Have You Been Wondering About the Merger ?

It has been several months since the National Genealogical Society (NGS) and the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) announced our intent to merge the two organizations. Yes, it has been too long since we communicated about the merger. And yes, we have been working on the merger, and yes, it is a complicated process, and yes, there are still questions to be answered. And, yes! We are going to get this done.

Well, that was cathartic.

So let’s start again.

As you are aware, last summer, NGS and FGS announced that these two great organizations were planning to come together as one organization focused on supporting individual genealogists and genealogy societies. Since then, we’ve been hard at work getting a handle on all of the things that need to be done in order to make the merger successful. And it is quite a bit of work to do.

Organizations like NGS and FGS merge pretty frequently in the not-for-profit world. They do so to improve services to members or clients, to find efficiencies, to generate new collaborative ideas, and to grow their capabilities. And while each merger is unique, there are enough similarities in what needs to be done that books have been written on the topic and mergers are a frequent topic in not-for-profit conferences and seminars. A specialized area of not-for-profit law even exists to help organizations like us get through the details.

But none of that replaces the need for people to talk and figure out the details of what is needed to make a merger happen. That’s what we’ve been up to for the past several months.

This blog is your source for information about the merger process and what it takes to bring two genealogy organizations together. We’re thinking about two things as we go through this process and as we write this blog. First, it’s essential we communicate with you about what’s going on. Second, it's critical we have a place for you to share feedback and insights of your own. 

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Thanks for reading!