Presenting The Family History Guide

About

This page describes how you can deliver a powerful and effective introduction to The Family History Guide:

1. Use "What's Inside The Family History Guide;" or
2. If time is limited, present one or more 2-Minute Demos of the website; or
3. Use the Intro Video and the Commentary notes.

The typical presentation time can be up to 50 minutes, plus 10 minutes for Q&A at the end if desired.

1: What's Inside The Family History Guide

What's Inside The Family History Guide is a Google slide with extensive speaker notes that help you present interesting aspects of The Family History Guide website. When you run the Slideshow in Presenter View, learners will see only the website while you see and use the speaker notes. The approximate time needed for the presentation is 50 minutes.

How to Prepare and Present

• Download What's Inside The Family History Guide (one single slide, with Speaker Notes) and rename it on your device.
• Open the Speaker Notes (drag the short horizontal bar at the bottom of the slide upwards) and decide which notes you want to use in your presentation. Items marked with asterisks are action items for you to do; other items are things to discuss.
• You can modify the notes if desired, as long as there is no advertising or commercial intent, and you can add your name or organization and logo on the opening slide.
• Study the Speaker Notes to prepare for your presentation.
• When you are ready to present, click the link on the slide to open the Homepage of The Family History Guide.
• Click Slideshow (upper right). Size the Speaker Notes window as desired. For the rest of the presentation you will be talking from the Speaker Notes (which the learners do not see) and opening corresponding pages in The Family History Guide (which everyone sees).

Note: Do not add screenshots of The Family History Guide to this slide deck. Instead, show The Family History Guide directly from the website.

2: Using 2-Minute Demos

For the complete set of 2-Minute Demos and tips on how to use them, see the 2-Minute Demos page.

3: Intro Video and Commentary

The Intro Video for The Family History Guide is just over 24 minutes in length. It covers the major features of the website, working across the top menu from left to right. If you have 30 minutes available, showing the video and holding a five-minute Q&A session at the end would complete the session.

If you have more time, you can pause the video at selected spots and add commentary. The Intro Video Commentary is a Google doc that corresponds to the 56 chapters in the YouTube video; it adds insights and tips not found in the video. You can study the Commentary ahead of time and select the notes you want to discuss, and you can include commentary of your own.

Doing the Presentation

Note : If you are using an online platform such as Zoom, make sure you are sharing your entire screen, not just a current window.

Video Presentation

1. Make sure the Commentary doc is visible on your device (but not shared with learners).
2. After your introductory remarks, begin the video.
3. At your selected timings, pause the video to offer commentary about the previous section. If you allow feedback or discussion, be sure to factor that into your presentation time.