San Francisco Civil War Round Table Meeting
                         Thursday 19th December 2013
                       at the United Irish Cultural Center
                       2700 45th Avenue, San Francisco
                                   ===========

The meeting started at 6:45pm with the Pledge of Allegiance, led by Gil Lopez, and the
introduction of guests.

The President reported that, although the membership had voted in 2011 to register the
organization as a non-profit corporation, the putative advantages of this action were far
outweighed by the disadvantages, including fees, tax returns and other paperwork. The following
motions to amend the By-laws were thus proposed and approved unanimously:

    Article 9.1   Delete this article which states “The SFCWRT shall be incorporated as a
    tax-exempt, non-profit 501©3 corporation.”

    Article 7.5: Delete the sentence which states “The secretary shall also be responsible for
    the annual filing or on-line entry of any documents required to maintain non-profit status.”

The members also unanimously approved the following addition to the By-laws:

    Add Article 6.6 as follows: “The Board may from time to time appoint non-voting
    Members at Large to assist in the operations of the organization.”



Bob Bowen conducted a magnificent Christmas book
raffle with an unprecedented array of high-quality Civil
War books as prizes.
Members gave generously and the record sum of
$144 was raised which
Charlie Sweeny generously
rounded up to $200.





                                                                                         


                                                                         
                                                                         




  
Guest speaker Fred Martin gave a reading from his
    soon to be published book
     "Abraham Lincoln's Path to Re-election in 1864."












The meeting concluded on a festive note at 9:00pm with the President wishing everyone a Merry
Christmas and a Happy New Year.
                             
The 2013 Ormond Eckley Award for
"outstanding contributions" to the San Francisco
Civil War Round table was presented to
Melani
Van Petten
for her invaluable work in
composing the monthly newsletter.
Paul Rosenberg
Michael Semler
and
Vicki Loel