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Techniques

The Stories on Your Bookshelves

October 12, 2016

By Pam Pacelli Cooper President, Verissima Productions Two weeks ago, I wrote about transporting several bins of family papers from Chicago to Boston. This week, I’m thinking about the books on my shelves, and the story they tell. Soon after we arrived home, we had guests from Tennessee in our Airbnb. I walked in to[Read More]

How We Tell Our Stories

June 1, 2016

By Pam Pacelli Cooper President, Verissima Productions   We tell stories with video and audio. In the personal histories we create we hope to capture the successes and happy moments, but also the moments of pain, mistakes, and repair. If future generations see only the “great” moments of their grandparents’ lives, they may be cowed and dispirited, rather[Read More]

Personal History and Making Choices - Part 3 by Pam Pacelli Cooper Our first two blogs about making choices in personal history dealt with awareness and contemplation from: “What is personal history? Never heard of it, “ to “ This sounds interesting, but I want to think more about it.” Ok, now, you've made it through those first two phases and your relative or your personal history client has thought about it and says they're ready to move forward. Ready to start talking or taping, right? Not quite. The next step is huge. The decision has been made to go ahead, but the decision about HOW to proceed has not. As someone who has painted a lot of rooms, I can say that I dislike the spackling and the sanding—I’d rather put the beautiful colors on the wall NOW—but having tried that a few times and ended up with a bumpy, uneven mess, I’ve learned the importance of preparation. If you want want a high-quality personal history, there’s a lot of “spackling” involved. How can you help in this stage? 1. Identify supports and obstacles to creating the project. Brainstorm about how to amortize the supports and overcome the obstacles. 2. Create a map: There are many ways to do this, but your map must have a beginning, signposts along the way, and a destination ( the final product). 3. Keep the larger purpose in mind: Why are you doing this, and for whom? If things get dicey or stall, visualize the faces of your great grandchildren as they learn about their family, or imagine an historian coming across the World War II letters from your grandfather that you’ve donated to the local historical society. You’ve made the decision, you’ve got the vision, you’ve made a map. NOW you are ready to take action! This is the stage most of us are familiar with. It involves setting the steps of our carefully laid plan into motion and adjusting as we need to, always keeping the end in mind. What has your experience been with these three phases? How did you help move someone through the first two stages to the third stage of being ready for the project? Do you have a system for creating a personal history map that's worked well for you? Share your experiences in the comments section!

Personal History & Making Choices – Part 3

May 25, 2016

Making Choices in Personal History Part 2: Contemplation How do you decide to embark on a personal history? In our last blog, we began to explore the stages of decision-making, based on the work of James Prochaska and his colleagues in their ground-breaking research on lasting change and how it happens. Today, we’re going to discuss the second stage of change. Contemplation: “Hmmmm…” In pre-contemplation, we introduced the idea of presenting information that was previously unknown: that there is such a thing as a personal history and that it will have lasting value in the lives of individuals, families, and communities. This is the “awareness” stage, a move from ignorance to knowledge. We encouraged the “educator,” to share information freely and then step back to allow it to percolate, rather than trying to rush decision-making and action. Now suppose you haven’t talked with them for a couple of months. It’s perfectly fine to check in and ask them and ask if they’ve thought any more about it (being aware of the personality of the person you’re contacting). At this point, if they say either, “I’m thinking about what it might mean to do something like this, but I need to take some more time to make any decision, or, “I hadn’t thought about it but, now that you remind me, I’d like to think further about this. “This is the signal that he/she is in the “Contemplation” stage. What are the indicators: 1. Consideration of the possibilities without any action steps being involved; Their Sitting on a fence where previously no fence existed; 2. No immediate time frame being discussed. ‘I’m aware that this is something that has benefited others and might be of benefit to me, but I’m not ready to jump in just yet.” How can you be helpful in this stage? 1. Validate their decision-making process: “I understand that you want to think about this some more. That’s great. It’s a big step. You want to make sure that if you do this, it feels solid. “ 2. Clarify and discuss: Help them understand the pros and cons of doing a personal history (e.g., the pro of having something for my siblings, great grandchildren, community; the con of how much it would cost, the time it would take, I don’t feel like I’d have anything to say, etc.) 3. Illustrate the value of contemplation: Just carefully weighing the options will deepen their understanding of their process and help them achieve resolution.

Personal History & Making Choices – Part 2

April 27, 2016

Photo, Photo, Who’s That in the Photo?

May 15, 2015

  By Pamela Pacelli-Cooper President, Verissima Productions Incorporated   Who takes the photos in your family? Do you have stacks and stacks of albums from past years, a Picasa or Flickr account with thousands of images, or do you stay away from taking photographs because it’s too much trouble? And what about photos from your[Read More]

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