The Western Australian Genealogical Society (WAGS) has been announced as the winner of the Geoff Riggs Award for Best Website for 2013.
The Geoff Riggs Award is sponsored by ABM Publishing publishers of Family Tree magazine and the FFHS. And the winning society receives a total of £250 prize money, a trophy and certificate.
The Federation of Family History Societies (FFHS) has been awarding the accolade of ‘Best Website’ annually since 2001 to a member society. As the importance of this form of media has increased since the inception of the award, the judging process has been reviewed and it is now seen by the FFHS as an annual opportunity to judge those websites entered for the award against specified criteria, thus creating a ‘benchmark’ with the aim of improving the overall quality of genealogy and family history society websites.
Chris Loudon, Webmaster of WAGS
Overall Winner
Western Australian Genealogical Society Inc
Large Societies (1000 members and over)
Winner: Western Australian Genealogical Society Inc
Highly Commended: Bristol & Avon Family History Society
Medium Societies (201–999 members)
Winner: The Irish Genealogical Research Society
Highly Commended: Anglo-Italian Family History Society
Small Societies (200 members and under)
Winner: Malvern Family History Society
Highly Commended: Stonehewer to Stanier Society
Visit the WAGS website to read about the activities of the society, coming events, visit their blog, read their journals, see the extensive list of Special Interest Groups that WAGS offers members, checkout their current projects which includd ‘The Gallipoli Dead of Western Australia’, visit the WAGS GenWiki page, useful links, or the Lonely Graves of Western Australia data that they have collected. It’s all there!
This website certainly contains a vast amount on information, and is very easy the navigate around. It’s easy to see why they won the Geoff Riggs Award for Best Website.
WAGS have set the benchmark high, so for those who will be entering this Award in coming years certainly have something to work towards.
Many thanks for the comments, it is very much appreciated.
WAGS has a wonderful group of members who volunteer their time and expertise to the society in different ways. Many of whom are involved in making sure that our website is kept up to date, and that it has a flow of new and exciting data available to members.
Without the support of members and the website volunteers we at WAGS would not be able to provide such a rich resource to members and the wider community.
Genealogy and Family History Societies worldwide provide great resources to their members and the public, and should aim and be encouraged to utilise the medium of their websites as well as they possibly can.
Hopefully we have contributed to that aim in some small way.
Cheers
Chris
WAGS Webmaster