The "Association des Bourgeois d'Amérique" became the "Association des Bourgeois de Descendance Acadienne / The Association of Bourgeois' of Acadian Descent" in January of 2004. The three following texts, extracted from our bulletin “le bourgeois”, describe in chronological order the thoughts and process which led to this change.
A change of name for our Association – The proposal (May 2003)
At our Founding Meeting, the founding members thought that the name "Association des Bourgeois d'Amérique" was the most appropriate for our
family organization They had in mind the fact that the Bourgeois from Acadian descent - those which the association wanted to represent -
were spread across Canada and the United States, and were considered to number more than 95% of all Bourgeois living in North America, The
name was thus chosen and inserted into our Constitution.
Having been in operation for nine years now, your Executive wants to share with you its second-thoughts on the matter for the following
reasons
| • | Our name is defined with a territorial
description . However, we are not really a territorial association
as in the case of our 3 sister associations but rather an association of unlimited scope for the whole family of Acadian origin not
withstanding location. |
| • | The name “Amérique” lends to confusion since while it should properly be associated to a continent, in the popular language, it tends to be Associated to a single country, namely the United States of America. |
The Executive has therefore decided to recommend to the membership that our Constitution be amended so that our Association be known in the
future as “Association des Bourgeois de Ascendance Acadienne / The Association of Bourgeois from Acadian Descent”. Both French and English
names would be included in the revised Constitution. This recommendation will take the form of a mail-in vote in our November Issue.
If you wish to influence the direction of the vote, send your comments to us before October 1st.
A change of name - The request for a vote (November 2003)
You were made aware, in May last, of a proposition aimed at amending our Constitution in order to assign a new name to our Association, with
the intention of submitting the idea to a mail vote in our fall edition. Consequently, you will find on the reverse side of Registration
Form for the year 2004 the precise text of the motion on which all members are invited to vote on.
For your information and guidance, the feedback we received on the announced proposition was just about unanimous in support. A single
point of dissent was raised pertaining to the use of "Ascendance" in French and "Descent" in English, which, it was felt induced to confusion.
After discussion, the Executive resolved to recommend the term "Descendance" in French.
If the vote is favourable, we shall put the new name into use starting on January 1st, 2004.
A change of name - The results (2003/2004)
The vote requested by the Executive which asked of members to vote in favour of changing the name of our family organization was approved by a 97% majority.
Consequently your Executive has stated that our Association which was known as l'Association des Bourgeois d'Amérique since its
founding, shall, from now on be known as "l'Association des Bourgeois de Descendance Acadienne / the Association of Bourgeois of
Acadian Descent". In practice, we shall sometimes use only the French or English name depending on language of text.
Article 1 of our Constitution is thus amended according to the wording that was proposed to membership for the vote.
Since we still have a good reserve of heading pages for the bulletin, we chose to use these in printing the current issue. Changes in the use
of the new name will be done gradually during the year.
Integration of "L'Association des Bourgeois d'Acadie Inc." assets in 2013
Following discussions with the then defunct "Association Bourgeois d'Acadie Inc." (ABAI), all remaining assets of said organisation were transferred to the "Association of Bourgeois' of Acadian Descent". This included funds remianing in the organisations bank account which have been assigned to the Jacques Bourgeois Monument project and the Bourgeois coats of arms which had been jointly funded by the by both the ABAI and the ABDA-ABAD.