# CWS Family Trust (cws.family) > cws.family is the home of the CWS Family Trust, named for Clyde W. Snyder: what the trust does and stands for, its funding of the CWS Family Foundation, and the family portal behind sign-in. The full text of cws.family, generated from the same source as its pages. The short map is [llms.txt](https://cws.family/llms.txt). What the trust holds is never published here; it is visible only to signed-in, verified family members. ## Pages - [CWS Family Trust | Named for Clyde. Built for family.](https://cws.family/): Named for Clyde W. Snyder, the CWS Family Trust brings the family together, supports one another and funds the CWS Family Foundation from 2028. - [Clyde W. Snyder (1933–2022) | CWS Family Trust](https://cws.family/clyde): Artist, teacher, church elder for sixty years, and the happiest man on the boat. Remembering the grandfather the CWS Family Trust is named for. - [The family portal | CWS Family Trust](https://cws.family/portal): What lives behind family sign-in on cws.family: reports, the family budget and requests for aid, votes, council records, trip plans and the constitution. - [How the family decides | CWS Family Trust](https://cws.family/values): The family constitution, the family council, yearly votes on our values, and a clear path for working through disagreements. - [Family sign-in | CWS Family Trust](https://cws.family/sign-in): Family accounts on cws.family are by approval only. Ask for access here; the family verifies it and sends a registration email. Sign-in uses Federated Trust. - [Contact | CWS Family Trust](https://cws.family/contact): Write to the family behind the CWS Family Trust: ask a question about the trust, or ask for a family login. ## [CWS Family Trust | Named for Clyde. Built for family.](https://cws.family/) ### Named for Clyde. Built for family. The CWS Family Trust carries forward what Clyde W. Snyder valued most: family that stays close, time spent together and doing good for others. The trust was created in 2023 and named for Clyde W. Snyder (1933–2022), an artist and teacher who served as an elder of the Bible Fellowship Church for sixty years. Clyde held his faith dear, and he loved his children, grandchildren, family and friends whoever they called their God. In the Snyder family, money was never the point; fishing trips, full tables at family gatherings and showing up for others were. The trust turns those values into something lasting: time together, support for one another, and the CWS Family Foundation, which Clyde’s grandchildren are organizing. ### What the trust stands for - Family, whoever they call their God: Everyone in Clyde’s family is welcome at the table, and no one has to earn a place. - Everyone has a say: The family writes its own constitution and values, and decides together by vote. - Taking part is a choice: Every relative chooses how involved to be, and can change their mind at any time. - Money is never the point: The trust’s money is a tool for time together and doing good, never the goal. ### What the trust does - Makes time for family: Beginning in 2028, the trust helps fund the trips and gatherings the family plans and votes on together, the kind of days Clyde loved. Status: Planned for 2028. - Supports family within an annual budget: Financial aid and resources for family members, within a budget set each year. A family council decides requests under published guidelines. Status: Designed. - Helps family members build their own security: Co-funding that helps family members put lasting protections in place, such as insurance policies, retirement accounts and trusts for their own families, alongside practical finances taught with qualified advisors. Status: Designed. - Funds the CWS Family Foundation: The trust funds the CWS Family Foundation every year from 2028, with no end date. The foundation is fully independent of the trust and reflects the will of Clyde’s grandchildren and their descendants. Status: Planned for 2028. - Supports causes the family chooses: Each year the family council may vote to support causes, religious or not, that fit the mission the family writes. Our family has seen the harm religious extremism and cults can do, so helping people leave cults and high-control groups, and countering religious extremism, are offered to the family for a vote, never imposed. Status: Designed. - Decides together: A family constitution drafted in 2027, a family council, votes in the portal, and a clear path for working through disagreements. Status: Designed. ### CWS Family Foundation A foundation his grandchildren will write. The CWS Family Foundation is a planned nonprofit that Clyde’s grandchildren are organizing now. Its mission is not written yet, on purpose: the grandchildren write it together and renew it with a vote every year. The 2023 CWS Family Trust has committed annual, ongoing funding beginning in 2028. The foundation is fully independent of the trust. It reflects the will of Clyde’s grandchildren and their descendants, and its decisions and disagreements are its own. It is being established in honor of Clyde W. Snyder and the family virtues he lived by: staying close, making time, doing good. - Being organized: Designed. - Annual funding from 2028: Planned for 2028. - [CWS Family Foundation](https://cws.foundation/) ### The line to 2028 - 2023, The trust is created: The 2023 CWS Family Trust is created and named for Clyde W. Snyder. Status: Done. - 2027, The family organizes: A year to get ready together, before any funding begins: Find and invite family; Open family accounts; Draft the family constitution; Set the first annual budget; Plan the first family trip. Status: Planned for 2027. - 2028, Funding begins: The trust begins funding family time, family support and the CWS Family Foundation, every year from then on. Status: Planned for 2028. ## [Clyde W. Snyder (1933–2022) | CWS Family Trust](https://cws.family/clyde) Clyde W. Snyder (April 7, 1933 to October 9, 2022). ### The artist: He drew the world before he explained it. Clyde was an artist first. He studied at Bob Jones University and Syracuse University, started a commercial art business, and spent fifteen years at Pinebrook Junior College in Coopersburg, Pennsylvania, teaching art and helping the college grow. ### The elder: Sixty years of showing up. For sixty years Clyde served as an elder of the Bible Fellowship Church, in congregations from Hatfield and Coopersburg to Harrisburg. In retirement he helped start a new church in Adams County. He taught, he sat on boards and committees, and he believed in building things that would outlast him. ### The grandfather: Whoever you called your God, you had a seat at his table. Clyde held his faith dear, and he never made anyone earn his love. He loved his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and his family and friends at large, whoever they called their God. That is the part of him this trust is built to keep. ### The fisherman: Money was never the point. In the Snyder family, the best days were on the water: a line in the lake, someone laughing too loudly for the fish, and a full table afterward. Clyde was happiest there, and he wanted everyone he loved to have days like that. ## [The family portal | CWS Family Trust](https://cws.family/portal) What lives behind family sign-in on cws.family: reports, the family budget and requests for aid, votes, council records, trip plans and the constitution. ### What each status means - Done: Already true. - Pilot: Working now for the first approved family members. - In build: Being built now for the first family accounts. - Designed: Designed with the family; put in place once accounts open. - Planned for 2027: Part of the 2027 organizing year. - Planned for 2028: The trust’s funding begins in 2028. ### Behind the family sign-in - One family sign-in: Relatives sign in through Federated Trust, so every account belongs to a verified person and access can be granted or taken back. Status: Pilot. - Your own account: Keep your contact details, household and preferences current, and see what the trust has shared with you. Status: In build. - Opt in, opt out: Choose how involved you want to be, from newsletters to votes, and change your mind at any time. Taking part is always a choice. Status: In build. - Trust holdings and reports: What the trust holds and how it is doing, with its regular reports. Visible only to signed-in, verified family members, and never published on these public pages. Status: Designed. - Annual budget and requests for aid: See the year’s family budget and the published guidelines, ask for support, and follow your request through the family council. Status: Designed. - Plan ahead with advisors: Learn practical finances with qualified advisors and ask about co-funding toward insurance, retirement accounts or a trust for your own family. Status: Designed. - Votes and council records: Vote on the family’s representatives and the questions put to the family, and read the family council’s minutes and decisions. Status: Designed. - Constitution drafts: Read, comment on and vote on drafts of the family constitution as it is written in 2027, and on any later changes. Status: Designed. - Write our values together: Draft, discuss and vote on the family’s values and mission each year, so they stay the family’s words, not one person’s. Status: Designed. - Trip planning: Propose trips and gatherings, vote on them and plan them together. The first trip is planned in 2027; the trust helps fund them from 2028. Status: Designed. - Family stories and memories: Share stories of Clyde and what he meant to you, photographs of the paintings he made for family members, and memories of the special trips the grandparents took with their grandchildren. Status: Designed. - Rollout votes: As the portal opens, the family votes on the logos, the wording of these sites and a Top 5 list of places for family trips. Status: Designed. - Trust administration: Notices, meeting records and decisions from the trust’s fiduciaries, shared with the family in one place. Status: Designed. ## [How the family decides | CWS Family Trust](https://cws.family/values) The family constitution, the family council, yearly votes on our values, and a clear path for working through disagreements. ### How the family decides - A family constitution: The family’s own rules for how it decides: who votes, how the council is chosen, and how the budget and guidelines are set. Drafted together in 2027. Status: Designed. - A family council: Family members chosen by the family. The council decides requests for aid under the published guidelines and brings the bigger questions to a vote. Status: Designed. - Votes in the portal: Trips, causes, values and changes to the constitution are put to the family and decided by vote, with results everyone can see. Status: Designed. ### Writing our values, once a year 1. Draft, Cast the first line. Any family member can propose words for the family’s values or mission, or a change to them. Drafts go to everyone who has opted in. 2. Discuss, Talk it over at the table. Over a set season, the family comments, suggests edits and meets to talk. Disagreement is welcome; the goal is words everyone can stand behind. 3. Vote, Decide together, once a year. Each year the family votes on the final wording. What passes becomes the published values and mission until the next year’s vote. ### When we disagree Each step is tried before the next. 1. Talk it through: The people involved talk directly first, with the family’s values and constitution in front of them. 2. Bring it to the council: If that does not settle it, the family council hears everyone and decides under the constitution. 3. An independent mediator: If the council cannot resolve it, an independent mediator from outside the family helps everyone reach an agreement. 4. The fiduciaries decide: As a last step, the trust’s fiduciaries decide, as the trust agreement requires. The CWS Family Foundation is independent of the trust. Disagreements about the foundation are settled by the foundation, under its own rules. ## [Family sign-in | CWS Family Trust](https://cws.family/sign-in) Family accounts on cws.family are by approval only. Ask for access here; the family verifies it and sends a registration email. Sign-in uses Federated Trust. ## [Contact | CWS Family Trust](https://cws.family/contact) Write to the family behind the CWS Family Trust: ask a question about the trust, or ask for a family login. The site publishes no email address.