As a brief interruption to the discussion of the Germanna Foundation, let me add a bit on the Kaefer family which, in 1717, appears to be living in Zaberfeld. They leave very few references in the church there. One of these references does say that the family came from Ansbach in Bavaria. When the emigrants left Gresten, Austria, about 1655 for Germany, many of them settled in Bavaria, especially around Dietenhofen. Ansbach is not far from Dietenhofen. I did not mention this the other day when I gave my suspicions that the Kaefer and Planckenbuehler families in Austria might have been related and left together for Germany.
(Back to the Foundation and Association.)
We were talking about the Germanna Foundation and the Germanna Association. I believe it is the case that in the Constitution and Bylaws of the Germanna Foundation do not give the members any vote. (Members are those who pay dues to belong to the "Foundation", and are not to be confused with "Trustees".) All of the power resides in the Board of Trustees, which elects new Trustees when the present Trustees die or resign. The status of the voting rights of the members is a confusing point, as there were two documents on the subject which seemed to say different things. To my knowledge, there has never any vote by the members. There have been some open discussions, brought about more by the determination of some of the members than by the desire of the management (Trustees) to foster any discussion. In particular, I remember one time that the President wished to promote an idea and asked John Pierce to speak in favor of it. I asked for the floor at the conclusion and spoke against the idea. This was at a general meeting of the members. No vote was taken by the members on the question though. The voting was left to the Trustees, who voted in favor of the management’s proposal (except for one Trustee who voted against it).
At a time when I was a Trustee, I wanted to change the Constitution and the Bylaws to give the members a voting right. I felt that unless we empowered the members we should not ask them to do something. I also felt that the Trustees should be more responsive to the membership and not a sounding board for the administration.
The present Trustees have adopted a compromise position trying to balance the protection of the assets of the corporation and the voting power of the membership. The present Trustees remain with the old Constitution and Bylaws, and the members have no vote in the Foundation. This was done in an effort to protect the assets. The members at the Reunion did discuss as interested people, not as members of the Foundation, whether to form an Association. Fifteen people had already agreed to serve as the Directors of the newly formed Association. The vote to form this Association was not a vote of members of the Foundation who have no vote in anything but as a group of interested citizens. The Association is not incorporated but is more informal. Its rules and bylaws can be anything that the members want them to be. They can specify the conditions for membership in the Association and whether there are even officers.
(24 Jul 06)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.