Most FHISO members will have received an email on Friday about their membership expiring on 31 May 2019, and asking whether they’d like to renew. A lot of our members paid $20 to join FHISO back in 2013 when we first invited people to become members of the organisation. The $20 membership fee was described as an annual fee, but as setting up FHISO took far longer than anticipated, we felt it inappropriate to ask members to pay to renew their membership renewals while we were still establishing the organisation and started technical work in earnest. We therefore extended all memberships free of charge several times, most recently until 31 May 2019.
We now believe FHISO is now fairly well established, and with public drafts of six standard now available, technical work is well under way too. We plan to hold elections to the FHISO Board of Directors towards the end of July, to be followed by an Annual General Meeting. These will be conducted electronically so that members around the world can participate. The Board believes it is now appropriate to ask those wishing to retain their membership to pay to renew it. We encourage you to do so by 15 July to ensure you will be eligible to vote in the elections later that month.
We hope you continue to believe in FHISO’s objectives and are willing to support our on-going development of open genealogical standards by renewing your membership.