French-Canadian Heritage Society
of Michigan

Preserving Michigan's French-Canadian Heritage

Status of Chapters

The French-Canadian Heritage Society of Michigan has been in existence since 1980. Over the years we have tried establishing chapters with mixed success. They tend to come and go and drain away resources from the Society. Due to the decrease in membership—that all genealogical societies are experiencing from Internet competition—the Society's Board decided that we have to streamline the Society. It makes little sense to have multiple officers at the Society and Chapter levels when we need our best and most experienced volunteer officers to help concentrate on growing the entire Society. Therefore, we will be changing the By-Laws of the Society to remove Chapters.

What does this mean to our members? You are all members of the Society and thereby entitled to all the perks of membership including receiving the journal and attending our meetings. As long as you continue to pay your dues you will receive your journal whether or not you belonged to a Chapter. In fact, most of our members have not been associated with a Chapter. As always, we encourage all of you to renew your membership before the end of the year to avoid late fees. The membership form can be found by pointing your browser to http://fchsm.habitant.org/FCHSM Membership Form.pdf. General information about membership can be found at http://fchsm.habitant.org/Membership.html.

Over the next few weeks our Society website will be modified to reflect the disbanding of the Chapters. We also hope over the next few years to add more features to our website to make it more interactive and attract more members. Before the end of the year you will be asked to vote on modifications to our By-Laws which will formally remove Chapters. Lastly, we realize that as a state-wide Society we have to offer meetings in more locations across Michigan. If you or some of your friends would like to host or organize a Society meeting in your area, then please contact us at FCHSM-email@habitant.org. Your Board would be happy to work with you to see what can be arranged.

Update: The proposed By-Laws changes are now posted for your review. The blue text are to be removed and the red to be added.

The French Canadian Heritage Society of Michigan was founded in 1980 as an educational, historical, cultural, and genealogical non-profit organization. It seeks to make people aware of the rich culture and history of French Canadians in North America, with special emphasis on those who explored and settled in Michigan.

Our aims are:

	To promote an awareness of and an appreciation for our French-Canadian heritage in Michigan.
	To facilitate contact and interaction among people of French-Canadian descent, for the purpose of researching family histories.
	To act as an educational and social group by sponsoring and participating in functions that further interest in and awareness of the French-Canadian heritage in North America.

Click on the Membership button to learn about joining the French-Canadian Heritage Society of Michigan.

By special permission of the author, the French-Canadian Heritage Society of Michigan offers to you a copy of Yves Drolet's collection of genealogical tables for the nobility of Québec. This is a new version with a bilingual introduction.