New Flooring At MGS

We have new flooring at MGS!

This was an enormous task that was coordinated by long time MGS volunteer Daryl Dumanski, VP Finance.  Many parts of the library were packed up and moved into storage pods, old flooring removed, new flooring installed, and then moved back into the library.  We had storage pods in the parking lot holding all the desks, cabinets, and the books from the moveable shelves.  We had movers, and flooring installers, and cleaners.  AND most importantly we had MGS volunteers giving of their time to help with a myriad of details.

The United Empire Loyalists have a room at the MGS Resource Library and that room was included in the flooring upgrade.  Their volunteers also worked to pack up and re-shelve all their books and materials.

This task was scheduled to take place during our annual seasonal closure over Christmas/New Year’s.  Everything that was on the carpet including the back office and the UEL library was packed up and moved into storage pods on December 27, 2023 by the movers.  Arrangements were made with our landlord to put the storage pods in the parking lot.  Then between Dec 28-30, the carpeting was replaced.  On Jan 2, 2024, the movers moved everything from the storage pods back into the MGS Resource Centre Library. Then the cleaners were booked to come in and clean the entire Resource Centre.  A lot of the detail cleaning was done by the MGS volunteers as the furniture was moved from the storage pods and back into the Resource Library.  Desks were washed once they were put back together again, and before setting the computers on them.  Although fixed cabinets and shelving (and their contents) were covered in plastic, they all needed to be wiped down because carpet dust goes everywhere.

In the months leading up to these events, MGS Volunteers took the opportunity to go through storage areas and purge unwanted or outdated materials.  Books on the library shelves were culled and put up for sale.  All computer cables and lines needed to be labelled.  Things that could not be moved had to be covered in plastic.  Delicate items (computers and tech) were housed in the bathrooms and kitchen (tile flooring) and wrapped in plastic.

MGS would like to sincerely thank the following volunteers for their hard work and many, many hours on this project packing and unpacking boxes, reshelving books, setting up desk and computers, and more:

Aleta Foreman, VP Information Technology
Bob Allebone, President Southeast & Winnipg Branch, and Research Team member
Daryl Dumanski, VP Finance
Gloria McNabb, Treasurer
Gord McBean, MGS Honorary Life Member
Joyce Elias, Library Volunteer
Kathryn Blair-Colbert, Fundraising Chair
Kerri James, Library Volunteer
Martha McLeod, Secretary
Mavis Gray, Library Chair
MGS Library Team
MGS Research Team
Pat Allan, MANI Volunteer
Rick Brown, Projects Chair
Rick Walker, Research Chair

A SPECIAL THANK YOU to:

• Kathryn & Gloria for opening/closing MGS during the moving days;
• Daryl who came in over the holidays to make some installation decisions with the installers
• Rick Brown who did some reconfiguring & installing of shelving for our servers & office shelves. and
• Aleta who had the mammoth task of not only labelling all tech equipment, sorting & packing equipment & accessories, but then reinstallation & updating it to get it all up & running again.

The funds for this upgrade came from a grant that we received in April, 2023 from the Manitoba Arts, Culture, and Sport in Community Small Capital and Special Initiatives fund.  This grant, that was initiated by Rick Walker, Research Chair and his team, was approved in full and totaled $25,000. The grant included the new exterior signage, 2 commercial grade scanners, and the flooring replacement.

 

This project is the last in a series to upgrade the MGS Resource Library.  It all started with a big crack in the wall that appeared when the neighboring unit was doing some renovations.  In the summer of 2023, MGS got the wall fixed, and decided that all the walls needed painting—they had years of pinholes in them from posting precious old maps of Manitoba and beyond.  The decision was made to no longer allow stickpins in the walls, and a picture hanging system was installed.  A special THANK YOU to Rick Walker who painted the whole library by himself.  Kudos to you Rick, and that one darker wall is a great accent wall and gives the place some pizzazz.

It was decided to get a large screen TV to use to advertise our services as well as to use during our hybrid ZOOM-In Person meetings and educational sessions.  Thanks to our Fundraising Chair, Kathryn Blair-Colbert, we were able to access a small grant to get the TV and cables to setup our Zoom sessions.  The walls were looking good, volunteers were inspired to clean up old redundant supplies and as we looked around, we identified our outside sign, lack of proper scanning equipment and flooring as things to do—and now they are complete.

MGS has been at this location since 1998 and it was looking old and tired.  We have updated it and welcome you to come for a free tour of the place and see what we are about.  We are located in The Brick Strip Mall (in the corner of the L shape) behind Smitty’s Restaurant.

Manitoba Genealogical Society Inc.
Unit E – 1045 St. James Street
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3H 1B1

Telephone: 204-783-9139