Macoupin County Genealogical Society
P.O. Box 95
Staunton IL 62088-0095
http://macoupinctygenealogy.org/mcgs/index.html

Cindy Leonard, President

January 20, 2009

To the Board of Directors of the Macoupin County Genealogical Society:

After discussing changes and needs to continue our society, those of us attending tonight’s meeting – myself, Jarid Ott, and Sharon Bruhn – things have become very evident. The following decisions have to be made:

  1. Raise dues to $20.00 per year for upcoming year.
    Alternatives?
    a. Eliminate newsletter (we are paying out $45.00 more/year than we take in)
    b. Publish only 2 newsletters per year with no increase in pages/issue
    c. Disband when we run out of money


  2. Eliminate refreshments – saves money.
  3. It has been discussed by those of us who do attend that we meet quarterly.
I’m sorry to see an organization that was started right here in in 1980 disintegrate to nothing. It appears that the interest is gone. Numerous people have asked that their names be added to our meeting reminder mailing list, but in spite of having done that, with monthly reminders having been sent, our attendance is still limited. Several of us have been filling several offices even though not officially elected to them. There is so much we could do, but not with the few who are attending meetings.

Most meetings, no action is taken on business items because no one has the time to take on another project. One of our far away members, Alice Sherfy Berman, is going to type the Old Settlers volumes for us and I will add pictures to them. The file will be converted to PDF and sold on CD only. We can’t afford printing costs for publications anymore and who has room to store all of that? Another possible project would be to get the program about the Sears Homes in Carlinville on DVD and offer it for sale.

If any of you have any other projects that you can prepare to be sold on CD or DVD, please let us know so we can discuss it.

I know I sound very negative about our society right now, but the handwriting is on the wall. We are not the only society in this situation. Unless any of you can provide a legitimate reason not to raise the dues, this will become official with the 2009/2010-membership year. Feel free to comment to me or the entire board regarding this situation.

Cindy