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Mission and Purpose
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President's Message Summer 2009 Someone pinch me, please! I must be dreaming. On Friday, May 29, 2009, the Ohio Genealogical Society will stop dreaming and some 175 members, friends, Bellville residents, political supporters and contractors’ representatives will join together at 10:30 a.m., rain or shine, for the groundbreaking for our new library-archives complex on State Route 97 near I-71. Several members shared the dream in a big way. Samuel Isaly, of Mansfield’s Isaly Dairy family, stepped up with a $300,000 donation and obtained the right to name the library the Samuel D. Isaly Library of the Ohio Genealogical Society, in memory of his father. The family of Ohio’s Cemetery Lady, Lolita Guthrie, donated about $30,000 and the Volunteer Work Room will be named in her honor. Another long-time Board member, Jean Barnes, and her friends have donated more than $30,000 in Jean’s honor. Non-members also have a place in our dream. About two years ago, the Richland County Foundation offered a $50,000 challenge grant if we could encourage our members to donate an additional $200,000. We accomplished that challenge in about eighteen months. About a year earlier, OGS applied for a USDA low interest loan and we were awarded a $600,000 loan. Last year, the final big chunk fell into place when we obtained a $350,000 line item in the State Capital Improvements Budget. State Representative Jay Goyal of Mansfield and Senate President Bill Harris of Ashland were instrumental in shepherding this money through the legislature. The dream was shared by hundreds of the rest of our members and chapters, whose gifts ranged from a few dollars to several thousand. These donations added up slowly over the past few years to put us in the position of realizing the “impossible dream.” The money from the State of Ohio does not have to be repaid, but the USDA money is in the form of a thirty-year, low interest loan that we are obligated to repay. In the current economy, some people feel that loans do not need to be repaid. I do not share that opinion; however, I cannot afford to pay off the USDA loan myself. Your OGS leaders negotiated a very favorable interest rate with no penalty for pre-payment. I would not be upset to see OGS make our first loan repayment before we dedicate the building. OGS really needs your help, fellow genealogists. We’re the biggest and the best state genealogical society in the United States. We continue to need your further financial commitment to keep us in that enviable position. As our library expands into a larger space, our mission also needs to expand. A newly created committee is planning the steps toward digitization of some of our one-of-a-kind resources for inclusion on the member side of our website. We need your commitment to help raise 1.7 million dollars for our endowment fund. The interest from this fund will be available to finance new programs and staff for OGS so that we can better serve your genealogical needs. When you consider your options, please consider three areas of OGS need – Endowment, USDA loan repayment and Operating. When we kicked off our building fund campaign, we used the slogan “Dream it, Plan it, Build it.” The dream is progressing according to our plan; when we meet on May 29, we are entering the “Build it” phase of the project. On second thought, don’t pinch me. This is such a nice dream – I don’t want to wake up. E. Paul Morehouse, |
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