8 | Appointment of Board of Trustees Relief and Red Cross Funds, February, 1909
Results of Conference between Chairman Executive Committee of San
Francisco Relief and Red Cross Funds and Representative
American National Red Cross,
January, 1909
All active relief work to cease at once. A reserve fund of $100,000 to be set aside for the payment of all judgments or other legal claims, for all refunds due camp tenants, and for meeting the current expense of the corporation. All other reserve funds to be cancelled and the amounts reserved transferred to a General Relief Fund. All receipts and any balance left of the $100,000 reserve mentioned above to be paid into this general fund.
Specific appropriations were made out of the new General Relief Fund for certain philanthropic organizations to the amount of $150,000. The rest of this fund was to be used as follows:
The balance of the General Relief Fund, consisting of all the money in the hands of the San Francisco Relief and Red Cross Funds, a Corporation, not specifically reserved or appropriated as hereinbefore described, and all money hereafter received from cancelled reserves and appropriations and from collections, unexpended balances and receipts from whatever source as above provided, is hereby appropriated for the purpose of general relief. It is intended that this relief shall be of a character that will most speedily and effectually remove the needs and distress still existing or which may develop prior to April 18, 1911, as a direct or indirect consequence of the fire.
BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF RELIEF AND RED CROSS FUNDS
To the end that the purposes of the Executive Committee, as above described, may be carefully and thoroughly executed, there is hereby created a Board of Trustees of Relief and Red Cross Funds. This Board shall consist of five members as follows: F. W. Dohrmann, Oscar K. Cushing, D. O. Crowley, John A. Emery, A. Haas.
The existence of the Board shall terminate when its duties are completed, but in any event not later than April 18, 1911. The Board shall have power to fill vacancies in its membership, subject to the approval of the Executive Committee and of the National Director of the American National Red Cross. The officers shall consist of a Chairman, Vice-Chairman and Treasurer, to be selected by the Board, and the Board may partition its work into such departments or subdivisions as will expedite the discharge of its duties and increase its efficiency. Authority is hereby given the Board to defray from the fund in its hands, all the expenses necessary to the proper discharge of its trusts.
DUTIES OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
The entire General Relief Fund remaining after the deduction of the amounts specifically appropriated as above described, shall be paid to the Board of Trustees by them to be expended at their discretion in such a manner and under such conditions as will strengthen the regular, organized, charitable and philanthropic agencies of the City of San Francisco.
In making grants to charitable organizations, the Board of Trustees may prescribe conditions which will safeguard the fund and assure its careful and proper expenditure. Every organization to which a grant is made, shall be required to submit vouchers to the Board of Trustees for all money expended.
The Board of Trustees shall fix the conditions under which specific grants shall be made, as above provided, to St. Luke’s Hospital, The Children’s Hospital, Roman Catholic Organizations, Jewish Organizations, German Organizations, such hospitals and kindred institutions as the Board itself is empowered to select.
It is expressly provided, however, that all grants to hospitals or kindred institutions are to be conditioned upon a return, by the institutions, of free service to the poor, of value equivalent to the amounts of the grants. Within this requirement, the Board is to have full discretion.
All current appropriations for individuals made in trust to the Associated Charities are hereby made subject to the Board of Trustees precisely as they were subject to the Rehabilitation Committee prior to February 1, 1909.
If the trust herein created is not terminated prior to April 1, 1911 the Board of Trustees, between April 1 and April 18, 1911, shall select organizations eligible under the terms of this trust, and allot to them in such sums and upon such conditions as it may determine, the entire amount of money remaining unappropriated in its hands. Provided, that any grant to a hospital or kindred institution shall be conditioned upon a return by the institution of free service to the poor of value equivalent to the amount of the grant.
Upon the termination of the trust, the Board shall make a full report of its operations and disbursements to the Executive Committee, and to the American National Red Cross, and the records and papers of the Board shall be turned over to the American National Red Cross for preservation in its archives.
Both executive committees adopted along with this plan the following agreement:
The American National Red Cross hereby agrees to forward to the Board of Trustees of Relief and Red Cross Funds the sum of $100,000 on or before March 1, 1909. This agreement is supplementary to the resolution of the Executive Committee of San Francisco Relief and Red Cross Funds, a Corporation, adopted February 4th, 1909, and will be without effect if said resolutions are rescinded or modified.
It is understood that the balance of the unreserved principal of the Relief Fund, remaining in the hands of the American National Red Cross, after the payment of the amounts herein specified, shall be held subject to such final disposition as the circumstances warrant.
This agreement before becoming effective shall be confirmed by the Central Committee of the American National Red Cross.
On February 4, 1909, the Rehabilitation Committee, at that time consisting of the men who had just been designated members of the Board of Trustees, met for the last time and listened to the resolution of the Executive Committee quoted above. After directing the Treasurer to return to the general funds all unexpended balances then in its hands, the committee adjourned sine die. On the same day they met as the Board of Trustees of Relief and Red Cross Funds and organized by the election of
| Chairman, | F. W. Dohrmann |
| Vice Chairman, | Oscar K. Cushing |
| Treasurer, | A. Haas |
At the second meeting, February 12, the following committees were appointed.
| Committee | I | Care of the Sick, | F. W. Dohrmann, Chairman |
| Rev. D. O. Crowley | |||
| Committee | II | General Relief, | Oscar K. Cushing, Chairman |
| Rev. J. A. Emery | |||
| Committee | III | Housing and Sanitation, | Rev. D. O. Crowley |
| Committee | IV | Accounts, | A. Haas |