Annual report 2023-2024 

Hello everyone, 

Welcome to this 34th. meeting of the General Assembly of the Association des Familles Demers Inc. 

It is with great pleasure that I submit to you the report of our activities for the year 2023-2024 as well as the projects and / or changes that we wish to put forward for the year 2024-2025. 

I would like to thank all the people who give generously of their time. Our directors are volunteers. They constitute a rejuvenated and dynamic team and contribute with their generosity and determination in making our Association a unique organization. 

So here’s what we’ve accomplished during the past year: 

GOVERNANCE 

Four meetings of the Board of Directors were held: April 15, 2023 (video conference) 

September 23, 2023 (face-to-face) 

November 5, 2023 (video conference) 

February 11, 2024 (video conference) 

Executive Board meetings: 

April 12, 2023 

August 1, 2023 

February 1, 2024 

We also had very many exchanges via the internet or the telephone. 

At our Annual General meeting in July 2023, two directors did not renew their mandates, and no new directors were elected. A director resigned during the term of office (February 2024), and we have a director on sick leave. 

It seems increasingly important to recruit new administrators in order to pass on the knowledge of the ‘old’ and thus ensure the continuity of our association. 

NEWSLETTER COMMITEE 

In charge: Andrée Demers in collaboration with the other members of the Board of Directors 

As usual, we produced two Arbre du Mai bulletins. For the December 2023 publication, we had a print run of 122 copies, of which 22 copies are mailed to the United States. A total of eighteen members receive the newsletter by e-mail. 

Our series of historical capsules on André’s descendants established in the Outaouais continued with the collaboration of Maurice Demers. Also, our colleague Suzanne gave us a nice summary of our July gathering. For her part, Johanne provides us with genealogical information (ancestry title) and historical finds. 

In November, the board approved the purchase of Microsoft 365 software, allowing administrators who produce articles in our newsletter to work with the same version of software, which makes it easier to work with when we have file shares to do. The newsletter is now produced with Publisher software, which is more suitable for editing multi-page documents. 

I would like to thank all those who collaborate closely or remotely in the realization of our newsletter. 

Do you want to publish an article, a slice of life about you or your ancestors, old or recent photos of an event? Share with us those events in order to bring diversity to our newsletter! info@famillesdemers.org 

MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE 

In charge: Alain Demers 

Marketing / Promotional Products: We currently have an interesting inventory of items bearing the image of our coat of arms. Just before the July gathering, we added to this inventory of beautiful ceramic mugs that were very popular! At the moment, we do not intend to add new promotional items, but we are looking to remake cups identical to the few already in stock, in order to be able to fill the demand at the next gathering. 

All of our promotional items, as well as a revised interactive order form, are available on our website in the section Boutique. These items are all very reasonably priced and you could use them as gifts for your family members. All these items are also available on site during our annual gatherings. 

Communications: Alain is in charge of publishing articles highlighting exploits or other interesting facts about Demers on our Facebook page. We try to vary the topics in these publications. We have 577 subscribers, and Alain frequently exchanges with descendants of Demers from across North America. 

Facebook is a way to reach you quickly. If you would like to be notified when a new post is made, go to our Facebook page and click on “like” at the bottom of the board member photo, then select the “Favorites” option and Save. So you will see each new post on your Facebook news feed. 

If you are aware of an event of interest highlighting a Demers let us know at: info@famillesdemers.org 

Our new website is regularly updated by Maurice. There is a lot of information on our past activities and in preparation (gathering), on Demers of yesterday and today, as well as several photos of plaques and commemorative sites involving the Demers. Also, a section is devoted to the first five generations of our ancestors. Maurice has built a user-friendly and easy to read website (large print!). Whether you are francophone or anglophone, I invite you to visit it: www.famillesdemers.org 

MEETINGS AND GATHERINGS COMMITTEE 

In charge: Hélène Demers assisted by all members of the Board of Directors 

The gathering in Deschambault-Grondines was a success and the temperature was perfect for that day (luckily we had air conditioning in the room!). For that day, we had 44 registrations. We made some very interesting visits to the church of Saint-Joseph (Deschambault), the Old Presbytere and the Moulin de la Chevrotière, and members had free time to visit the village or other attractive places like the Windmill of Grondines. We also honored our second Hall of Fame member, Mr. Jean-Marc Demers, who gave us the honor of presenting us with his Gold Medal of the Lieutenant Governor of Quebec. 

We also held our Annual General meeting at that meeting. The Executive Council was also re-elected. 

GENEALOGY AND HISTORY COMMITTEE 

In charge: Johanne Demers 

Currently our genealogical database contains more than 84 000 people. An increase of more than 1500 names compared to the same period last year! 84.29% of people come from Canada and 15.51% from the United States. Over the past two years, Johanne has consulted more than 11,000 documents to improve our database. These are mainly BMB (baptisms, marriages, burials), death notices, ” Find a Grave ” and censuses. She now records the origin of the information added to the database. We also have a second Demers database for which we could not trace the ancestry to one of the 3 brothers. It contains more than 20,000 people. 

Heredis on Line Premium, which we had free for one year, allowed us to temporarily publish our database on 11 generations, accessible for consultation by our members via a password. The trial was inconclusive, with few consultation requests during the trial period. 

On our Ancestry account, Johanne published a line of André (Maurice) and Étienne (Raymond and Philippe), which are in addition to the line of Jean (Alain) that was already available. We have not had any requests for information on these lines via our account. 

Andrée and her daughter scanned 861 death notices in order to reduce the Association’s “paper” archives, which are added to the database of scanned archives on the Demers. 

Johanne continues to answer genealogical questions (when possible to find) and helps in researching historical events. Suzanne and Maurice have written several historical texts over the past year, either for publication or for conference. 

Members interested in publishing their family history can contact info@famillesdemers.org 

Johanne can receive your genealogical requests via the Association’s website or at SecretariatDemers@hotmail.com 

TREASURY 

In charge: Luc Gingras 

During the General Annual Meeting of July 8, 2023, Luc presented his current financial statement as well as forecast for the coming year with the analysis report completed by the analysts mandated to accomplish this task, Marie-Paule Demers and Jacques Fortier. Thank you both for your work. 

We are now able to receive various payments by Interac wire for our Canadian members (membership fees, purchase of promotional materials, etc.), but this is not currently possible for our US members. We hope that this will eventually be possible. 

Luc has prepared the statement of revenues and disbursements for the period from April 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024, as well as the estimates for 2024-2025, which you will be able to consult in this same booklet. 

SECRETARIAT 

In charge: Johanne Demers 

Since June 2022, Johanne has assumed the secretarial position. She works on the preparation of agendas and the drafting of minutes. For their part, Rosy, Suzanne, Johanne and Andrée reread various texts. Rosy and Maurice also translate some texts. Johanne continues in the very special task of tracking membership cards. Since April 1, 2023, 8 new members have joined the Association, for a total of 132 active members. 

I must mention that at the beginning of the year, the renewals of annual and five-year membership cards are going very well. This leads us to believe that our members appreciate our work and what is presented to them. 

Thank you for your interest, 

Andrée Demers, President 

Translation: 

Jocelyne Demers-Owoka (281) 

Certified Translator FR-ANG 

Ideal Translation