TO MEMBERS AND FRIENDS OF THE NATIONAL SOCIETY MAGNA CHARTA DAMES AND BARONS, POTENTIAL MEMBERS AND THOSE WHO SHARE OUR INTEREST IN THE PRINCIPLES OF CONSTITUTIONAL LIBERTY
FROM LEWIS L. NEILSON JR., CHANCELLOR
DATE: MARCH 18, 2004
We continue to significantly increase our e-mail list. To those of you who are new to our list we welcome you to receive our Electronic Newsletter and hope that you will find our Society and our mission to be interesting. Since a primary mission of our Society is to develop awareness of Magna Charta we wish to expand the circulation of our Electronic Newsletter by increasing our e-mail address list particularly including those who are members of lineage societies and/or who might share our interest in the principles of Constitutional Liberty.
We encourage you to check our Website regularly for new developments and information. The link to the Newsletter on the Website is: http://www.magnacharta.org/enews32004.htm The link to the Website is: http://www.magnacharta.org. Please also refer to OUR E-MAIL LIST at the end of this Newsletter.
Topics:
Greetings - Please send new email addresses.
Mailing to all our members. Please check your name and address.
Washington, DC Reception and Dinner - April 17, 2004. Please make your reservation
promptly.
Tour Program - 2004 - June 9 - 17, 2004.
Reception, Philadelphia, PA
- March 26, 2004
Lost Member Listing Has Been Updated - Please check the new list of NCOA
lost members.
Potential Members
Contributions
OUR E-MAIL LIST
Greetings
On behalf of the Officers and Council of the Society, I bring greetings with this Newsletter. We continue to develop awareness of Magna Charta and its message. We ask each of you to participate with us in continuing the long tradition of friendship and fellowship which has continued over many years. We need to increase the number of members and friends on our email listing. Please ask your relatives or friends to send us their E-mail address. Please also send us the E-mail addresses of friends who are interested either in lineage societies or in memorializing Magna Charta. For the future, please propose new members for our Society. Please also attend your local meetings and include your children and grandchildren. We have a very special organization and I hope that you will help us to maintain its traditions.
I enjoyed the enthusiasm and interest shared by members of our Society in my visits to the Tennessee, Louisiana and Texas Divisions the past two weekends.
Mailing to all our members
On March 8, 2004 we sent a post card to all Magna Charta Dame and Baron Members, informing them of our WebSite and providing the opportunity for them to send their email addresses to receive our Electronic Newsletters. We also sent the card to potential members and those who might share our interest in the principles of Constitutional Liberty. If you have received a card, please check your name and address and inform us of any corrections. If you have not received a card please let us know your correct address. We are pleased to expand our electronic mailing list, however, we focus our postal list to members and those we hope will join our Society. We only furnish names and addresses of members of our Society to State Divisions, Colonies and Chapters.
Washington DC Reception and Dinner - April 17, 2004
We are pleased to announce that our Washington DC Dinner will be held at the University Club, reception at 6:00pm, dinner at 7:30pm. We are pleased to announce that our speaker will be The Very Reverend Dr Alec Knight, Dean of Lincoln, who will give a talk entitled “Magna Carta – our heritage and yours”. The Dean is making a special trip to the United States to speak to our Society. Lincoln Cathedral owns one of the four extant originals of the 1215 Magna Carta. The cost for the reception alone is $25.00 and the cost for the reception and dinner is $75.00, each with a cash bar. Black tie is optional. Please let us know if you wish an invitation. Members may reserve space for themselves and their guests by sending the subscription to the Society Office. Contributions in addition to the cost of the reception and dinner are welcome.
We are also planning a luncheon in Philadelphia on April 16, 2004 to meet with the Dean of Lincoln. Please let us know if you would like an invitation to the luncheon. We will plan the venue based on the response.
Tour Program - June 9 - 17, 2004
Arriving in England on June 10th our group will start in London with a tour of the Westminster Abby Library, a visit to the barracks of the Blues and Royals and lunch at the dining room of the Household Regiment. After an evening reception at the College of Arms on Friday and the Trooping of the Colour on Saturday, our group will go to Bury St. Edmunds on Sunday for a triennial commemorative service and Magna Carta celebration. The shields of the Barons in Bury St. Edmunds were donated by members of our Society. The Garter Ceremony is scheduled for Monday in Windsor followed by a visit to Runnymede and the opening day at Royal Ascot is on Tuesday. Wednesday our group will visit the spectacular gardens of Mintern. Four lunches and four dinners are included. These are some of the features of our Tour which we are estimating will cost approximately $4,000.00 per person, including air. We should have detailed information on the website shortly. Please let me know if you are interested in receiving information and also if you are planning to participate.
The purpose of our educational tours is to visit locations of cultural and historical significance primarily relating to the Magna Charta. We are undertaking to reduce the cost while maintaining quality.
Reception, Philadelphia, PA - March 26, 2004
We are please to announce that a reception will be held by International House in the presence of HRH The Duke of Gloucester, Friday, March 26, 2004, at the Philadelphia Cathedral, 38th and Market Streets, Philadelphia, PA. The time is 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM. Please arrive promptly. The cost, including wine and hors d'oeuvres, is $35.00 per person. Reservations are required. For additional information, please contact Olga Fedorov at 215-895-6536.
Lost Member Listing Has Been Updated
We are asking our visitors first to check the NCOA 2004 Lost Member Pages (Alpha and By State) for 904 Lost Members. These addresses were electronically identified as undeliverable by NCOA (National Change of Address) system on February 20, 2004. Since we do not know if these people were correctly identified as lost please check the listing which is alphabetical and by state. The same system electronically updated 1,390 member addresses.
On March 9, 2004 we updated the Lost Member Pages with a New Index Page. The original lost member page on the internet was 5,560 of which 1,080 have been found with 4,370 remaining. This is an index for seventeen pages which list 6,099 lost members in three parts. The first part is 904 names that were electronically identified as undeliverable using the NCOA system on February 20, 2004. Since we do not know if these people were correctly identified as lost, please check the list by last name and also by state of last residence. The second part is 825 names that have become lost between 1998 and 2004 listed by last name and also be state of last residence . The third part is 4,370 names that remain from the 1997 listing which was originally posted on the Internet with a detailed index of the lost members remaining.
Potential Members
If you are not a member of our Society and are eligible I hope that you will join. If you are not eligible but share our interest in history and genealogy we encourage you to remain on our Email list. We also welcome your participation in our ongoing genealogical research projects and our Tours. We welcome and encourage new members and remind those submitting lineage information to include copies of referenced material.
As mentioned in prior E-Newsletters, membership continues to be of vital importance to our Society. If you wish to speed up or facilitate the membership process, please include with the Proposal Form a well documented lineage (including copies of the documentation) to either a known ancestor or to one of the qualifying Barons. If you have sent lineage information without the copies you may also speed up the process by sending copies of the documentation. Lineage Forms are provided on the WebSite.
Contributions
We rely on member contributions for our Society operations and we plan to build our endowment in connection with the 100th Anniversary of the founding our Society in 1909. We hope you will consider year end contributions, including contributions of appreciated securities. Our Society is a public charity under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
OUR E-MAIL LIST
Our E-mail list is made up of those who have sent us e-mail, of members and friends of the Society who have responded to our Newsletter request for E-mail addresses and others who we believe might be interested in our Society or mission. If you would prefer not to receive future Electronic Newsletters, however, please let us know. If you have friends who you believe might be interested in our Society, please forward this e-mail. If you have received this as a forwarded e-mail, please visit our Website at for more information about our Society. You may also contact our Society Office at 215-836-5022 between the hours of 9:30am and 3:00pm, Tuesday to Friday.
Do not hesitate to contact me with questions or suggestions. Chancellor@magnacharta.org