This reminds me of how we run things in the Mayflower Society. There is the General Society Mayflower Descendants, for all the descendants of the passengers on the ship. (i.e. the Germanna Colony). And there are also family societies for each passenger, .... Bradford Society, Warren Cousins, etc. I am in the Warren Cousins and Pilgrim John Howland Society. The Howland Society meets every single year in Plymouth Mass since 1897 in August. Every three years is the meeting for the General Society so we move the date of the Howland meeting every third year to coincide with the "big" group since many Howlands are also descendants of several other passengers, just like most Germanna folks have more than one family name. The Howland Society owns the Howland House, built 1667 in Plymouth, Rock Nook -- many acres of land where Howland lived until he died in 1672 and where some of his sons and grandsons lived, and a 17th century reproduction shallop we sail all over, so this group knows about needing money. We do very little fundraising at our annual meeting. On Friday night we have a banquet and a guest speaker. Sat. morning is the business meeting followed by a wreath laying at Howlands gravesite. There are some other activities but the only fundraising we do at our annual gathering is a silent auction at the banquet and we just started that about three years ago. Every third year when the "big" group meets, Plymouth is a busy place and the General Society has bus trips all over Plymouth, Boston etc etc. The only fundraising is the articles for sale at the hotel. Sorry to bring up all this Yankee stuff.... but it just sounded so similar with the whole society and the individual family groups. Our main fundraising in the Howland Soc. is in the annual dues envelope -- it has a line for dues, Howland House, Rocky Nook and the shallop so you can give to whichever you want to. Once every few years we might put a call out in our Howland Quarterly which goes to all our members. We are not that big -- only about 1400 in the Howland Society. Gail Ann Adams Wilhoite/Broyles/Seaton etc. Editor of the Howland Quarterly In beautiful northern Virginia **************Looking for a car that's sporty, fun and fits in your budget? Read reviews on AOL Autos. (http://autos.aol.com/cars-BMW-128-2008/expert-review?ncid=aolaut00050000000017 )