Following a detailed audit of our Kent branch meetings, the Exec has made the decision to stop financial support for them, after Dec 31st of this year.
As from next year, branches will need to collect sufficient donations from those attending the meetings if they wish to keep the meetings going.
This is obviously a major change for those who attend the meetings. Since the inception of each branch, only visitors who are not members of KFHS have been asked to make a contribution towards the hire of the hall and speaker fees.
As membership numbers have dropped, and costs have increased, it has become apparent that the majority of members are subsidising a fairly small group (about 75) who are still able to attend one or more of the physical meetings.
The following questions are representative of the questions raised at a number of local meetings:
I live in Kent and my local branch has told me that I will need to pay to attend branch meetings next year. Why have you made this change?
For two reasons. Firstly it doesn’t seem fair that a very small group of people should be subsidised by the subscriptions of everyone else, most of whom don’t live near enough to a physical meeting.
Secondly, we need to channel our reserves into the preservation of the unique records we hold and the development of the website, reaching the majority of our members and hopefully pulling new members in.
Are there other savings you can make?
We have already closed down one storage unit in Gillingham, and stored much of what was in there at the Archive unit in Maidstone, upgrading to a larger sized unit in a cheaper (but very well organised) facility.
Our Editor, Steve Poile, has slimmed down the Journal to reduce postage costs. The more people who opt for the eJournal, the more savings can be made on postage costs.
We will continue to look for further savings and are putting up more unique records on our website, to increase funds by making them available for sale. Members now get a 50% reduction on records we hold.
I joined the Society so I could get to meetings and meet like minded people. I don’t have ancestors from Kent, I just happen to live there. What is my subscription supporting?
Subscriptions pay for costs for the website, the storage unit for the Archive, the Zoom licence for talks/meetings, speakers costs, insurance and the auditing of the accounts, the printing of the Journal and until next year, the hire of halls and speakers for local Kent meetings. Even if you have no Kent ancestry, you still have access to the expertise of our knowledgable members. Our recent online talk on DNA was not Kent specific.
The Society is run entirely by volunteers who receive no pay for their time/expertise. We do it for fun!
Questions regarding this change, which will need changes to our Constitution, or any other matter related to the running of the Society, can be emailed to the Chairman: chairman@kfhs.org.uk
Last updated: 12 June 2025
Further Q&A updates will be added here and notified in the email newsletter.