Florida Society Sons of the American Revolution

1. Florida SocietySons of the American Revolution Workshop for Secretaries Or - - - I have to do WHAT? August 26, 2011

2. Goals: • Cover many of the practical “how-to’s” • Convey how the local, state, and national societies fit and work together • Share ideas that work / best practice • How the state secretary can be of more help to the local chapter

3. Items Internal to the Local Chapter • Maintain membership roster • Membership directory • Committee membership list • Meeting minutes – chapter and executive • Upcoming program/meeting notices • Issues dealing with local elections (ballot preparation, etc)

4. Items Reported to the State Society • Items not reported to the state secretary • Chapter challenge report • Earl Marlin Publicity • Stark award (Veterans) • Public Safety award report • Reimbursement requests from FLSSAR Endowment Trust Fund

5. Items Reported to the State Society • Items reported to the state secretary • Chapter officers (and also to webmaster) • Address changes* • Death of a member • Emeritus membership requests • Chapter awards (to chapter members) *Make the address change in the National database

6. Membership Issues • Process – Who does it? • New members • Reinstatement • Transferring(In/Out) • Dual membership • Within State • Between states • Life membership • ChapterStateNationalState • ChapterStateNational • (In) NationalStateChapter • (Out) ChapterStateNational • (FLSSAR) Both ChaptersState • (Other) MemberChapterState • MemberChapterState

7. Annual Report - Timeline • Send out dues notices- Sept • National dues: $30 Florida dues: $20 • Receive from state secretary - in October • Complete roster based on state records (Nov.) • Tally form to calculate dues • By December 1st • Correct roster as needed • Mark members as Paid; Dropped; Resigned • Send back marked up roster, dues form, and dues • Due date: on December 1st

8. Annual Report - Tasks State Secretary tasks Chapter Secretary Tasks Put notice in the 1st Chapter Newsletter about dues. In mid-October, begin preparing Annual Report using chapter information sheet from State Secretary. Before December 1st , submit chapter annual report with Dues Check. Before December 31st, submit late dues payments. Work with State Secretary to resolve membership issues. • In August email chapters to put notice in their October Newsletter about dues • In mid-September email chapters about the annual report process. • In late September compare our database to the National database. • In mid-October email chapters their membership lists, the chapter information sheet, instructions, and the dues payment form

9. State Secretary - Completing Annual Report for National • Make any corrections (addresses, etc) in database. • Mark as Dropped or Resigned any member that hasn’t paid dues. • Verify the count on the chapter’s dues payment form. • Record the breakdown in the Excel worksheet. • Record the payment. • Make any necessary changes to the chapter information sent via the chapter form. • Hold any reinstatements until after National Reconciliation completed or March 1st.

10. Check lists • Items accomplished • Items internal to the local chapter * Used for Annual report; maintain in ‘Real Time’ • maintain membership roster * • membership directory • committee membership list • meeting minutes – chapter and executive • upcoming program/meeting notices • issues dealing with local elections (ballot preparation, etc)

11. Check lists • Items accomplished • Itemstobereported • Chapter officers (and also to FLSSAR webmaster) • Address changes * • Death of a member • Emeritus II & III membership requests * Include in Annual Report

12. Check lists • Items accomplished • items not reported to the state secretary • Chapter Challenge report • Earl Marlin Publicity • Stark award (Veterans Affairs) • Public Safety award report • Reimbursement requests from FLSSAR Endowment Trust Fund

13. Documents & Forms • Obituary Form (to State Secretary & State Chaplain) - http://www.flssar.org/Docs/Forms/ObitRpt.pdf • FLSSAR Endowment Trust Fund Reimbursement requests • Request for Reinstatement 0918* • Request for Transfer of Membership 0919* • Chapter Challenge/Americanism spreadsheet - * http://www.sar.org/NSSAR-Forms

16. Annual Report – Membership Roster • Here is the information you need to file your chapter’s annual report. I have tried to keep these instructions as simple as possible while still being complete. If you have questions please don’t hesitate to ask. This is especially true for secretaries that are new this year. Aside from the decrease in Junior Member Dues, there are no changes. • Your Goal: • The annual report accomplishes three main purposes. • We need to know who paid dues for the coming year and need to collect this money. • We want to find and correct any errors in the information we have for each member. • We need to update the information the state secretary has on the chapters. • To accomplish these goals you’ll be completing 3 forms: • 1. Membership Roster (in EXCEL) • Attached is the EXCEL membership list I have for your chapter as of this date. • First, as best you can, check the information (address, phone numbers, email, etc) for each member. If you find an error write the correction in the blank spaces between the names. Regarding email addresses, please do whatever you can to make the address clear- (distinguishing between the number 1 and the letter l, for example). If it is easier for you to email me a separate file with names and email addresses that will quite acceptable. • Second, at the far right under the column marked “Paid?” indicate whether the member • Has paid dues (write ‘paid’ or ‘yes’); or has not paid dues (write ‘dropped’ or ‘resigned’) • [FYI: Typically a member who tells you they will not be renewing their membership is considered to have ‘Resigned’. A member who just doesn’t pay dues is considered ‘dropped’. The result is the same, but some people like to note the distinction.] •  If a member is Active Military or joined since Nov 1, please indicate these situations under the “Paid?” column. • Third, add the names and information of any new members that joined your chapter (in any way: new, transfer, etc) that aren’t on your list and should be. There are a few transactions pending at the National level, so you may have a few such additions.

17. Annual Report – Membership Roster - 2

18. Annual Report – Membership Roster - 3 2. Payment Form I’ve included a form that will help you determine who owes how much. It will also help you indicate how you arrived at the amount of the check you’ll send. 3. Chapter Information Form Please correct any inaccurate information and fill in any missing information. I am especially interested in three items. The current chapter officers. I do not have current information from several chapters Which chapter officer should receive membership certificates when they are mailed and Which members from your chapter are members of the BOM  A word about BOM members: Not everyone that attends a Board of Management Meeting is entitled to vote. I’ve reprinted the relevant section from the FLSSAR ByLaws here and bolded the parts that pertain to chapters.   Section 1 Membership The membership of the BOM shall include only persons who are members in good standing of the FLSSAR, and who are listed in at least one of the following categories:  persons who are lifetime members of the BOM by virtue of being a past President of the FLSSAR, a recipient of the Patriot Medal, or an incumbent or past elected officer of the NSSAR; persons who are members of the BOM by virtue of being, and while being, an elected officer of the FLSSAR; appointed incumbent FLSSAR Committee Chairman; an incumbent National Trustee from Florida; an incumbent Chapter President; and the most recent Past President of a chapter, i.e., the person who preceded an incumbent Chapter President in office; if a chapter has no recent Past President it shall name another of its members to serve on the BOM; persons who have been appointed by chapters having more than forty mem­bers on the basis of one additional member of the BOM for each forty chapter members or fraction thereof more than the first forty, the term of office of such additional members of the BOM to be coterminous with that of the Chapter President incumbent at the time of their appoint­ment to the BOM.

19. Annual Report – Membership Roster - 4 A member of the BOM who is unable to attend a meeting may name, in writing, another member of the FLSSAR to attend and act in his stead; provided, however, that no person may have more than one vote. Members of the FLSSAR who are not members of the BOM may attend and participate in debate but may not vote. On the form I’ve asked you to designate those from your chapter who will be voting members of the BOM. You may not know the answer and need to work out the answer at your next chapter meeting. If that’s the case, please write on the sheet when you will email me that information. Sending the Report Mail the 3 forms, along with 1 check made out to the FLSSAR. The check should include state and national dues for each member as appropriate. You are welcome to email the Chapter Information Form and/or the Membership Roster to me. But you need to mail the Payment Form with the check. Deadline The deadline this year is on or around December 1st. I must mail the state report to National prior to January 1st and meeting your deadline will make it possible for me to meet mine. After a few years of doing the state report, Kevin can tell you that your deadline can be flexible. It takes a fair amount of time to process each chapter and so as long as I have a few in on time and a few arrive each subsequent day everything works out fine. What I won’t be able to handle is a lot of chapters mailing reports in late December.

20. Annual Report – Membership Roster - 5 Late Paying Members So the next question is: What should you do about members who pay late? Don’t hold up the report for them. Send it in on time. You can amend it easily by following the instructions here: If the member pays you prior to Dec. 28th, email me to let me know who paid, then send 1 check with their state and national dues After Dec. 28th we have to reinstate the member. I’m not permitted to mail reinstatements in until March 1st –or after National Completes their reconciliation of all state societies. If you get any late payers between Dec. 29th and late February, send me the name(s) of the member(s) and 1 check for the national and state dues. After March 1st, it helps a great deal if you send 2 checks to reinstate a member- one for their state dues and a second for the national dues. I realize writing 2 checks is a bit of a pain, but anytime I have to send the National Society money it either has to come directly from the chapters in the form of a check made out to National or I have to request a check from our treasurer. He is quite prompt but it still adds as much as a week to the processing time. Summary In summary, here’s your task: • Correct the membership roster (addresses, spelling, additions, etc) • Indicate on the membership roster, at the right, their status for 2011 (paid, dropped, resigned, etc.) • Fill in the payment form in order to compute the amount of dues owed and get a check made out to the FLSSAR • Complete and correct the Chapter Information Form • Make a copy of the report for your records • Send the check, the payment form, the Chapter Information Form, and the corrected/noted membership roster around Dec. 1st Email me if you have anyone paying dues after you send in the report.