How much do you know about the inner workings of your genealogy society? Such organizations would include the larger societies, such as National Genealogical Society or the New England Historic Genealogical Society. It also includes smaller societies, such as the African-Atlantic Genealogical Society, the Charlotte County (Florida) Genealogical Society, and the Dallas (Texas) Genealogical Society. The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman.
Do you know how much money is collected each year by your society? Are the total fees collected increasing or decreasing each year? Do you know how much of that money is spent? Even more important, do you know HOW it is spent? How much of it is spent on members’ services versus on the building or on salaries? In fact, just what is the salary of the executive director, CEO, or whatever the position is called? How about the salaries of the other senior executives of the society?
Would you like to check similar numbers for a museum or a historical society or a charity that asks you to donate money? How much of your donation is paid out to the charity’s needs versus how much is put into the senior executives’ pockets?
Sure, you can read the societies’ or charities’ financial statements in their annual reports. I’ve read many of those in recent years and can tell you that such annual reports are always painstakingly written in order to present each organization’s financial picture in the best possible light. While U.S. laws dictate that the published financial information must be accurate, it is easy to omit a few items that are not specifically required by statute. Compensation for senior executives is one such figure that frequently seems to be missing from the reports distributed to members.
Would you like a detailed and unbiased “second opinion” as to the entire financial picture? That includes salaries as well as how the rest of the money is spent. Luckily, that information is easy to obtain.
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