Minutes of the Board of Directors and General Meetings of the Members, 1799 May 6-1807 January 13

Minutes and associated documents from meetings of both the board of directors and the general membership. Minutes of the bi-weekly meetings of the Board of Directors reflected a high degree of control over the day-to-day affairs of the Society, with risks, investments, and settlements frequently being considered on a case-by-case basis. Maintenance of a formal record was not regularized until 1842, and while the supplementary records (designated “draft,” “copy,” or “summary”) bridge many of the gaps that exist up to that point, no records survive for the periods 9/1/1794-5/6/1799 and 1/13/1807-4/13/1808. Records of the Investment Committee, which consisted of three members of the board of directors, are present from 1841 through 1887, with a few scattered records remaining beyond that period. The Examining Committee, which was charged with reviewing the Society’s financial records on a quarterly basis, is here represented with rosters of its members, 1864-1890. The only actual reports surviving for this committee, from 1837-1840, can be found in the subseries Subject Files under the heading “Accounting.” Records of the yearly General Meetings consist of notices, minutes, reports from the board of directors, and ballots and returns of the election of directors and officers.