Anyone belong to FIBIS?

[Anstey Nomad]

Only asking because I paid a £15 subscription last week and still don't have access to anything.

I've had e mails telling me that I will get other e mails within 24 hours, and links to parts of the site that are supposed to help me get access, but those links are blocked so I can't access them.

I'm getting frustrated with this now as I am not getting responses to my latest e mails and I can see that with Christmas I am not going to get access probably for another ten days.

Are they always this disorganised?

[Phoenix]

I don't belong to FIBIS, but I imagine it is a charity, run by volunteers, like most family history societies.

All of us do our best, but some volunteers will be in full time employment/on holiday. If someone falls ill, there may not be backup. We had huge problems a few years ago when one committee member wasn't responding to emails at all. Some organisations have premises and emails are only answered when they are actually there.

I am currently sourcing lots of local history books and have just had an email from a history society apologising that it has taken a month to get back to me (and to save postage, I will be getting on a bus with a suitcase.)

If we were commercial organisations, we'd all be bust.

[kiterunner]

I joined a while back but I found it completely useless. I did get a few newsletters but they had nothing of interest to me, and the members' part of the site, when I did manage to access it, didn't seem to have any content except that you could edit your user profile and, I think, see what other members were researching. Mostly I just kept clicking on links that were supposed to take you to the members' part of the site only to find they led me round in circles.
So I don't think you are missing out on much by not having access!

[Anstey Nomad]

Thanks Kite - yes, I'm going round in circles and I have already discovered that there is no mention of either of my known rellies in their database.

Phoenix - I understand about volunteers, but I would prefer people to be realistic about their time scales and not say 'you will receive within 24 hours ' when it's already been a week.

Why do they charge £15 subscription?

[maryphil]

£15 subscription seems and inordinate amount and they should be giving value for that sort of money.
I know where you are coming from with the volunteering bit, it does seem to be the same old few doing all the work for the majority. Or so I've found with all the organisations I belong to. On the plus side you get a lot more out of things.

[Phoenix]

We charge £12. For that, you get four journals, a research room, the opportunity to attend some thirty free meetings a year and still some people feel it is too expensive.

FIBIS shoot themselves in the foot by making so many of their indexes freely available online. If you regard the sub as being ploughed into making more data accessible (or less than the price of one will and one certificate) then it really isn't a bad deal.

[Anstey Nomad]

Four months on and I am still struggling. I still have never had a log in for the social networking area of the site and I cannot get more than an automated response to e mails.

Very disappointing and I shan't be recommending them.

[Kit]

I joined a few years ago for 1 year only. I got the email An mentioned in her first post but had to email someone else to get access to the members only part.

The social networking part was not very social at all, barely used by members, from memory. See if they are on FB and ask there to get help.

Try the India list on rootsweb for social interaction. There were a lot of emails from that list and one man went to the library for me, unasked, and got some information to help me get further back. I believe he is/was a FIBIS researcher. FMP have a lot of records online now for India.

[Anstey Nomad]

Thanks - I'm still in correspondence with the webmaster but getting nowhere.