CURRENT MEMBERSHIP As of March 12, 2009 we have 712 Annual members and 242 Life Members...for a grand total of 954. . About 2 weeks ago I sent emails and letters out to 140 members who are in arrears. I am happy to report moderate success. I say that because I have in one way or another heard from several members. Some paid their dues, some sadly reported that they were writing to explain that the member in question had passed, I even had a couple of members (3) that resigned; One because of money, one because of age and one because she just did not want to be a member any longer. I cannot report that this has been a complete success until we hear from Larry Wing, our Assistant Treasurer who will be back from vacation on March 16, 2009. I am hoping that he is buried in checks from members. I can say with good confidence that our address books reflect an honest representation of our membership. There are no longer folks that have gone 2 years or more without paying. In fact, a few months ago I wrote to some of those members who had lapsed completely and we got about 5 or 6 renewals from that project. It was well worth my time and the stamps that were invested. THE FALL NEWSLETTER Originally I had hoped that between Barbara Pahlow, Barbara Mihalcik & myself that we could get the Fall Newsletters printed and mailed. That turned out to be more of a headache than I had bargained for. In the long run it was proven that it would be cheaper to have a printer do the Fall Newsletter. MEMBERSHIP DIRECTORY For a long time Raymond & I have been working together to try to get the address directories and the database in tune with one another. I am pleased to report that the project is coming along great. Ray recently purchased a copy of the Handy Address Book, which is what I use. We worked together to get the directories to him and for him to get his back to me and we have evolved the directories to a degree I began to think was hopeless. But now, thanks to Ray, the end of our travail is in sight. What I hope to be able to do when we have completely finished linking all of our members to the database is to be able to tell you how many descend from John, Daniel or Stephen, how many are over 90 or how many are up to date, how many were born in any given year, so on and so forth. We have an amazing tool in the Handy Address Book, only enhanced by how hard Ray has worked to get me up to date. Most importantly, if you ask for a district, or a state, I can produce it for you in a jiffy. It is no longer a task that takes me days or a couple of weeks. Thanks Ray for the help. I sure needed it. REUNION INFORMATION AND DUES NOTICES. As I write this report our Reunion notices and dues notices should be ready to be mailed by the printers. I apologize to everyone for my error in suggesting to Hal that we could mail both together, completely forgetting about our decision not to do that last summer at Cape Cod. It just seemed more cost effective to send the two out together but in reality I was wrong because a lot of folks do not even notice the dues notices when they are sent that way and then I have to send out repeated duns for dues. I completely agree with Lois Smith’s suggestion that we mail the dues notices with the OWL next year. I think that is a great idea. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ WEBSITE REPORT NEW WEB SITE SERVER Recently all of the free, personal web sites at AOL were removed for one reason or another. I affected me considerably because I not only had my Wing Library but 2 other family genealogy sites. It was incumbent on me to find an inexpensive server that would provide me with the space and the comparable services that AOL had provided. I found that Webhostingpad provided everything AOL had and much, much more of everything, including space. The price was very good and I went for it. As the days developed, I realized that this would be a good thing for the WFA as well. In fact, in 3 years we will save in excess of $700.00 by switching to our webhostingpad. It is a provider that offers considerably more space (virtually unlimited) and perks that never did come with AOL or our old provider. I spoke with Hal and Steve Button about this issue and they both agreed we should make the switch before our next payment was due to be paid to our old server in January of ’09. So, it happened that in November of 2008, I switched our server to Webhostingpad. Believe me, the next couple of days were real nail biters. It was with great relief that everything transferred without any apparent glitches other than the ones I created myself. I contacted the gentleman who has long been carrying around our domain name, begging for us to get it transferred to the WFA. That could not be done…. At least not yet but at least it is in my name now and he no longer has to worry about it. I plan to work on getting that in the Wing Family of America, Inc. name so no other web site host or hostess will have to worry about that. I will also get it transferred to our new server as soon as I figure out how to do that. That will be my next major project. They don’t make it easy. UPDATES TO WEBSITE After the first of the year, 2009, I updated the family site to what I think will probably remain the standard…at least for as long as I am hosting the site. There will be minor changes from time to time, maybe some additions, maybe some detractions, but for the most part I think what we have displayed now may very well be how we want to keep it. There is always something to be done at the web site but I can honestly say that we are finally seeing some real District Representative participation. The District Rep’s seem to be very happy to have their own pages about their districts and a few of them have been very forthcoming about what they want placed there. I think that is a good turn for the better. All of the reunion forms are on the web site and can be copied. The Online Sales are doing okay but Paula and Steve have more information about that. Recently it was suggested that we make a page for dues collections & include the ability to make donations from the same place. We have done that and it is working already. Thanks to Steve Button for that great idea. THAT CONCLUDES MY REPORT Toni Cox Nash March 12, 2009 REFLECTIONS ON HAL’S REFLECTIONS #1. I did not realize I was talking in “fiscal” years when I spoke about dues collections. I am more of an accountant that I realized. I just know that the whole thing is very confusing. I am happy to know that because of Jeff’s announcement last year that the dues’ notices will go out with the OWL. #2. I agree with Hal that the process of collecting dues is very complicated. It also seems that members get confused about it. They often send their dues to me and then I record them and send them to Larry who reports them and I have forgotten about sending the checks to Larry in the first place…and I get the report and see they have already paid…it does get complicated. It is also kind of a pain for new members to have to send out an application for membership to me and then a separate mailing to Larry with a check for membership. I would be perfectly willing to have the checks sent to me and I would gladly forward them to Larry after I have recorded the member’s dues in the directory. Larry can continue to make the reports and deposit the checks. I think that would be less confusing for our membership. I can change that on the web site in regard to new members but for now our dues’ notices will still say to send their checks to Larry. # 3. Regarding Electronic Newsletters….I have added a couple of forms to the web site to encourage our members to send us their email addresses and to give us an idea of how they would like the idea of electronic newsletters. I think it is a great idea. Many organizations save a great deal of money from electronic newsletters. In fact, more information and family matters could be put in the electronic newsletters than can go in the mailed newsletters. That is something else that we could include in the “revised” applications, ”would you prefer to receive electronic newsletters”. # 4. Sending the latest OWLS to new members. I have to disagree with Hal about changing this practice. I have done my best to get the old copies of the OWL’s on the sale page in a more inviting way and we have had some response. ( me and one other family member). Very small response but still that is better than none at all. However, a lot of the new members become new members because of the prospect of the receiving the latest OWL. The only recommendation that I could offer to appease Hal would be that we charge an additional $5.00 for the OWL up front…making that an option with their membership. That way, if they want the current copy (and most do) they could get it for a small charge and lessen our costs as well. That concludes my lengthy report and I do apologize for the length. Just wanted to say thank you for the opportunity, the very rare opportunity to get to know cousins on a level I never imagined. I have whined so much for the last year and a half, but now I know the full treasure that it is to be the Corresponding Secretary. I am starting to get the feel of it and it feels good. Toni Cox Nash