More than a year after a decision to cease operations as they were known at the Sugar Grove Nature Center in rural McLean County, some members of the settler-era families who oversee that land and its assets are hoping to change the way their governance board functions.
Some 153 members of the Funk and Stubblefield families have signed their names to a petition aimed at changing the bylaws of the Funks Grove Cemetery Association [FGCA] board, whose members also sit on the Sugar Grove Foundation [SGF] board — which oversaw the operations of the Sugar Grove Nature Center [SGNC].
That petition letter, shared with WGLT, outlines a series of concerns partly raised by a board decision in 2023 that led to drastic changes to the SGNC's operations: Its staff members were terminated and much of its programming and festivals ceased, though the grounds themselves remain open to the public, as does a children's play area.
The letter also includes worries that new decisions to close parts of the grounds and trails over the winter violated terms of a nearly $2 million grant agreement between the Sugar Grove Foundation [SGF] and the private Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation.
“In addition, we believe these decisions are in direct conflict with the wishes of the majority of our family members, whom they are implicitly representing in their decisions,” the letter states. “...All of this has resulted in overwhelmingly negative public sentiment not only toward SGF, but also our families, since it is family members serving on the SGF board who have taken these actions.”
The hope for the authors of the letter and the 153-plus petition signers is that the reversal of 1990s-era bylaw will allow members of the roughly 238-person strong families to vote on who sits on the family’s central-most board. As it is currently, board members alone decide who will sit on the FCGA board.
A long history of natural resources and family ownership
The founding Funk and Stubblefield family members moved from Ohio to what’s now known as Funks Grove Township in rural McLean County in the early 1800s. Since then, their generations have maintained a historic cemetery and been charged with preserving thousands of acres of land that’s been shared to the public, much of which can be categorized as Illinois Nature Preserves and portions of which have been designated as natural landmarks by the U.S. Department of the Interior.
In all those years of history, there have been a few governance changes, family member and former SFG board member Eric Funk said, but the most significant to modern issues came in 1990. That’s when the FCGA changed from having family vote for board members after an annual reunion to having already-appointed board members choose who sits on the board.
The petition that will be presented to the board on Saturday asks that the bylaws be changed to what they had previously been for years.
Funk himself is a former FCGA board member of more than 30 years, but lost his seat on the board after he spoke out publicly regarding the situation that befell the Sugar Grove Nature Center in 2023. At 73 years of age, Funk acknowledged the proposed bylaw changes could benefit the board by bringing in fresh faces.
“If [current board members] are of a strong character, a good character, the kind of character that my family grew up with, the kind of character that many of the Funk and Stubblefield people think their forefathers’ characters were, then they will agree to change the bylaws,” he said. “Then it's a matter of let[ting] the cards fall where they may and if the family votes in a new board, so be it. If the family keeps some of them, so be it — but the thing is, it's up to the family, not just five people at this point.”
Debby Funk, one of six family members who signed or penned the letter urging other family members to sign the petition for a bylaws request, wrote in it that the change would hopefully bring some “accountability, which is at the heart of the problem.”
“This change in FCGA bylaws will allow others in the family the opportunity to serve, and they could then work with legal counsel to write new bylaws governing the SGF board. …Currently, the SGF bylaws do not establish term limits and the board members are self-selected, which means there is no way to hold them accountable for the decisions they have made that have adversely affected the nature center,” the letter reads.
Craig Alexander, the FCGA’s current president, did not return a request for comment from WGLT.
‘It had an impact’
Of all of the natural resources made available to the public in Funks Grove, the SGNC arguably is the most prominent and widely known, though there are other ventures in the area that celebrate its long natural history, including maple sirup production, a creamery that produces three-ingredient ice cream with the sirup and an organic farm, among others.
But the SGNC’s nearly two-decades of operation, its reliance on the public for donations and its reputation are part of why the families’ inner workings drew attention last year: The decisions that impacted the center impacted the center-supporting and center-loving public.
“I used to get that over and over again from people, that it was just, it was so good and so good for young people, too,” Eric Funk said. “'Some of the young people that were out there early on, back in the early 2000s and when I say early, I mean from 2005-2007, I have come across them, and they talk about the nature center and what an impact it had on them. They came out maybe when they were five or 10 years old, and now they're 25. So, it had an impact.”
Angela Funk, the former executive director of 19 years who helped build it from the ground-up, said the termination of herself and staff members saddened more than just them: There were dozens of volunteers, homeschooling groups and others who lamented the changes and Funk said public opinion soured.
“Whether it's Funks Grove the natural area, Funks Grove agriculture, Funks Grove maple sirup, the historical aspect of the cemetery or the newest venture — which was Sugar Grove Nature Center — those are things to be take pride in and be happy that you were able to do and create for the rest of the community,” she said. “What has happened has tarnished that and is unfortunate, embarrassing, I mean, a lot of different words. So many of those people were so good to me and so supportive over the years, and you know, it's sad to see them having to deal with and feel the way that they do.”
To this day, Funk said she disputes the financial picture presented of the SGNC as a struggling nonprofit that was too costly to remain in operation; Eric Funk, the former board member [and Angela’s husband], said he regrets often the decision to go along with what the SGF board’s finance committee had concluded: That laying off the center’s staff, ceasing many operations and hiring back an educator was the only thing to do.
“Why didn’t I argue harder in the finance committee sessions? Why didn’t I say, ‘Hey, we should get an accountant — we’re not qualified to do this?’” he said. “ It came down to: ‘OK, we really can't afford this.’ I disagreed with that, but I didn't have anything to back it up, and we didn't go to an accountant to have them determine it. We sat at a table and met five or six times, and each of us did our own financial stuff.”
In the letter to the family, Debby Funk and other signatories also dispute the imminent nature of the SGF’s financial situation, though they acknowledge that, since the decision to terminate staff last year, donations have “plummeted.”
“SGF had enough money to retain the staff and continue programs for at least a year, and we are confident that if supporters had been informed of the need for more funds, they would have rallied to provide them,” the letter reads.
The hope, however, is that if the bylaws can be changed, the nature center could be restored and resemble the asset that it was long known as. Instead of an irreversible decision, the letter describes it as a “misstep,” something that can be corrected in the interests of not only the SGNC’s supporters, but the legacies of the area’s original founders.
“The Funk and Stubblefield names have always been highly respected in our community. This year our families are celebrating 200 years of maintaining goodwill with our surrounding communities,” the letter reads. “We can and should do our part to preserve that trust for the next 200 years.”
The petition and its accompanying signatures will be presented during the two families' annual reunion on Saturday, Aug. 31.
