Holiday Special Boot Camp: I'm Attending...Are You?

I'm really looking forward to this holiday weekend! Not only is it a chance to take a break and relax from my job, spend time feasting with family, and count my blessings, but I'll be participating in the Holiday Special Genealogy Boot Camp with Thomas MacEntee and Lisa Alzo as the hosts!

First of all, what is a Genealogy Boot Camp? It's a webinar (online seminar) series at Hack Genealogy where Thomas and Lisa show their audience some pretty amazing tips and tricks to help with those sticky research challenges and brick walls. Over the past year, they've hosted the Mastering Evernote for Genealogy Boot Camp, Blogger Boot Camp, Self-Publishing Boot Camp, Get Your Genealogy Groove Back Boot Camp, and Genealogy Writing Boot Camp. These camps generally involve 3.5 hours of live instruction, numerous handouts and templates, and access to the recordings to review them at later times. Normally, the cost of attending these Boot Camps is $12.95, although you can get an early bird discount of $9.95.

This weekend, however, on Saturday, November 29th, from 4 PM to 7:30 PM, PST, the theme of the Holiday Special Boot Camp will be much like a good old-fashioned variety show. The Holiday Special Boot Camp will cover a variety of topics, some selected by Lisa, some of them by Thomas, and some submitted by the attendees (you can submit your ideas here and be eligible to win a $50 Amazon gift card)! In addition, the cost of the Boot Camp will be Pay What You Want. This means that you decide how much this knowledge is worth to you. You can donate $5, $10, the regular $12.95 or even more. Some people will likely throw in a few dollars just to say thanks for making the Boot Camp concept available. It doesn't matter what you pay or if you pay. Lisa and Thomas just want you to come ready to learn and to have fun. (By the way, if you've never attended a webinar before, check out my easy-to-follow tutorial here.)

I've decided to pay full price for my Boot Camp experience this weekend. I've already registered here (seating is limited!) and I will be paying later this week, after payday. I wanted to highlight to my readers that normally when you register, you pay at that time, as a part of the registration process. With the Holiday Special Boot Camp, however, the way you Pay What You Want is by clicking the Donate button located about a third of the way down the Hack Genealogy post about the Boot Camp.

I encourage you to donate what you believe to be a fair amount for the Boot Camp. As added incentive, Thomas and Lisa have agreed to donate 25% of their proceeds to Preserve the Pensions, the project to digitize all the War of 1812 Veterans Pension records.

Finally, don't forget about the Holiday Special Boot Camp Contest! There are going to be some amazing prizes, totaling $2,500! These include prizes such as genealogy software and Ancestry.com's World Deluxe subscription, and range in value from $30 to $300! There are also going to be prizes given out during the Boot Camp.

So join in the fun, learn some great research tips, and help out a great cause! See you then!