The Wolfensberger Family Association

Board of Directors Life Members Association Policies

POLICIES OF THE WOLFENSBERGER FAMILY ASSOCIATION

PURPOSE The purpose of the Wolfensberger Family Association is to provide communications about family-related events, affairs, history and other items of interest to members of this historic Swiss family. Communications will be carried out through a quarterly newsletter, The Wolfensberger, and an association site on the Internet World Wide Web. As it has since the mid-1990s, the association encourages continued in-depth research into the histories of these families in Europe, America and wherever our families may have lived. The purpose of these policies is to provide a guide for the consistent administration of the association.

INCORPORATION The Wolfensberger Family Association is a non-profit organization incorporated in the state of Texas as a 501(c)(7) organization. As such, membership fees and contributions are NOT tax deductible.

(The above section INCORPORATION was approved by the Board of Directors on October 30, 2004.)

MEMBERSHIP Any person who is a descendant of a Wolfensberger family, the name given residents of the family’s original home, or has an interest in the family is eligible for membership in this association. Currently, these families are recognized to be named Wolfensberger, Wolfersberger, Wolfensperger, Wolfersperger, Wolfenbarger, Wolfsperger, Wolfenberger, Wolfinbarger, Sparger, Spargur or any other variations of the spelling of the original name.

$10.00 for a single year or any portion thereof.
$18.00 for two years.
$26.00 for three years.

The directors may adjust this rate for cause. When a person joins the association he or she will receive four quarterly newsletters. If they join in the second, third or fourth quarter, they will receive back issues for the entire year.

MEMBERSHIP CLASSES There are three classes of membership: Honorary, Society and Regular. Honorary Membership is awarded to regular members who have performed a great service to the family over a long period of time. They are declared to be awarded life time free membership in the association by the Board of Directors. The Honorary Membership has the same privileges as Regular Membership. Society Membership is for Genealogical Societies, Historical Societies and Libraries. These organizations may be added or deleted at any time as appears to be proper by the President. These are free memberships and will receive the newsletters. Regular Memberships are all paid members that do not fall in one of the above categories.

OFFICERS Officers of the association are the President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Newsletter Editor and Publisher and Immediate Past President. All officers will be members of the association and shall be elected by the Board of Directors for a period of one year or until the end of that fiscal year. The officers will be elected by the Board of Director at their first meeting of that fiscal year.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Collectively, the Officers shall also be known as the Executive Committee. The purpose of the Executive Committee is to provide a smaller group where any of the Board of Directors may check on the feasibility of an idea. The Executive Committee does not have the authority to approve for the Board of Directors but may recommend to the Board the approval or disapproval of any idea coming before them.

PRESIDENT The President will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the association. This will include managing the finances and all other tasks that may be required to provide a smooth and continuous operation of the association. The President may assign tasks to the members of the Board of Directors or other members of the association on a temporary or annual basis.

VICE PRESIDENT The duties of the Vice-President are to assume all of the duties of the President in the absence of the President and may serve in additional capacities as determined by the Board of Directors or President.

VICE PRESIDENT OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS The Vice President of International Relations serves as a liaison between the Wolfensberger Family Association and WFA members, organizations, companies and other individuals in Switzerland and other European countries. The Vice President of International Relations is authorized to speak on behalf of the WFA in these European countries with potential new members, organizations and officials.

SECRETARY The duties of the Secretary are to produce the minutes of the meetings of the Board of Directors and send these minutes to the President, who shall reproduce and distribute these minutes to Board members. Also the Secretary will receive a copy of all correspondence addressed to the President or to the association and correspondence generated by the President.

TREASURER All income and expenses for the association will be recorded. These records will always be open to the members of the association. A bank account in the name of the Wolfensberger Family Association will be maintained and all income and expenses will go through this account. The income for the association shall consist of membership dues, contributions, the sale of incidental items and other sources with the approval of the Board of Directors. The expenses will be for the production and distribution of the newsletter, incidental expenses and project expenses. Any project must have the approval of the Board of Directors. The annual membership dues for the association will be established by the Board of Directors at a sufficient level to finance the newsletter and expenses of the association. When a project is selected by the Board of Directors there may be a need to call on the membership for additional contributions. Checks on the association will be signed by the Treasurer. In the absence of the Treasurer the checks may be signed by the President or Vice President.

At the discretion of the Board of Directors, the positions of the Secretary and Treasurer can be held by one person. Combining the positions will be approved by the Board by a motion approved by the majority of the Board members present at the meeting where such a motion is presented. Having the positions held by 2 different people requires no Board action. (Approved by the Board of Directors April 29, 2007)

HISTORIAN The duties of the Historian are to maintain the Archival data of the WFA genealogical database, make it available to members, and interested parties, receive additional family data from members and interested parties, and provide assistance to queries where possible to members and interested parties. The Historian may compile as needed and available all other related historical documents and data.

IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT The duties of the Immediate Past President shall be to serve as chairperson of the Nominating Committee under the direction of the President, and in any other capacities as requested by the President.

MEMBERSHIP CHAIRPERSON The membership chair person will be responsible for membership requests, membership records, recruiting of new members, distribution of family badges and providing pedigree charts for new members when their family records are received and entered, providing descendant reports when requested and providing a complete print out of all members of the association at least once a year to the Board of Directors. Any monies received will be forwarded to the Treasurer. All expenses incurred will be forwarded to the Treasurer along with records showing details of the expenditures.

FAMILY REUNION COORDINATOR The duties of the family reunion coordinator will be to encourage all subfamilies to hold family reunions, provide suggestions as to program and agenda, attend as many reunions as possible and provide reunion schedules and attendance information for newsletters.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS The Board of Directors shall consist of no more than fifteen persons who are all members of the association. All directors are elected for one year terms. There shall be at least three meetings of the Board of Directors per year. A year is from February through January. The dates of these meetings shall be selected by the President with written notification to each board member at least two weeks prior to that meeting. These meetings may be by conference telephone call. Generally these will be on a Saturday evening.

NOMINATION AND ELECTION OF BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEMBERS The Immediate Past President serves as chair of the Nominating Committee, as specified in WFA Policies. The Immediate Past President will confer with the President, and then present a list of nominees to the Board of Directors at the Board meeting preceding the last Newsletter to be published each year. Typically the last Newsletter of each year is published in November and typically the Board meeting preceding this is in September.

In addition a notice in the 3rd quarter Newsletter will request any members interested in serving on the Board to contact the Nominating Committee Chairperson or the President prior to the September Board meeting. The exact date for submitting a nominee will be mentioned in the announcement.

The Board will authorize publishing a ballot in the last (4th quarter) Newsletter of the year containing a list of nominees as presented to the Board, plus space for write-in candidates. All members of the Wolfensberger Family Association are entitled to one vote for as many Board member nominees as desired, up to the number authorized in these Policies.

All ballots will be returned by hard copy or by e-mail to the Treasurer no later than December 15. The Treasurer can reject any ballots not complying with this Policy, but any ballots rejected will be noted in the Treasurer’s report on the election.

The Treasurer will report the election results to the current Board members, including the Nominating Committee Chairperson, via hard copy or e-mail no later than December 31. Any disputes in the election will be resolved by the current Board of Directors prior to the new Board being seated. The decision of the Board of Directors will be final.

Newly elected Board members attend the first Board of Directors meeting of the following year. At this meeting, the current Board members will vote to accept the results of the election. Once the results of the election have been accepted, the new Board members are seated and able to participate in all Board deliberations and votes. Also at this meeting the Board will elect officers for the coming year, in compliance with the Policies of the Association.

(The above section Nomination and Election of Board of Directors Members was approved by the Board of Directors on October 30, 2004.)

NEWSLETTER EDITOR AND PUBLISHER The Wolfensberger newsletter Editor and Publisher is responsible for the publishing of the newsletter for the association. All Members of the Board of Directors shall endeavor to provide at least one article for the newsletter each year. The Editor and the President should continually request articles for the newsletter from the membership. The Editor produces and mails the Newsletters to all registered members and to others as seems appropriate. Every effort should be made to mail the quarterly newsletters in January, April, July and October of each year.

NOMINATING COMMITTEE The nominating committee shall consist of the chairperson and two other members of the Board of Directors as selected by the President. The nominating committee will be responsible for providing a list of nominees to the Board of Directors, the list of Officers and the list of standing committee chairpersons for the next fiscal year. The standing committees are Membership and Nominating.

QUORUM A quorum of the Board of Directors shall be those attending any meeting of the Board of Directors.

RECOGNITION OF MEMBERS OF THE WOLFENSBERGER FAMILY ASSOCIATION The Board of Directors of the Wolfersberger Family Association can decide to recognize members for outstanding service to the Association. The Board, at its sole discretion, will establish criteria for such recognition, the form of the recognition, and those to be recognized.

Currently there are 2 forms of recognition being used: The Heritage Award and Life Membership in the Association. The Heritage Award is presented to those members of the WFA who have provided outstanding contributions to the WFA through genealogical research; by undertaking and completing projects of special importance to the WFA; or by contributions to the success of the WFA over a significant period of time.

Life Membership in the WFA can be granted to any member who has made significant contributions to the WFA.

Any member of the Association can nominate a person to receive recognition. The Board of Directors will decide at a regular or special Board meeting who, if any, of the nominees, will be recognized.

The exact form of the recognition will be determined by the Board but will not be
monetary or anything of significant financial value.

The Board has the authority to modify the selection criteria at any time or to add or delete any form of recognition, even though such recognition has been provided in the past.

The Secretary shall maintain a record of the individuals who have received each of these forms of recognition.

(The above section Recognition of Members of the Wolfensberger Family Association was approved by the Board of Directors on October 30, 2004.)

AMENDMENTS TO THESE POLICIES These policies may be modified, changed or added to at any time as approved by the Board of Directors.

USE OF MAILING LIST FOR WFA SALES The WFA mailing list is to be available only for official family business or by endorsement as directed and approved by the Officers of the Association and/or by the Board of Directors in quorum. Any other use of the mailing list is strictly prohibited. The mailing list itself will not be dispensed to any member of the Association, unless they are a member of the Board of
Directors.

Any "announcement" of available resources or sale of products which require payment to cover expense of production, will be made through the WFA newsletter itself, or will be produced by the Officers as directed by the President.

Endorsement of WFA symbols, such as flags, maps, books, memorabilia, etc. will be made only after careful consideration by the Officers and the Board of Directors. Such items must relate to the WFA. All other projects, such as cemetery enhancements, also require this same endorsement.

“Project”: Any Policy which requires funds to be sent from the membership to purchase or pay a service or product.
“Primary-Source Provider”: original provider/producer of the “project”.
“Liaison Contact Intermediary”: “project” director who is a member of the association.
“Cause”: Conduct detrimental to the Association and/or its members, misuse of Association resources, use of the Association membership list for activities not approved by the Board of Directors, or other inappropriate activity which is detrimental to the reputation of the members of the Association and/or the Board.

POLICY NO. 1 The Executive Committee shall consider any project and vote as a committee, via email, or by other means as approved by the President. If approved, projects shall be presented as a Policy to the Board of Directors, for vote as specified in WFA Policies.

POLICY NO. 2 Any project adopted by the Board of Directors of the Wolfensberger Family Association, shall require the following: All monies collected for any project supported by WFA shall be “received by” the Treasurer, and all expenses supported by receipt documents shall be “paid out” by the Treasurer as specified in the Policies of the Wolfensberger Family Association.

POLICY NO.3 Any project which requires payment for work rendered, shall have on file the following prior to Executive committee consideration:

Record of primary-source provider, including name, address, and phone number shall be presented to the President of the Association, and a copy shall be sent to the Treasurer.

Written Bids shall be received from the primary provider/s prior to consideration for projects, regardless of liaison contact intermediaries, i.e., project director.

Written notice shall be given directly to the interested parties that “the Board, individually and collectively shall be held harmless and not liable in the regard of any failure on the part of the supplier or any liaison intermediaries. Further, the Board will retain the right to sue for legal fees, and incurred expenses, in addition to lost monies, if the Executive Committee so recommends. Such written notice shall be signed by the “provider”, the “intermediary”, the Treasurer, the President of the association. Notice shall be given in the newsletter or by other written means to those who order such products or projects.

POLICY NO. 4 The President, only in conjunction with the Executive Committee, shall be empowered to remove any member of the Board of Directors at any time during the fiscal year of the Association. Such action shall be based on “cause”, with the President’s vote to be deemed as 2 in the case of a tie vote. Such a Policy to remove Board membership will be presented to the Board of Directors, after the Executive committee has voted. The Board of Directors will then vote on the Policy as specified in the Policies of the Wolfensberger Family Association.

Notes: The original POLICIES were approved 5 November 1994; Revision Number 1 approved 11 December 1995; Revision Number 2 approved 5 February 1995; Revision Number 3 was approved 21 Sep 1996; Revision No. 4 was approved 1 February 1997; Revision #5 approved 14 April 2001; Revision #6 was approved 14 July 2001; Revision #7 approved 19 October 2002. Revision #8 approved March 28, 2004. Revision #9 (Nomination of the Board of Directors, Incorporation and Recognition of Members) approved October 30, 2004. Revision #10 (addition of Historian and Vice President of International Affairs) approved January 8, 2006. Revision #11 (definition of Vice President of International Affairs) approved April 9, 2006. Revision #12 (allowing combination of Secretary and Treasurer positons; elimination of Membership preparing mailing labels) approved April 29, 2007.