Annual report 2025-2026

Hello everyone, 

Welcome to this 36th. 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 2025-2026 as well as the projects that we wish to put forward for the year 2026-2027.

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

• Five meetings of the Board of Directors were held:
  • April 6, 2025 (video conference)
  • May 10, 2025 (video conference)
  • June 7, 2025 (face-to-face in St-Philippe)
  • September 13, 2025 (face-to-face in Drummondville)
  • November 9, 2025 (video conference)
  • February 22, 2026 (video conference)

• We also had very many exchanges via Messenger, email and the telephone.

 

In the fall of 2025, we learned of the impending dissolution of the Fédération des Associations de Familles du Québec(FAFQ), known prior to 2015 as the Fédération des familles-souches du Québec (FFSQ). The mission of this nonprofit organization was to bring together, represent, and defend the interests of family associations. It played a key role in promoting history and genealogy through the organization of events and the dissemination of knowledge. The FAFQ particularly supported the growth of numerous family associations during the 1990’s and 2000’s. Our longest-serving board members could attest to this.

We had been paying an annual membership fee to the FAFQ since 1991, which provided us with directors’ and officers’ liability insurance and general liability insurance. In addition, the FAFQ provided us with a Canada Post contract number, allowing us to mail our newsletters at a reduced rate. Our website, now hosted by the Quebec-based company Likuid, was also managed by Mr. Yves Boisvert, a staff member at the FAFQ.

This dissolution has led us to turn to another organization so that we can continue to benefit from liability insurance, but also to allow us to join forces with other organizations that share our goals and mission: to promote history, preserve our heritage, foster camaraderie and bring people together. That is why we have chosen to become a member of the Fédération Histoire Québec(histoirequebec.qc.ca), whose role and objectives align closely with what we seek: promoting history and heritage, supporting its members while highlighting their activities, and offering engaging online training.

As for our website hosting, we’re still with Likuid, but our colleague Maurice will be handling communications directly with the company. As for the Canada Post contract number, after doing some calculations and comparing prices, we’ll be getting our own contract number, which will allow us to mail our biannual newsletter at a lower cost.

NEWSLETTER COMMITEE

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

As usual, we produced two L’Arbre du Mai bulletins. For the December 2025 publication, we mailed 115 printed copies, of which 25 copies were mailed to the United States. A total of 21 members receives the newsletter by e-mail in PDF format.

Earlier this year, we published an article about the family history of one of our members, Stephen Demers, from Massachusetts. A beautiful story accompanied by photos; this is the kind of article we’re looking for to share our members’ diverse family histories. Johanne also reminded us of an aviation tragedy that claimed the life of a pharmacist named Jean-Ulysse Demers, while our colleague Élaine provided a lovely recap of the June gathering.

In November, the board of directors renewed 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 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 have an interesting inventory of items bearing the image of our coat of arms. Our crest mugs are very popular. A new order for placemats in French was placed in the spring of 2025, and we have decided to give one to each participant at the 2025 gathering as a token of our appreciation for their attendance. For 2026, we’re looking into bringing back the notebooks we had a few years ago.

All 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, and now Philippe, are in charge of publishing articles highlighting exploits or other interesting facts about Demers on our Facebook page. We have 622 subscribers, and Alain frequently exchanges with descendants of Demers from across the United States and Canada.   Facebook is a way to reach you quickly. If you would like to be notified when a new post is made, go to our 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 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. Whether you are francophone or anglophone, I invite you to visit it: www.demersfamilies.org .

 MEETINGS AND GATHERINGS COMMITTEE

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

Due to family commitments, I was unable to attend the gathering in Saint-Philippe/La Prairie, but I heard it was a wonderful event and that the weather was perfect for outdoor tours. In the morning, Raymond and Philippe’s presentation was very well received! The afternoon guided tours of Old La Prairie piqued the curiosity of many and gave everyone a chance to stretch their legs before returning to the hall to honor our fourth Hall of Fame inductee, Mr. Clément Demers, a distinguished architect and urban planner, whose work and achievements generated a great deal of interest.

We also held our Annual General Meeting at that meeting. The Executive Council was re-elected. Two new board members were elected: Paul Demers and André Demers. We are delighted to welcome them to our ranks!  A total of 33 people attended the gathering. I invite you to watch the video recap, produced by Maurice and Suzon, on our website under the Activities section – Past Reunions – La Prairie 2025 Summary.

GENEALOGY AND HISTORY COMMITTEE

In charge: Johanne Demers

Currently, our genealogy database contains the names of 88,700 persons. An increase of more than 2,000 names compared to the same period last year! 81.8% of the people are from Canada (mainly Quebec and Ontario) and 18.0% from the United States (mainly New Hampshire and Massachusetts). We also have a second database of Demers for whom we were unable to trace the ancestry back to one of the three brothers. It contains more than 20,400 people, 56.3% of whom are from the United States and 43.5% from Canada.

In fall 2025, we received the new 2026 version of Heredis for free. Heredis has also given us access to Heredis Premium through September, which has allowed us to make our database available online to our members (with a password). Johanne continues to answer genealogical questions (when possible) and helps with research into historical events. This year, we discovered that there is currently some Demarsh who are descendants of André. Johanne can receive your genealogical requests or your request for access to our Heredis Online database via the Association’s website or at info@famillesdemers.org.

The genealogical database continues to grow and now contains over 23,400 digital documents.  Regarding the digitization of the paper documents contained in the Association’s “archives” binder, Andrée and Johanne have digitized or found online more than 1,300 obituaries that were removed from the binder. In addition to the obituaries, Johanne digitized over 1,350 other paper documents from the binder: titles of books and articles written by Demers, newspaper clippings, Demers mentioned in books, “Who’s Who” entries for Demers, pages about Demers families from books, etc.

Also, Suzanne and Maurice continue to collaborate on writing historical capsules.

TREASURY

In charge: Luc Gingras

During the General Annual Meeting of June 7, 2025, 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 all three of you for your work!

At our board meeting last September, we selected a successor to Luc, who has served as our treasurer since 2015. André Demers (498), a board member, will take over as treasurer following our next gathering. In 2025, Luc informed us of his intention not to seek reelection to the board, and his term will end at our gathering in St-Antoine-de-Tilly. Thank you, Luc, for all these years with us!

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, 2025, to March 31, 2026, as well as the estimates for 2026-2027, which you can consult on the following pages.

SECRETARIAT

In charge: Johanne Demers

Johanne also assumes 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 before they are published in L’Arbre du Mai. Rosy and Jocelyne Demers-Owoka (281) also translate some texts. I thank them for this work.

Since December, we have been offering our members the opportunity to purchase membership gift certificates. The order form is available on our website: https://demersfamilies.org/gift-membership/ . Once payment is received, Johanne will contact the recipient to complete the membership process; the certificate will be emailed by the Association, indicating that the membership card will follow by mail.

Johanne is also responsible for tracking membership cards. Since April 1, 2025, 10 new members have joined the Association, for a total of 134 active members. 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