The Mike Basham Memorial TXGenWeb County of the Month Award
In 1997, the TXGenWeb Project initiated a program to recognize the efforts of county coordinators who provide outstanding resources and assistance to county visitors. In addition, the Surfing Committee discusses requirements for nomination of counties for The Mike Basham Memorial TXGenWeb County of the Month Award (COM). Most importantly, we ensure that any errors, abandoned counties or other such problems are sent to the State Coordinator so that he/she may contact the County Coordinator for a resolution.
How do you decide who gets the award?
Every month, each Surfer checks his/her assigned counties and nominates the county that best meets
award criteria. The Committee Chairperson collects these nominations and then sends them to a finalization group. This group then looks over each nomination and gives their top three choices to the Committee Chairperson who tallies them to find the county to receive The Mike Basham Memorial TXGenWeb County of the Month Award.
Who is on the committee?
The committee is a group of our volunteers who use their personal time to continue the standards originally set by Mike Basham. We are an eclectic group of people from various backgrounds and tastes that allows us to have a non-biased and varied view of our regions. We also rotate regions every 6 months so that we have fresh viewpoints.
I would like to be a member of the Page Evaluation Committee. How do I apply?
Please read the
Regulations. If you agree to these Regulations and are willing to spend from 5-10 hours a month helping us surf the counties of The TXGenWeb Project, we urge you to email the Committee Chairperson. We accept both full time and alternate surfers to ensure that we always have enough people to surf our regions.
I want to win the award. What do I do?
There are no guarantees that you will ever win the award. However, to give yourself the best chance possible, please follow these steps:
1. Make sure that your county meets the
Basic Requirements; you will not be considered if you do not meet these requirements.
2. Try to meet all of the
COM Criteria, to the best of your ability.
3. Begin visiting your local genealogy library and transcribing records that are pertinent to your county.
4. Get volunteers to help you transcribe and do lookups for your county.
5. Listen to any recommendations by your
Surfer and try to meet these recommendations to the best of your ability,
6. Don't get upset if you don't win the award; keep trying. The county pages in The TXGenWeb Project have gotten so good that the competition is pretty tough. However, we appreciate all of our coordinators and we are not slighting you by not choosing your site. Ask your surfer if there is a specific reason you're not winning.