[FCHSM] Status of Chapters

[John P. DuLong]

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
<http://fchsm.habitant.org/FCHSM%20Membership%20Form.pdf>  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 formerly 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 at habitant.org. Your Board would be happy to work with you to see
what can be arranged. 

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