Meeting: 11 May 2002

Hi Folks -

On Saturday, May 11, 2002 from 10:00 am until 12:00 noon Guedry family members met at the CODOFIL office in Lafayette, LA to reorganize our family association Les Guidry d'Asteur and to discuss plans for the 2004 Guedry-Labine Family Reunion in Nova Scotia. Although attendance was small with nine attendees, the energy, discussion and ideas generated during the meeting provided a strong foundation for reorganizing Les Guidry d'Asteur and for planning the reunion. We had a lot of fun and got to know each other better during the lunch at Janssens - a great little Cajun restaurant. Thanks, Elaine, for hosting the meeting and setting up the luncheon.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS AND COLLECT YOUR PENNIES - The 2004 Guedry/Labine Family Reunion will be 7 August 2004 in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. Les Guidry d'Asteur has registered this date and location with Congres Modial. Yvonne Mosley in Lunenburg is working with us in locating a building for the reunion, setting up lodging arrangements and a host of other administrative details. Being a Lunenburg resident and working with city government in the travel area, Yvonne has lots of great ideas on how to ensure we have a very productive meeting and a terrific adventure at the same time. We are also working to locate one or two Jeddry family members in Nova Scotia who can help us in planning the reunion. A couple of excellent contacts have surfaced recently. Shortly we will register Les Guidry d'Asteur and the Guedry/Labine Family Reunion with Nova Scotia Registry of Joint Stock Companies.

In reorganizing Les Guidry d'Asteur we are strengthening the organization and broadening participation by members. The officers of Les Guidry d'Asteur will be President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer. Initial committees with 3-6 members each will be Website Committee, Genealogy Committee, Membership Committee, Finance Committee, Sales Committee, Publicity Committee and Reunion Committee. If a need arises later, additional committees may be formed. For those folks that contacted me earlier and expressed a interest in working within the association, I'll be contacting you shortly and offering an opportunity to help out your family association. For those that have remained quiet, but would like to serve the association, let me know and we'll find a match for your talents. Our goal is to fill the committee assignments and select officers in the next 4-5 weeks.

But we haven't been stagnant these past five months. Besides laying the groundwork for Les Guidry d'Asteur and the 2004 Reunion, here's what's been happening.


*   Website Committee
Les Guidry d'Asteur now has a website and it's up and running. Check out "The Guedry-Labine Family" and bookmark it at:

https://guedryfamily.guedry.org/

The website will not only be our prime communication tool (along with e-mail) for association information and reunion planning, but will also contain Guedry-Labine family historical and genealogical information, copies of family-related documents, family stories and photos and a host of other Guedry-Labine resources. Check it frequently to see what's new. We are just in the formation stages at this point with lots of ideas on what else to include on the website. If you have any ideas, let me know and we'll try to include it. You'll see changes often as we work to improve accessibility and add new pages to website. And, when you visit the website for the first time, please fill in the Guestbook so we can learn about you and get some of your ideas.

Take special note of the bilingual nature of the website. Although many of us live in the U. S. and speak only English, a large number of our family speak primarily French or speak English and are bilingual.

The President will be a member, but not Chairperson, of the Website Committee.

Website Committee Members are:

Becky Boggess (Iowa) - Chairperson and Webmaster
Annie Grignon-Labine (Quebec) - Bilingualist
President of Les Guidry d'Asteur

Need another member to help with securing information to place on the website and coordinating submission of information for the website.


*   Genealogy Committee
The Genealogy Committee is also up and running. The Genealogy Committee is will not only further the Guedry-Labine family genealogy, but also ensure that past and future information in our databases is accurate and fully documented. They will respond to queries on our family, document and enhance the Guedry-Labine genealogy, provide historical insights into the lives of our ancestors and develop other projects that expand our knowledge of and way of viewing the Guedry-Labine family. The President will be a member, but not Chairperson, of the Genealogy Committee.

Note that we use the term 'Guedry-Labine family' to represent all the surname branches of the family. On the subheading of our website you'll see most of these branches although we may be missing one or two. If you know of a missing surname variation, let me know.

Genealogy Committee Members are:

Daryl LaBine (Florida/Ontario) - Chairperson
Bernard Geddry (Arizona)
Mark LaBine (Minnesota)
Daniel 'Chuck' Guidry (Louisiana)
President of Les Guidry d'Asteur

We plan to add one or two members to the Genealogy Committee in the future.


*   Membership Committee
The Membership Committee will receive membership applications, forward dues payments to the Treasurer and maintain the Les Guidry d'Asteur database of information on our members. Information in the database will only be used by Les Guidry d'Asteur for association business and not provided to outside individuals or groups. The Vice-President will be a member, but not Chairperson, of the Membership Committee.

We need 2-3 members to serve on the Membership Committee.


*   Finance Committee
The Finance Committee will receive and distribute the financial assets of Les Guidry d'Asteur, maintain auditable records of the association finances and provide periodic financial reports to the officers and membership. The Treasurer will be a member, but not Chairperson, of the Finance Committee.

We need 2-3 members to serve on the Finance Committee.


*   Sales Committee
The Sales Committee will raise funds for the association through sales of Guedry-Labine related items as T-shirts, books, etc. and through other types of fundraisers. They will transfer funds raised to the Treasurer. The Sales Committee will maintain an accounting of items purchased, on hand and sold as well as funds raised and expenses on other fundraisers. The will maintain a stock of items for sale through mail-order and the website. The Secretary will be a member, but not Chairperson, of the Sales Committee.

We need 2-3 members to serve on the Sales Committee.


*   Publicity Committee
The Publicity Committee will 'get our name out to the world' and ensure that folks know about Les Guidry d'Asteur and the 2004 Guedry-Labine Reunion. Besides articles on the website, this could include e-mail, regular mail, flyers for distribution at key events and other innovative ways. The Vice-President will be a member, but not Chairperson, of the Publicity Committee.

We need 2-3 members to serve on the Publicity Committee.


*   Reunion Committee
The Reunion Committee will be the key group of folks planning the 2004 Guedry-Labine Family Reunion in Lunenburg. They will work with the association officers and with our Nova Scotia contacts in ensuring administrative requirements as building, food, entertainment, etc. are met, a program for the Reunion is developed and other details are provided. The President of Les Guidry d'Asteur will be a member, but not Chairperson, of the Reunion Committee.

We need 3-4 members to serve on the Reunion Committee.

All committees will have one of the officers as an ex-officio member to ensure continuity in the association business.

With the recent advent of e-mail and the old standby telephone committee members can be from anywhere in the U.S. and Canada. Unlike the old days where we had to meet face-to-face for planning, with a little extra effort we can communicate quite effectively through e-mail and the telephone. So don't let distance keep you from volunteering to help your association.

During the May 11th meeting we also developed a dues structure and levels of membership in Les Guidry d'Asteur. Watch for the Membership Form on our Website which should debut in about two weeks. Members in Les Guidry d'Asteur will pay a reduced fee to attend the 2004 Guedry-Labine Family Reunion. More on that later.

If you know of other folks that would like to receive e-mail information on Les Guidry d'Asteur and on the 2004 Reunion, send me their name and e-mail address and they'll be on our distribution list.

LAGNIAPPE - A couple of nice websites:

CAFA Website (no longer online)
Congrès Mondial Acadien 2004 Website
Lunenburg's Super Website (you must visit this)

Thanks for everyone's help and support,

Marty