Membership Structure and House of Delegates

If you remember from our last blog, we clarified that if your FGS or NGS membership comes due between now and merger day—1 October 2020—we hope you will simply renew that membership.

Today we’d like to share a bit more about what membership will look like after the merger date.

Currently, organizations can be subscribers but not members of NGS. Likewise, individuals cannot be members of FGS.

The big change is that in the “new NGS" both individuals and organizations will be members and both will have voting rights on all National Genealogical Society matters.

For individuals:

Individual and family memberships (two individuals living in the same household) will remain the same. A new category for youths/ young adults will be initiated. The life membership category will be closed to new additions.

For organizations:

Dues rates for societies, family associations, and libraries will be simplified to two categories—large or small—determined by the number of members/ patrons. Outreach efforts will be made to bring in archives, museums, universities, and other institutions as "organizational members" with a flat-rate dues structure.

The "new NGS" will also create a House of Delegates to represent society and organization interests. This representative body will provide an opportunity for regular engagement with and among organizations and will be an avenue to provide feedback to the NGS Board.