The End of an Era: The San Bernardino Valley Genealogy Society

Things are tough for everyone these days. This is as true for individuals as it is for genealogy societies. Today, I received a newsletter from the San Bernardino Valley Genealogical Society. Although they are not disbanding they are no longer holding meetings of any kind. They will continue to maintain their impressive and important collection, found at the California Room of the San Bernardino Public Library, http://www.sbpl.org/calif.html.

In their newsletter, the Frequent Flier it states:

“We are close to the middle of our fourth year under the Service Mode. We have so far accomplished this much. We have had a full roster of officers each year, all of whom,
after the first half of the first year, 2006 have well fulfilled their duties and responsibilities. Those who, in the beginning, did not, have left the organization and been
replaced.

The library has been maintained, and, in parts, errors in filing have been corrected. Additional material has been added. Our proposal to respond to queries for minimal pay
has been done. We have earned enough to pay all our expenses and donate $1000 to the library with another $500 donation about to be made.

We celebrated our fiftieth anniversary with a major party which included well planned and designed exhibits of our Society’s work as well as examples of individual
accomplishments in Genealogy as well as handouts and refreshments.

A detailed inventory of our holdings has begun and is continuing until completed.
Programs have been available for each monthly meeting during this time but one, when an error in date ensued.

According to this record, we should be in fine shape, but we are not. Though we have more paid up members than the group which started this organization over 50 years ago,
our members neither attend nor communicate to the officers regarding their desires and needs for speakers, classes, discussions or whatever. We have been told by one of our
long time members that it is commonplace for members not to attend.

Under those circumstances it has been decided by those members who never miss a meeting that there will be no future meetings. The Organization will not disband. Those who have been active members will continue as in the past three and a half years, to maintain the library, complete the inventory, including detailed instructions for the use of our collection, respond to queries, donate to the library much appreciated funds and work on our own genealogies. The publishing of the Frequent Flier will be limited to four times a year. It will include the Treasurer’s report, progress reports regarding the inventory and any publication, additions to our members, if such should occur…”

And so a Society who has been around for over 50 years is gone.