Mary Ann Conrad Volunteer of the Year Award
Mary Ann Conrad was a long-time active member of the Arlington Genealogical Society. Mary Ann served on the Board continuously from 1989 until her death in January 2020 for a total of thirty-one years. She served as President for three years, First Vice President for three years, Parliamentarian for two years, Newsletter chair for six years and Collection Development chair for 21 years from 1999 through 2020.
Mary Ann gave very lovingly and willingly thousands of volunteer hours to our society. The Arlington Genealogical Society honors her memory with a Volunteer of the Year Award. This award will be given to an AGS member who has gone above and beyond to make our organization a better society.
The committee will consist of 3 members. They will serve for a term of three years with at least one member of the committee going off each year. Therefore, annually one person will rotate off at the end of In the late fall meeting annually, the President will appoint the members of this committee. If someone on the committee is nominated, then they should step down for the current cycle of voting. And the President should temporarily appoint a replacement member to maintain an odd number of committee members.
Applications for the Volunteer of the Year will be accepted each January. Download it here. The deadline to turn in your entry to the Volunteer of the Year Committee will be noon of February 1st annually. The committee will collect the nominations, review each nominee's service to AGS, and make their selection. The winner will be announced at the March general membership meeting.
The winner will receive an AGS Certificate of Appreciation for being the Mary Ann Conrad Volunteer of the Year.
Recipients
Apr. 13, 2021 - Sylvia Hoad,
Volunteer of the Year 2020
Sylvia was recognized for her devoted efforts, in the Inaugural Year of this award, chairing and leading the Collections Development Committee. She inherited a very large backlog of books obtained before the death of Mary Ann Conrad. She and Mark Dellenbaugh worked relentlessly tracking and reviewing those books for selection into our Genealogy and Local History collection, including the submission for binding when necessary, and submission to cataloging, etc.
Congratulations to our 2021 Mary Ann Conrad Volunteer of the Year Award — Sylvia Hoad.
As the recognition was in a COVID year, an in-person presentation was made at a later date.
Mar. 8, 2022 - Mark Dellenbaugh,
Volunteer of the Year 2021
I would like to thank the Volunteer of the Year Award Committee – Cherry Williams and Nancy Bergvall for all their help this year with the selection of the Volunteer of the Year for this year.
Our Volunteer of the Year has been a member of Arlington Genealogical Society since 2015. This individual has served on the Board for several years. This person is always volunteering to help with anything and everything that needs to be done. Our winner is a jack of all trades. The feeling is that our winner is not expecting this and will be deeply touched to be honored to be this year’s recipient of the Mary Ann Conrad Volunteer of the Year Award.
Our winner is a dream come true for AGS as this is something that our society had wanted for years – a full time genealogy librarian – Mark Dellenbaugh. Previous librarians who had held the position did the job as part of multiple other duties and honestly did not have much time to dedicate to this section of the library. AGS knew that we needed a full-time person in this position and Mark is that person.
He came back to the Arlington Public Library in either 2008 or 2009. He became the library liaison to AGS in October of 2013 and got the position in time to supervise the moving of the collection to the Northeast branch and into storage for a couple of years while this new building was under construction. The new designated genealogy and local history section and Mark have done wonders in creating a space that has an inviting atmosphere and a good collection of books that now covers every state in the United States.
Mark and I have worked together on collection development since December of 2019 when I confided in him very confidentially that I was taking over the collection development responsibilities until Mary Ann was feeling better. I am sure he could read between the lines that there was more to be said and that I was not saying it. He did not ask for more detail and kept that confidential as I requested.
He and I work very corporately together on building a collection to meet the greatest needs of the library. I create large “wish lists” of book in the areas that need the greatest improvement, and we sit down and talk about what to include or not to include in the book orders. Some of the donated books that I recovered from Mary Ann’s, we discussed to see if he wanted to keep those titles or discard them.
Late one Monday afternoon, I found out about a sale on local history books. I had already made a list of books to purchase, however, with this sale we could get everything at 50% off, if we ordered a certain number of books. I texted him about 3:15 and said I needed to meet with you ASAP to expand the local history purchase. I gave him a choice of meeting that afternoon or the next day as the sale was going off on Wednesday. He said meet him at 9:00 the next morning in GLH. We met, I gave him additional titles and he made his selection. I have learned over the past couple of years what types of books he wants to put in the collection and what he does not like.
Mark is always available for anything that involves genealogy. He takes time to help people get acquainted with Zoom meetings, volunteers to help at genealogy fairs to represent both APL and AGS. He speaks at various groups around the Metroplex on genealogy, teaches courses on genealogy from how to courses to writing your own family history. He has hosted Webinars and workshops that were “attended” by participants from coast to coast. He always endeavors to safely promote research in-person but also online or via Zoom as he meets the needs of our patrons.
Mark has been First Vice President aka the program chair for the past three years. He always has interesting and informative programs and on topics that we have never had programs on in previous years. His speakers are both local and all over the United States and those come to us either in person or via Zoom. I am a strong believer that the programs are the main draw when an individual decides to attend one of our meeting or not. The programs make or break a society.
Mark somehow remains calm, cool, and collected even when technology is acting up or going berserk. He comes in early to the meetings to make sure all technology is working correctly. One example of this, was our September meeting. The meeting date fell on his 30th wedding anniversary, so he took off from work to spend the day with his lovely wife, Allison, however, he was up here at 5:00 to set up the technology. Allison and Mark have three sons.
Mark is what I refer to as a librarian’s librarian and it is such a pleasure and honor to collaborate with him on collection development and in AGS. He is the ultimate professional and AGS member. He always goes over and above what is expected, and it is always done in a pleasant and professional manner. Mark is not only an exceptional asset to the Arlington Genealogical Society but also to the Arlington Public Library.
Mark Dellenbaugh is our Mary Ann Conrad Volunteer of the Year for 2021. Congratulations to a very deserving individual.
Sylvia Hoad, AGS MAC Volunteer of the Year Committee Chair
Mar. 14, 2023 - John Anderson,
Volunteer of the Year 2022
Our 2022 Mary Ann Conrad Volunteer of the Year is someone who has been very active in the society for a number of years.
Our Volunteer of the Year is also actively involved with in many organizations in the Arlington Area. This individual is always one of the first members to volunteer to help and to participate in any activity that the Arlington Genealogical Society undertakes.
This year's winner is John Anderson. He has served as the Society president during the worst of the Covid 19 pandemic and is currently serving as our president. John has kept contact with the membership during a difficult period. He spearheaded the effort to use hybrid meetings — making sure that AGS complied with best practices.
John has previously served as AGS secretary and is our Technology Wizard. He is one of the main individuals who created from scratch our society Webpage and has been our Webmaster ever since.
He is involved with many other local and national organizations include SAR, DAR, LDS genealogy fair, the Arlington Historical Society, lineage society programs through APL ... and others. John has revived the Moore Cemetery Records with the help of others in the society including enlisting the help of older members (some who are housebound) and other AGS members to study the original records and update them. Those records have now been donated to the UTA Special Collections.
He has gotten AGS involved with the DAR Wreaths Across America Project at the Parkdale Cemetery in Arlington by participatng in the laying of the wreaths on veteran's graves just before Christmas. Complimentary to this was the AGS plan to provide street markers at this historical cemetery. However, this is being taken over by the City as they also saw the need for street and sections markers.
One of the nominations for John said he gives 110% on every project that he is involved in." He exemplifies what is best in our City and AGS.
Congratulations to our 2022 Mary Ann Conrad Volunteer of the Year Award — John Anderson.
Sylvia Hoad, AGS MAC Volunteer of the Year Committee Chai
Mar. 12, 2024 - Pete Jacobs,
Volunteer of the Year 2023
The Mary Ann Conrad Volunteer of the Year award is being presented to a person who has been a member of Arlington Genealogical Society for many years and has served in almost every capacity within AGS.
He has held the positions of President, Facebook Administrator, Treasurer, and Financial Committee Chair. He juggles several positions and responsibilities at one time because of his organizational skills and dedication to each of those responsibilities. He is always willing to answer any question or to help resolve any problem that arises, and he always has the correct answer, or on the rare occasion that he doesn’t, he will work hard to find the answer.
He was chosen for this award because he is always willing to go above and beyond what is expected by dedicating his time and energy to anything that needs to be done. He steps up to the plate when others can’t and always has a positive attitude about anything he does.
As you may have already guessed, this year’s winner is our current Treasurer, Facebook Administrator, and Financial Committee Chair, Pete Jacobs.
He has been invaluable as treasurer of AGS and ensures that our funds are properly managed and that our financial wealth is secure. He introduces each president to our financial advisor and ensures that account authorization is obtained. He also administers our PayPal account and monitors the transactions.
Pete gathers forms, takes payments of dues, and transfers the new member forms to the Membership Chair and the Web Administrator, and always does so in a timely manner. To quote one of the nomination applications, “he comes early and stays late at every meeting helping to set up and clean up”. Pete brings pamphlets of genealogical interest and forms to help people get started on, and keep track of, their genealogy research. He then makes sure these materials are returned to the library storage room after each meeting.
In addition to his other responsibilities, Pete helped the Arlington Public Library Service with the move of the genealogy collection. He was there to help organize and shelve the books during this time. He also serves as the District F representative for the Texas State Genealogical Society, representing six counties of north Texas. He also volunteers to work at the AGS information table at the Family History Seminars that are held each spring.
It is my great pleasure to present the 2023 Mary Ann Conrad Volunteer of the Year Award to Pete Jacobs. Congratulations, Pete!
(Thanks to Pete for his great efforts. He is a valuable member of our society!)
Barbara Edwards, AGS MAC Volunteer of the Year Committee Chair
Mar. 11, 2025 - Laureen Jacobs,
Volunteer of the Year 2024
The 2024 Mary Ann Conrad Volunteer of the Year award is being presented to a person who has been a member of Arlington Genealogical Society for many years and has served in several different capacities within AGS.
It is going to be difficult to keep the identity of the award winner as a surprise until the end of this presentation because as soon as you hear some of the accomplishments of this person, you will know who it is.
She was chosen for this award because, as one person who nominated her said, “she has been the hardest working member of the Society over the past year”. This statement alone should be a very clear indicator of the recipient of the Mary Ann Conrad Volunteer Award for 2024.
If you have not already guessed, the next statement will surely make it clear that the winner of this year’s award is our First Vice President, Laureen Jacobs.
Laureen always makes a point to welcome new members and guests who visit our meetings. She is always willing to help other members with their own research by suggesting websites and other resources they can utilize to help find information on their ancestors and to help break through any brick walls.
She has worked tirelessly as the AGS Newsletter Editor since September 2021 and did such an awesome job that in 2022, the Texas State Genealogical Society recognized her efforts by awarding the AGS Newsletter with the Third Place Award in the category of “Periodical, Quarterly, and Journal Awards in Category VI: Official Periodicals of Partner Societies/Newsletters”.
Not only has she edited our monthly newsletter, she has also provided articles for publication in other newsletters, such as the Texas State Genealogical Society newsletter, “Stirpes”.
Our newsletters are always informative and interesting, with Laureen adding genealogical news and information that can be helpful for anybody who is working on a family tree. They are always prepared and made available in a timely manner.
She is in her second year as the First Vice President of AGS and has provided innovative and interesting speakers and programs on many different genealogical subjects.
This year, in addition to all her previous accomplishments, Laureen suggested that our society sponsor a celebration in recognition of National Genealogy Day in conjunction with the Arlington Public Library. She organized it, planned the agenda, and got volunteers to help. It was a great success and would not have happened without Laureen taking the initiative to get it done.
Laureen not only does a great job with her own responsibilities for Arlington Genealogical Society, but also supports her husband, Pete, in his efforts.
It is my great pleasure to present the 2024 Mary Ann Conrad Volunteer of the Year Award to Laureen Jacobs. Congratulations, Laureen!
Barbara Edwards, AGS MAC Volunteer of the Year Committee Chair
Thanks to all members for their support to our society!