A Wish CameTrue

Back in 2012 I penned a post about Paper Overload in which I lamented about the practice of many speakers to provide handouts, reference lists in hard copy. I said" My plea to presenters is to offer an alternative to hard copy handouts. PLEASE."

When I happened across that post this morning I thought about current practice and realise that many speakers provide links to soft copies of their handouts to attendees or event organisers. 

The cynic in me thinks that this turnaround is due to Covid when we turned to digital delivery of  genealogy education. It was impossible to provide physical copies of handouts when we were operating in an online world. 

I hope the reason is because more genies have embraced technology over the past twelve years and are realising the benefits to the community of saving paper. 

The image I used in 2012. Source:  kathrynbutler.blogspot.com

Paper overload

Source:  kathrynbutler.blogspot.com

Are you drowning in a a sea of paper?  I am.

As fast as I scan papers I get more to replace them. Major contributors to this avalanche are genealogy presenters who pass out paper handouts. It's not that I don't appreciate the handouts - I do. I agree that presenters should dispense some sort of handout to the people who turn up to hear them but they don't have to be in hard copy.

When I have the inclination I scan my latest bundle of handouts, save them as .pdf documents and consign the hardcopy handouts to the recycle bin. I then file my digital copies of the handouts according to my Fling it in the folder system.


My plea to presenters is to offer an alternative to hard copy handouts. PLEASE.