Our society created the Volunteer of the Year award in 2008. We present this prestigious award to an outstanding volunteer, who has gone beyond the call of duty and achieved the most points for the given year. Below are our previous winners of this award.
2011 – Pat Johnson
Pat Johnson became our Volunteer of the Year for 2011. Pat has been a member of our society since 1994 and attends our meetings on a regular basis. She is a regional speaker for many societies in Colorado and Wyoming besides speaking for our society. She also is an instructor for our society workshops and classes besides writing genealogy articles for our newsletter and for the monthly editions of 50 Plus Marketplace News.
Pat has been featured on our popular Genealogy Quest TV Series several times this year as a guest speaker. In addition, Pat is our society’s team leader for the Colorado indexing project besides indexing and arbitrating the different records for the Family History Library’s digital indexing project. Pat has helped drive the Colorado Council of Genealogical Societies indexing project to number one ranking for our society with over 230,000 records indexed to date with 14 active society volunteers, since this project began one year ago.
Besides volunteering as the registrar and webmaster for the Friday’s Council Tree Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in Windsor, Pat also volunteers at the Fort Collins Family History Center on a weekly basis since fifteen years ago.
2010 – Marilyn Rudd
Marilyn Rudd became our Volunteer of the Year for 2010. Marilyn provided outstanding volunteer services since joining our society in 1978. She has volunteered for practically every Board position except President. Marilyn was our society Recording Secretary in 1978 and Corresponding Secretary several times in the 1980s and the last decade, besides being our Vice President in the 1980s. She volunteered as our Colorado Council Delegate twice in the 1980s and in 2006 through 2010. She travelled to Denver and other statewide locations attending the council meetings besides sponsoring a council meeting in Fort Collins in 2006.
Marilyn also attended the NGS and FGS national society events and was our representative for those national societies. She also volunteered for several research projects that led to society publications in the 1980s and 1990s. She has served on many committees since she joined LCGS including the Membership Committee, Standards Committee, and the GenFest and 30 Year Committees. In addition, Marilyn has been our Nominations Chair several times in the 1990s and several times this last decade. Our society nominated her for the Ruth C. Bishop Volunteer Award in 2005, which she received a nice certificate for volunteering.
2009 – Len Ray
Len Ray became our Volunteer of the Year for 2009. Len has been a member of our society since 2002. He has volunteered for the Standards Committee in 2005 and later became the chair. Len created the society Policy and Procedure books for each Board and Committee Chair position with the help of those members. He was elected Vice President and served for four years since 2004, creating interesting and entertaining programs for LCGS monthly meetings and also served as a Board Director in 2008.
Len served on many committees including the obits and research publications committees from 2005 through 2008. He also became the Budget & Finance Committee Chair in 2006, which he served for five years. He and his committee created a standard financial statement for the Board, obtained the IRS 501c3 status for LCGS in 2005, and streamlined the state’s annual nonprofit reports. Len has volunteered for other services including booth duty at the Victorian Sunday in the Park in 2008 and served on other committees including the Education Committee for several years since 2005, helped at past Genealogy on the Internet and Girl Scout Heritage badge workshops in 2004 through 2008 and this year, and chaired the Officer Nomination Committee in 2010.
2008 – Mary Joy Hauk
Mary Joy Hauk was named Volunteer of the Year for 2008. Mary Joy became our first LCGS volunteer to receive this distinguished award. She has always been an admirable volunteer for our society since joining in 1991.
Mary Joy was our Treasurer for two terms, filling in for the previous treasurer, who passed away unexpectedly in 2003. She started the Family Tree Maker Users Group in 2003, besides managing several research projects with key research leaders in getting our latest county marriage, county divorce, and Wellington cemetery books published in 2006. Mary Joy volunteered as a helper at several workshops and for booth duty at the Victorian Sunday in the Park and September’s Cemetery Stroll events in 2008. Besides all these activities, she volunteers for other groups too.