N**&*S

by Cliopatria

There are strange developments at the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. Its Board of Directors has approved the sale of its building at 122 E. 58th Street in Manhattan. The sale would also force its tenants -- the Holland Society of America, the Huguenot Society of America, the Society of Mayflower Descendants in the State of New York, and others -- to find space elsewhere. Rather than submit the proposed sale to the membership for a vote, the Board persuaded a general meeting of the membership to alter its by-laws to make members of the Board the only voting members of the NYG&BS (thus fulfilling the promise of its acronym). Unless they are trustees, even life-members are no longer voting members of the N**&*S. Still, it is accepting $60 per year for annual memberships and $7500 for corporate life memberships. The controversy, summarized here, may be the biggest upheaval in local NY history circles since Richard Gilder and Lewis Lehrman seized control of the New York Historical Society. It has genealogy bloggers speculating about the disposition of NYG&BS assets. Thanks to Ben Brumfield for the tip.

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Laura H. Congleton - 10/23/2007

Yes, it is nice to be able to correct errors where they crop up so others aren't misled.

Trustees of many organizations tend to discuss matters, vote, and then put their recommendations to a vote by the general membership. The NYGBS Trustees vote or recommendation or desire to sell the building had no weight until the membership agreed to do so. However, the vote seemed very much like a foregone conclusion, which is always distressing in a democratic process.

What I was correcting in your post was the perception that the Trustees dissolved the membership BEFORE the vote to sell the building and so they COULD sell the building, neither of which is correct or represented in the links you included. I was also a little taken aback that the post was presented as NEWS, when in fact it was already history. ;-D

Ralph E. Luker - 10/17/2007

Ms. Congleton, Thanks for your information. If I have no sense of shame, it is because events at the NYG&BS are not exactly at the center of attention for our blog, which has a world-wide, rather than a local NY, audience and one of the functions of a blog is to allow persons like yourself to offer correcting information. Were I being paid to do this and if my reputation as a historian depended on it, that might be something else. As you fail to note, the Board of Trustees of the NYG&BS did, in fact, vote to sell the building before the membership did. I assume that you've been assiduously correcting the sources of my information, as well as correcting me.

Laura H. Congleton - 10/17/2007

This post is not only old news, but is also inaccurate. As a member of the NYGBS (or technically, a former member since there are no longer members), I was present at BOTH votes.

In October 2006, the members voted overwhelmingly (and sadly, in my own personal opinion) to sell the building. Please note, I said "the members" voted. That is exactly what happened. I am uncomfortable with how the vote was handled, but it was not the trustees who voted. Also, many of the tenants mentioned your blog post (Oct. 11, 2007) have already vacated the building and relocated. For example the Mayflower Society is now at 44th Street.

More recently (in July 2007), the members voted (again, I was on the losing end) to alter the By-Laws and eliminate the voting membership. There were many posts on genealogy blogs about this vote at the time, so I am surprised you are only finding out about it now, some 3 months after the fact.

Please note, those events happened in the order mentioned above and more than 9 months apart. Shame on the poster for not being better informed.