Michael SheldonMichael Sheldon

New SFA Website

Posted on by Michael Sheldon

As you can see, we have a new SFA website that is also a communication channel. It has fantastic and exciting improvements.  One of the most significant improvements is that we created a long overdue and needed private “membership only” portal where you can:

  • Create your profile and make changes to your information making it easier to stay in touch with SFA and SFA members.
  • You can see when your membership expires and renew your membership more easily.
  • The “members only” sections give you private access to:
    • Discounted SFA publications (and Sheldon Places has been revised!)
    • Exclusive Sheldon Places Map with cross-references to Sheldon progenitors, Sheldon ancestors, SFA researched history, SFAQ articles about a place, and website links.
    • The ability to join group chats on various Sheldon topics where you can discuss, ask questions, and/or create your own groups.
    • Social interaction – “friend” members and send private or public messages
    • Post questions in forums
    • Have all SFAQ newsletters at your fingertips to research
    • Obtain announcements from myself and others that are for our members only
    • Have personal access to the SFA Bylaws, Annual Meeting minutes, and names of officers.

You may ask why this was needed? The answer is that more and more unwanted persons have used the information on the site to make improper solicitations or pilfer information over the last several years.

Yet SFA knows and feels that the world should know about us. Therefore, the public site will retain many of the previous items it had before, such as information about the progenitors, the ability to purchase SFA articles, the ability to join SFA and view public announcements.

We hope that you will be pleased by the updated site, and we highly recommend you use it to keep up to date about SFA and grow your genealogy database!

To get started, go to SheldonFamily.org as you would have before (the old website is gone and replaced by this one) and click on the Log In link in the upper right corner. When you see the username/password field, click on the “Lost Password” link and enter your email address.  If we have your email address in our system, a password reset link will be sent to your email, and then you can enter a password of your choice and set up your profile which will already be pre-populated with any information we have on hand about your membership.  You will be able to make address changes, etc., as you set up your profile.

Click on “Lost Password” and then enter your email address

If you have any issues requesting a new password or setting up your profile, please send an email to webmaster@sheldonfamily.org.

Thank you again for your support throughout the year.  Please click around on the website. There is information about the 2022 Annual Meeting/Reunion, an update on recent Board actions, and many fun things to check out.

In SFA Friendship,
The SFA Board of Directors and Michael B Sheldon, President

Please note: future emails from us will come from this new website and no longer from MailChimp.

Michael SheldonMichael Sheldon

President’s Report (January 2022)

Posted on by Michael Sheldon

With the introduction of the new website, the SFA Board made a change to membership renewals at its January 2022 Board meeting.  Annual memberships went from August 1st through July 31st of every year, regardless of the date that you joined or renewed.  That worked fine in the past because most of the SFA business was done by those who attended the annual meeting. However, when the SFA took the annual meeting virtual a few years ago and began sending election and Bylaws ballots out to the entire membership in good standing, things got very complicated.

The change: New annual memberships now expire one year from the day you that you send in your payment (or multi-year payments).  For example, if you paid for a 1-year membership on January 1, 2022, your membership will expire on Jan 1, 2023.  This change makes membership much easier to administer, and the new membership portal automates renewal reminders for us. Additionally, you have the ability to create your own profile and manage changes yourself. Please create your profile so that you are able to make use of your membership benefits.

Important News

SFA had its ups and downs in calendar year 2021.  In the Spring, there was a reshuffling of responsibilities when Sue Sheldon resigned as Treasurer and also gave up her roles as Membership Chairperson and Database Administrator (our Ancestry Tree data). I reviewed some of this in my annual report during our Annual Meeting.  There remain several unresolved issues from her resignation and the Board continues to act on solving them. The Social Media Administrator also resigned. Wende Warren stepped up to fill the Membership, Database Administrator, Publications, and Social Media roles. Susan Russell filled in and was subsequently elected as our Treasurer. An earlier resignation by Marvin Parsons for health reasons left us a need to fill the Webmaster role and Archives. A big thank you goes out to Kevin Sheldon, our new Webmaster, who created our fabulous new webpage.  Elizabeth Townsend, our Secretary, took on the responsibility of the Archives.

The other Board members have also been working hard behind the scenes. Libby Wilson, our VP, is making progress on the Policy and Procedure Manual. Several of us are regularly talking with and in collaboration with the Allen County Public Library to create solutions to restart the ACPL project.

The financial year ended basically with a no net gain to put into our reserves due to donations we made to the Henry Sheldon Museum in Middlebury, Vermont to help with their renovations and to the FTDNA Sheldon DNA project to purchase more DNA test kits for English roots research.

Sadly, we also lost a member of the Board.  Joseph Uphoff, who was a Director at Large and our SFAQ editor, passed away in November.

As you can see, there have been challenges yet we have still put out editions of the SFAQ and we have grown our Ancestry tree by over 500 people.  We’ve created a new Facebook group and a new website.  We remain committed to recover unreturned property, regaining our (c)3 charitable status, and expanding the ACPL Sheldon site data.

Important Needs

I once again put out a call for volunteers to help SFA.  Be it a Director at Large, one our chairpersons (Social Media or SFAQ Editor), or a committee member, if you have some time to spare and want to contribute your skills to our 83 year old organization, please contact me at msheldonsfa@gmail.com.