(Discussion of the Germanna Foundation, continued.)
The charter for the Germanna Foundation stated that the President was C. H. Huffman (he was NOT a Germanna descendant) and his home address in Harrisonburg, Virginia, was used as the address for the Corporation. Two more points in the Articles of Incorporation were:
- The period for the duration of the corporation is unlimited.
- The amount of real estate to which the holdings of the corporation are at any time to be limited is one thousand acres. Witness the following signatures this 8th day of February 1956.
Signed: T. W. Fishback, C. H. Huffman, B. L Stanley, Frank C. Switzer, John W. Wayland
To obtain a tax exempt status the corporation had to file an amendment to the Articles of Incorporation to the effect that in the event of the dissolution the assets, after all debts had been paid, were to go to Literary Fund of the State of Virginia.
It has also been necessary to file amendments to change the address of the corporation which has been in Richmond and in Culpeper besides Harrisonburg.
The corporation has adopted By-Laws. At one time, I had a small booklet of these, but in preparing for these notes I could not locate it. I do seem to remember that there were conditions in the By-Laws which were in conflict with the Articles of Corporation. Of course, the Articles took precedence. I seem to remember also that the By-Laws called for an annual financial report to the members, where the membership was defined as those paying dues.
There will be a break in general to these notes. I have been disappointed that I received very little comment from readers about the Association. When I was a Foundation Trustee, I had recommended and did some work on revisions to the Charter and By-Laws. I was disappointed then at the lack of interest on the part of the Trustees, Mary Doyle Johnson and John Gott excepted.
If the Foundation is not everything that you hoped it would be, now is your chance under the umbrella of the Association to make improvements. Do not wait for the Directors of the Association to take action; they are good people but they need your help.
(1 Aug 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.