{"id":490,"date":"2012-04-27T20:07:00","date_gmt":"2012-04-28T01:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/genealogy.julietarr.com\/blog\/why-i-became-an-arbitrator\/"},"modified":"2013-07-04T16:36:00","modified_gmt":"2013-07-04T21:36:00","slug":"why-i-became-an-arbitrator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/genealogy.julietarr.com\/blog\/why-i-became-an-arbitrator\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I Became an Arbitrator"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" Yesterday I contacted my Group Administrator for FamilySearch Indexing<\/a> and asked to become an arbitrator for the 1940 census indexing project.\u00a0 There are a few reasons I decided to take the plunge and I thought I\u2019d share them.\u00a0 Perhaps you will be inspired to become an arbitrator as well.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Reason #1 \u2013 Message from the Group Administrator<\/strong><\/p>\n

I believe it was last week, I received an email from the Group Administrator giving us an update on the 1940 indexing project.\u00a0 At the end of the email was a gentle plea for arbitrators.\u00a0 I made a mental note and moved on with my day.<\/p>\n

Reason #2 \u2013 Arbitrator Series of Blog Posts<\/strong><\/p>\n

Over the last week, I had seen several blog posts on the FamilySearch Blog<\/a> on the topic of arbitration.\u00a0 In one of those posts they explained that they had a backlog of keyed material awaiting arbitration.\u00a0 Basically, there was plenty of indexing going on, but not enough arbitration.\u00a0 The way I took the message was, keep indexing (sincerely appreciated and keep up the good work!!), but also think about arbitrating.\u00a0 So, I thought about it.<\/p>\n

Reason #3 \u2013 Curiosity<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never arbitrated any of the indexing projects, in part because, truth be told, I wasn\u2019t doing much in the way of indexing (just a few batches here and there).\u00a0 So I really didn\u2019t know what it was like for the person on the other side of the coin, being presented with two sets of keyed entries and trying to determine which, if either, was right.\u00a0 The only way I was going to know this, and understand the job of an arbitrator, was to become one.<\/p>\n

Last night, after taking all three reasons into account, I decided to take a break from indexing and review the information on arbitration and becoming an arbitrator<\/a>.\u00a0 I viewed the tutorial<\/a> and made the decision to become an arbitrator.<\/p>\n

For those who are considering becoming an arbitrator, I found the following blog posts helpful, mainly because they were more conversational as opposed to instructional, and therefore, a little less intimidating.<\/p>\n