data base
• c. are creating an index of Mennonite immigration from Europe to Canada after WWII 1947 -
• d. have created an index of Aussiedler from Russia to Germany. 1974 to 1990.
• e. are currently scanning each issue of the MR - done by Ben Braun.
2. Der Bote
• a. have created an index of obituaries from 1950 to 2006.
  are currently indexing obituaries from 1930 to 1950.
  are currently entering the extracted data into BK.
• b. are creating an index of marriages, 25^th, 50^th, 60^th anniversaries.
  will eventually enter this data in the above BK data base.
3. Mennonite Herald
• a. have created an index of marriages from 1962 to 2006.
  have indexed many marriages from The Observer.
4. Canadian Mennonite
• a. have created an index of obituaries
5. EWZ Microfilms:
• a. Creating records of persons with "Mennonite" names in these files.
6. Implementation of InMagic Software: see Special projects

David Giesbrecht