1 September 2005: Brave New World After outgoing NC Shari Handly slinks off in disgrace, nothing actually happens for several days. Although the meeting was not called to order for a couple of days, new Board member Jeff "You'll Hear More From Me" Scism made a great public show of withdrawing his challenge to the seating of George Waller. Another Project member stepped up to the plate and reinstated the challenge, so the Board got to discuss this for several days

3 September 2005: Brave New World, The Sequel The Board officially opens its 2005-2006 term. In among the general roll calling, pro forma thanking of all and sundry who had gone before, and other usual chitchat, some things were proposed that never actually came to pass; for instance, new NC Linda Haas Davenport claimed she would hold a roll call whenever a meeting is opened to determine a quorum.

3 September 2005: Mad Hatter's Tea Party NC Linda proposes her "three list system", whereby the Board would have a) a formal meeting on Board-L; b) an informal meeting on a different list; and c) the Sekrit Sandbox. Initially the plan was to open and close each of the three meetings as business moved between them. NC Linda did tries this approach for a few days, but before the month was out this complicated plan is abandoned in favor of just leaving all three meetings open all the time. For a time, however, Project members are amused by watching meetings being opened and closed on a nearly daily basis while the Board members repeatedly post formal business to the informal meeting and vice versa.

3 September 2005: All In The Family NC Linda reappoints the Web team and annoints Josh Taylor as the new Parliamentarian. She also tries to do an end run around the Board by appointing Ellen Pack to do "minutes", rather than trying to have her confirmed as a bona fide Board Secretary.

3 September 2005: Beginning Of The End In its first couple of days, the Board also discusses the sticky subject of grievances; namely all those held over from the previous term that for various reasons had fallen through the cracks of USGenWeb's pathetic mediation system. Eventually they all move over to the Sekrit Sandbox to discuss the Hall-Daniels grievance, which by that time was over 9 months old and which they decide in favor of Sherri Hall in early October. Grievances and matters surrounding them manage to fill most of the Board's plate for the entirety of its term.

4 September 2005: Among Friends The Board commences to discussing the George Waller pseudo-resignation and the ongoing challenge to seating him on the Board. After a motion declaring George to be "the legally qualified NE/NC SC Rep" is made and seconded, voting begins immediately and the motion easily passes. In a mildly amusing side story, this motion is formally numbered three times, as NC Linda tries to figure out the motion numbering system that has been in place for eight or so years. NC Linda also receives the first of many complaints from other Board members about her quickness to declare voting over and done with.

4 September 2005: Flurry Of Activity NC Linda posts a series of messages about upcoming agenda items, including opening the meetings whenever needed instead of at the beginning of the month; combining the use of Robert's Rules of Order and Sturgis as the Board's parliamentary authority; revisiting the Standing Procedures; and the assigning of new mediators. Most of these are forgotten as quickly as they are published.

7 September 2005: The Board confirms the appointment of Mike Jarvis and Julie McGrew-Ayres to the Webmaster positions. Board members Darilee Bednar and Mike St. Clair begin reporting from the Federation of Genealogical Societies conference in Salt Lake City, where USGenWeb is offered a membership in the Federation.

8 September 2005: Promises Are Made To Be Broken NC Linda makes the first of her many promises to keep discussion on Board-Exec limited to issues involving individuals, to announce when the Board is working in Board-Exec, to announce the resolutions reached in Board-Exec publicly, and to hold all other discussions in open session. This promise is forgotten immediately and Board-Exec operates as it always has throughout her tenure. By the end of October, she is no longer even pretending that the Board does not talk in Board-Exec continually and on matters not involving confidentiality.

10 September 2005: Stuff Hitting The Fan Darilee Bednar notifies the Board that due to its lack of timely action and some strong-arming from FGS, she joined the FGS on USGenWeb's behalf. This opens a huge can of worms and for a bit the Board discusses withdrawing the membership and sanctioning both Darilee and Mike [who graciously offered to share half of the blame for Darilee's action] but nothing ever comes of this.

10 September 2005: Having A Good Laugh NC Linda again states that Board-Exec will not be used to discuss anything other than confidential personnel information. She also permanently opens the Formal and Informal Board sessions. Confusion continues to reign, however, as even the NC occasionally treats informal suggestions as formal motions.

11 September 2005: Ellen Pack is approved as the Board's new secretary. The Board commences to discussing a new standing procedure for future Boards to follow when appointing secretaries, but nothing ever comes of it.

12 September 2005: Selling the Brooklyn Bridge NC Linda again assures the membership that when the Board works in Board-Exec it will be announced publicly.

15 September 2005: Sound And Fury The Board finally passes a motion to accept the FGS membership.

16 September 2006: Say What? In the midst of a flurry of proposed motions, David Morgan suddenly blurts out something about punishing people who use aliases. This is the first inkling the Project has about the upcoming Captain Alias scandal. Most of the information and speculation provided in coming months about this elusive figure comes not from the Board but from other members of Project who claim knowledge of the alleged fraud.

18 September 2005: Storing Up Treasures in Heaven Jeff Scism starts an ultimately fruitless discussion on returning all Members Not In Good Standing to full membership privileges.

21 September 2005: Man Of A Thousand Faces NC Linda publicly acknowledges the Captain Alias issue for the first time. She does so while announcing the opening of the Board's fourth concurrent meeting, which she convenes in order to discuss the issue. She provides no information on the issue, but by this time the rest of the Project is well aware that Captain Alias used 11 or 12 aliases on 46 different pages and managed to get herself elected to State Coordinator when her aliases allegedly held a majority of counties in one state. Keith Giddeon asks who authorized the removal of registered voters from the voters list, a question that the Board cannot answer and which the EC declines to answer entirely. The Project is, however, treated to periodic assurances that the question will be discussed sometime or other.

22 September 2005: Better Luck Next Time The motion to remove the MNIGS label from all members morphs into a motion to remove it from just one. Although a majority of Board members voted to remove the label a 2/3 majority was not achieved and the motion failed on 27 September. The Board briefly discusses rescinding Motion 02-12, which established the MNIGS status and according to the Parliamentarian was not kosher, but nothing ever comes of this.

24 September 2005: Jury of Your Peers NC Linda announces that she will be hand-picking a Committee of Three to determine who gets to stay on the DISCUSS list. Although a call for volunteers went out, nothing ever comes of this.

27 September 2005: I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream NC Linda asks each Board member to agree to a gag rule regarding the Sekrit Sandbox and any other list she forms to keep matters secret from the membership. Proudly demonstrating their lack of a spine, all Board members agree to the gag rule.

29 September 2005: After a month of waiting for Root$web to create a new list for the Board to use for its informal meeting, NC Linda finally gives up and iniates use of the USGENWEB-ALL list for the purpose. This does not usher in a confusion-free era of three separate Board meetings and members periodically continue to get the three lists mixed for the rest of their term. The Board continues to wait for the Grievance Committee list.

3 October 2005: Pearls Before Swine The Parliamentarion recommends that Motion 02-12, which made Teresa Lindquist a Member-Not-In-Good-Standing, should be rescinded because it is in violation of parliamentary procedure. As of this writing [5 September 2006] Motion 02-12 has not been rescinded. A motion to rescind it was met with accusions of conspiracy and was withdrawn. It does however provoke a brief attempt by Jeff to define a set of procedures for declaring a volunteer a MNIGS; this attempt, of course, goes nowhere.

7 October 2005: Random MisfiresThe Board begins to discuss its Standing Procedures. Jeff posts lengthy discussion on various topics, virtually all of which are ignored for a few days. The one that gets traction, which lists "conviction of a felony" as a reason to remove someone from office, sparks a great deal of misinformed rhetoric and is mildly entertaining for a few days.

9 October 2005: Herding Cats The Board turns its attention to the various components of the standing procedures, among them the "permission to speak" issue. Originally formulated as a way to give the NC unilateral control over who is permitted to speak on any of the Board's lists, memories of recent abuse of the privilege by former NC Shari Handley, lead the Board to actually propose severe limits on the NC's ability to shut out uncomfortable voices. They also discuss the removal of SCs and ASCs from their jobs, and a provision that would allow for the first time formal votes taken in secret.

10 October 2005: Some Bridge In Brooklyn Some Board members let slip that revealing who removed registered voters from the voting rolls and who authorized the removals might compromise the Captain Alias investigation.

13 October 2005: Let It All Hang Out Jeff Scism informs the Project it "doesn't have a need to know" who removed registered voters from the rolls and who authorized the removals.

14 October 2005: Keeping His Hand In Once and future Board member Scott Burow writes an expanded version of the "permission to speak" SOP, which after much foot-dragging is finally accepted by NC Linda. The Board begins to vote on this SOP as well as the SOPs for "informal discussion" [which permits secret voting] and "agenda/order of business." All three pass on 17 October.

17 October 2005: Turning Up Like a Bad Penny Project wing-nut Phyllis Rippee once again retires from public life after publicly embarrassing herself. Within a few months she is once again a sitting Board member.

19 October 2005: One month after the question was initially asked, NC Linda finally informs the Project the steps taken by the EC to remove registered voters from the rolls without Board input. She also gives the membership the most formal detail it has ever received on the topic and confirms that any involvement of the Board in the removal of registered voters was merely as a rubberstamp of the Election Committee's actions.

19 Octber 2005: Open Foot, Insert Mouth Jeff Scism publicly outs Captain Alias.

20 October 2005: Jeff, We Hardly Knew Ye Citing his violation of confidentiality, Jeff Scism resigns from the Board. Other Board members immediately forgive him and beg him to stay, and Jeff does indeed have a change of heart, but they all shortly find that Sturgis doesn't permit that. The Board initially tries to refuse his resignation but that attempt is formally dropped on 22 October in favor of reappointing him to his old position.

20 October 2005: Members begin to wonder openly whatever happened to the special election the EC was supposed to hold to elect a new Special Projects Representative. Publication of their concern in the DBS brings about swift notice that the election will open in a few days.

22 October 2005: Talking the Talk The DBS publishes an interview with Captain Alias. It immediately become apparent that she had no idea at all she was being investigated because no one on either the Board nor the EC had ever actually spoken to her.

24 October 2005: The Board starts talking about instituting a formal procedure for resignations. Prominently featured in the proposal are secret resignations.

25 October 2005: Welcome Back Kotter Jeff Scism is reappointed to his old seat for the remainder of the year. Unfortunately, he must run for reelection a year early and that doesn't work out so well for him.

27 October 2005: Better Late Than Never Root$web finally issues a new list for the proposed Grievance Procedures Committee to use.

27 October 2005: False Start The Board begins discussing a motion to seat the Grievance Procedures Committee. The motion inexplicably includes two people already on the committee and the Parliamentarian. The motion is shortly withdrawn.

29 October 2005: The Board decides by way of a straw poll that it does not need formal resignation procedures after all.

31 October 2005: The Board approves the membership of the Grievance Procedures Committee and that body begins its work.

1 November 2005: The Wages Of Sin David Morgan removes himself from the Sekrit Sandbox and the other secret list, although NC Linda tries to claim that he is only "moderated" for violating her gag rule. His crime? He contacted Captain Alias directly about the circumstances surrounding the allegations of aliases and vote fraud.

4 November 2005: Back From The Dead NC Linda publishes a report from the Newsletter Committee, which has only sporadically actually published a newsletter. Despite their best intentions, it is several months before the newsletter is actually publishing monthly again.

8 November 2005: Our Own Little World NC Linda publishes the EC's recommended procedures for handling aliases to the informal list. The constitute both a radical departure from current guidelines and a fairly astonishing power grab on the part of the Election Committee, but fortunately this is apparent to everyone and the recommendations eventually die a painful death. The discussion of aliases and what to do about them goes on for over two months before the Board eventually decides to pass the dirty work off to a subcommittee.

8 November 2005: George Waller is appointed the Board representative to the Election Committee.

8 November 2005: Whatever Linda Blum-Barton complains about the exceedingly short time frame on the vote to install George Waller as the Board rep to the EC. NC Linda announced the results as soon as a quorum was reached, even though continued voting could have changed the outcome of the vote. NC Linda blows off concerns expressed about this although she does promise to post a timeframe in upcoming votes.

8 November 2005: Smashing Success NC Linda announces that six Board members liked the formal/informal meeting setup, or at least didn't object to it, so it will continue.

9 November 2005: Cyndi Enfinger is elected as the first ever Special Projects Representative.

12 November 2005: Courtesy Call The FGS 2006 Committee presents the first and only report of its activities to the Board. It is quite careful to note that it is not a "committee of the Advisory Board" and the Board therefore has no authority over it. Before this report was received, the Board had no idea who was on the committee.

19 November 2005: Big Pile O' Grievances Two and a half months after the Board began its term, NC Linda finally issues a call for volunteer mediators.

19 November 2005: Julie McGrew-Ayres is appointed Webmaster.

29 November 2005: If At First You Don't Succeed The Board informally discusses creating yet another committee to revise the bylaws. This time around the proposal includes creating a standing committee that will interpret the bylaws, propose revisions, and determine when the bylaws have been violated.

29 November 2005: Eh, We'll Get Around To It The EC publishes its first and second quarter reports 9 and 6 months late. One of the reports is missing entire chunks of the most recent election and is later revised.

4 December 2005: Better Late Than, Well, You Know The EC submits its third quarter report. This one is only a couple of months late

5 December 2005: Eventually We'll Figure It Out After some minor wrangling the Board accepts the Election Committee's latest set of volunteers. NC Linda unfortunately once again closes the vote much earlier than announced and once again closes it when the remaining votes could have easily changed the outcome. This time half the Board publicly takes her to the woodshed over it and Jeff eventually moves for a do-over. On December 7 the motion passes again, for real this time, but the incident inspires NC Linda to try and clarify the Standing Operating Procedure for votes. This effort fails due to lack of interest after a couple of weeks of meaningless chatter on the proposed wording.

9 December 2005: More than three months into their term, the Board finally seats the volunteer mediators.

13 December 2005: NC Linda announces that the Board is in the Sekrit Sandbox discussing a grievance. This is the infamous OHGenWeb grievance, which haunts them for much of the remainder of their term.

13 December 2005: Crime and Punishment On the informal list the Board starts discussing whether or not to form a committee to look into the issue of aliases and fraudulent voter registrations. After a straw poll on the informal list inexplicably turns into an official vote to form a committee and some members complain, George Waller formally moves to establish such a committee. Two days later he changes his mind after deciding the EC doesn't need any oversight and withdraws the motion. He instead suggests that the EC be empowered to handle aliases and fraudulent registrations all by itself however it chooses without informing the Board or the SCs.

21 December 2005: Changing of the Guard Lori Thornton takes over from Tina Vickery as the Chair of the Election Committee.

6 January 2006: Fish or Cut Bait The Other Linda moves to establish the Voter Fraud Committee. NC Linda originally misnumbers this motion and it is amended substantially after much wrangling over who should be on it and how long it should meet. It passes on 15 January but due to a procedural error they immediately vote on it again. After four separate iterations of the motion and several bizarre rulings by the NC [including a claim that something with three NO votes passed "by general consent"], the motion passes a final time on 19 January and the VFC begins its secret meetings the following day.

6 January 2006: Something Rotten in the State of Denmark The news breaks that David Samuelsen is withholding some undefined but apparently quite large sum of money he collected from generous Project members to fund the USGenWeb booth at the FGS 2005 conference. David immediately takes the only existing public accounting of the funds, albeit an incomplete one, offline and it shortly becomes clear that no one on the Board has any idea of just how much money David is holding onto. According to sources, David is trying to force the Board to establish a Financial Procedures Committee and he refuses to turn over the money until it does so. After a great deal of impassioned debate and some world-class obfuscation from several Board members, David and NC Linda finally come clean with the accounting of the missing funds. It is entirely lacking in detail and although NC Linda promises to provide a detailed accounting of the expenditures none is ever forthcoming.

14 January 2006: Out Of The Blue NC Linda blithely notifies everyone that she is rewriting both the CC and the SC guidelines. Although these resurface in various forms over the next few weeks, they are never completed.

23 January 2006: The Board grants the Grievance Procedures Committee 60 more days to complete its work. They then have to do the consensus vote over on the formal list because the initial one was conducted on the informal list.

25 January 2006: Familiar Face The Board appoints former Webmaster Mike Jarvis to the Assistant Webmaster position.

28 January 2006: Third Time's The Charm On the informal list the Board begins unenthusiastically discussing NC Linda's proposed bylaws committee. Jeff Scism, whose sole apparent dream is to completely revamp USGenWeb from the bottom up [and who at some point admits to having written nine separate sets of bylaws during his tenure as a Project member], takes point on the discussion. As with most things he does, his proposal is so complicated that it actually appears to frighten people. Buried among the verbiage are such gems as "Membership is at the discretion of the USGenWeb Board," and the change of the Advisory Board to just a Board.

2 February 2006: Unceasing Wonders: The Project learns that the Board ruled in favor of CC Daryl Lytton in his "wrongful termination" grievance against OHGenWeb SC Sandra Quinn. Unfortunately, the Board is incapable of enforcing its recommendation that Sandra reinstate Daryl and Sandra does indeed refuse to reinstate hime. Daryl immediately tries to get the Board to seize OHGW and give him his county back. The Board's complete impotence in the face of an SC who doesn't want to do the right thing becomes a recurring theme in the upcoming extensive discussions of grievance procedures.

4 February 2006: NC Linda practically begs the Board to discuss Jeff's proposed Bylaws committee. The collective yawn is ear-shattering. On February 8 the discussion is formally closed due to lack of interest. It is formally closed again, still for lack of interest, on February 14.

9 February 2006: New World Order NC Linda posts her rewritten CC guidelines. They provoke a lot of discussion and some minor revision, but are never formally instituted.

13 February 2006: Diversionary Tactic For no apparent reason, the Board briefly discusses the "Friends of USGenWeb" logos. About the most interesting thing about this discussion is the revelation that it was previously discussed on Board-Exec, which the Project has heretofore been led to believe was only for discussing those very few matters that required utmost confidentiality. The discussion died out quickly and after two weeks NC Linda tries to jumpstart the discussion and has only moderate success.

17 February 2006: Hour of Truth The recommendations of the Voter Fraud Committee are posted. They ignore the EC's recommended procedures almost entirely, particularly by requiring that the accused, any involved SCs, and the Board be fully informed at the outset, and that no one be removed from the voter rolls until the Board has ruled in the matter. Major missteps in the proposed procedures include referring suspected cases of fraudulent registration to a nonexistent Grievance Committee, failing to give the accused any rights to rebut evidence against them, giving the EC the right to investigate anyone who registers to vote, and being overly solicitous of the rights of anonymous accusers at the expense of the accused. The Board commences intensive discussion.

23 February 2006: Huge Loss Representative At Large Mike St. Clair resigns from the Board. After some discussion, the Board agrees to seek volunteers and hold a Project-wide preference poll to select his replacement. The Board then commences to bickering about how many volunteers should be permitted to stand for the position.

24 February 2006: Back to the Drawing Board NC Linda orders the Voter Fraud Committee report back to the committee for revision of its proposed procedures for the Board. She also replaces Mike St. Clair with The Other Linda on the committee.

27 February 2006: Talking to Hear Himself Talk: For no apparent reason, Jeff proposes to amend the Standing Procedures to "clarify" the use of Sturgis as the Board's parliamentary authority. His proposal is twice as long as the original, but says basically the same thing. The Board collectively yawns and moves on.

1 March 2006: In the face of overwhelming lack of interest in the "Friends of USGenWeb" logos, NC Linda announces that she will issue a call for new logo designs. Apparently she never got around to doing this and the "Friends of the USGenWeb" logos are nowhere to be found on the national website.

1 March 2006: Opiate of the Masses NC Linda publishes her first and only summary of discussion topics covered in the Sekrit Sandbox. It covers the preceding two months and includes such vitally confidential items as a discussion of resizing the Project's logos, adding the Friends of USGenWeb logos back to the national site, a request to add a dual state to the Project, and adding our FGS membership to the agenda.

2 March 2006: Rush Job NC Linda calls for a vote on accepting the Voter Fraud Committee's recommended changes to the Election Committee guidelines. She permits no discussion period prior to calling for the vote and is immediately asked to allow time for collecting member input prior to future votes. She blows this request off by noting that since the Board barely discussed the changes the first time it was brought up she didn't think allowing the members time to poll their constituents was necessary. The Board commences to briefly discussing the proper way to propose a motion, obtain a second, and move it to the floor for discussion.

6 March 2006: The Board votes to amend the Election Committee Guidelines.

6 March 2006: Fixing Something That Isn't Broken The Board discusses expanding the job description for the Representative At Large from what is provided in the bylaws. Jeff is invited to take lead on this discussion and once again provides a long, overly detailed list of duties for that position, most of which either state the obvious or are entirely unnecessary. In the course of the ensuing discussion, Jeff makes the ludicrous claim that the RAL is like an ombudsman. When few Board members express any interest in revising the RAL's duties, Jeff suggests just leaving the RAL position empty.

6 March 2006: Sad Sayonara David Morgan resigns from the Board. The Board decides to add his seat to the preference poll for the RAL position.

11 March 2006: Cutting Losses NC Linda closes the discussion of job descriptions.

11 March 2006: Wasting More Time The Board begins public discussion of its own inability to enforce its rulings in grievances. Although Board members are enjoined from discussing the particulars of any specific grievance, the OHGenWeb grievance sits in their midst like an embarrassing relative. Jeff immediately suggests a bylaws revision that requires bi-annual elections for SCs, forces the states to adopt parliamentary procedures or have them forced on them by the Board, and makes the grievance procedures binding on all parties.

15 March 2006: Rogues Gallery NC Linda publishes the candidates for the vacant RAL and SWSC CC rep positions. The list for RAL includes Daryl Lytton who has no qualifying position in USGenWeb that would allow him to hold the office. His inclusion on the list sparks a heated discussion over whether he should be allowed to participate in the preference poll or to hold a Board seat should he win. It turns out that the EC declared him ineligible for the position, but he was included on the list at NC Linda's personal insistence and because Parliamentarian Josh Taylor observed that the bylaws are silent on eligibility to participate in preference polls. The issue quickly lines up along a pro-CC rights vs. pro-SC privilege schism and while public discussion is barely polite, private discussion among members and on Board-Exec is not so decorous.

20 March 2006: Step Lively Acting Chair George Waller calls for a vote on the motion to declare Daryl Lytton ineligible to participate in the preference poll. He gives the Board members slightly less than four hours to vote. The four hours pass with no votes and the motion fails for lack of a quorum. The motion is returned to the floor for more discussion.

22 March 2006: Backdoor Man Deciding to try a different approach, Jeff withdraws his motion to declare Daryl ineligible to participate in the preference poll. NC Linda then requests and receives a motion to declare Daryl eligible to serve on the Advisory Board. Darilee publicly prays that "this works" and she gets her wish. An attempt by Angie, Jan, and Karen to amend the motion by substitution to allow Daryl to participate in the poll is determined to be "not germane" and is declined. NC Linda once again publishes the results of a vote when the outcome could be reversed if more members voted.

25 March 2006: Declare Victory And Go Home NC Linda declares the unresolved grievances issue resolved by declaring that the bylaws only allow the Board to advise and mediate and gives it no enforcement power and suggests that CCs with unresolved grievances be subjected to popularity contests in their states should their SC decline to follow the Board's recommendations. Several Board members find this abrogation of their duty to defend the rights of their constituents just peachy.

31 March 2006: See You Next Year The Board declares Daryl Lytton ineligible to serve on the Advisory Board. NC Linda immediately forbids the Board to discuss the issue any further.

2 April 2006: Another One Bites The Dust Capping off an uneventful tenure, Lori Thornton resigns as Chair of the Election Commmittee after a mere three months at the helm.

3 April 2006: Stall Tactic NC Linda gives the Board a choice between holding a preference poll to fill the empty RAL and SWSC seats, filling them by direct appointment, or letting them stand empty until the new term in September, five months away. After about 30 seconds of deliberation, the Board decides to forego its earlier commitment to a preference poll and directly appoint the new members.

4 April 2006: Out Of The Blue After failing utterly to gin up any interest in bylaws amendments or revisions, NC Linda exercises her prerogative and seats a By-laws Committee to work on a revised set of bylaws and operating procedures. Jeff Scism is tapped to lead the committee, which operates entirely in secret.

8 April 2006: Captain Alias Rides Again The Board begins the approval process on a slate of EC candidates that includes not only Ellen Pack, but someone who appears on first glance to be an alias. The anomaly is due to an error on the EC's part and is shortly corrected. After some confusion about amending and correcting the original motion the Board handily approves the new slate of volunteers, which paves the way for putting Ellen back in the driver's seat on the EC.

15 April 2006: All In The Family The Board appoints Scott Burow to the vacant RAL seat and Phyllis Rippee [who had left public life, swearing never to return, just a couple of months prior] to the vacant SWSC representative seat. NC Linda immediately asks them to agree to her gag order regarding BOARD-EXEC and both gladly comply.

21 April 2006: Once More, With Feeling The Board again turns to discussing the revised Voter Fraud Committee report.

21 April 2006: Ghosts of Forgotten Ancestors Richard Pettys asks the Board to extend his Member Not In Good Standing status to be basically indefinite. NC Linda finds this request to be without merit and denies it.

23 April 2006: Back In The Saddle The EC announces that it has chosen Ellen Pack as it's new Chair.

23 April 2006: Abrupt Change of Subject Out of the blue, Karen moves to appoint Denise Wells as the Editor of the USGenWeb Newlsetter. She is handily confirmed and replaces Sharon Rhodes who rarely managed to get the newsletter out on a regular basis. Under Denise's leadership the newsletter returns to a monthly publication schedule.

26 April 2006: After the brief hiatus necessary to appoint a new Editor for the newsletter, the Board, or at least two members of it, return to jockeying over wording in the VFC report. Other than a days-long dance of mutual admiration and respect, nothing much is accomplished and Phyllis and George are the only two who apparently care about the report at this point.

5 May 2006: New Face NC Linda appoints Donna Allen to the position of Board Secretary.

7 May 2006: Something In The Water Angie Rayfield resigns from the Board. The Board initially decides not to replace her, then decides to replace her after all, but is unable to obtain any volunteers for the seat. Although the Board sporadically discusses the issue the seat sits empty until the start of the September term.

10 May 2006: Fifth or Sixth Time's The Charm NC Linda opens discussion on the "final" version of the Voter Fraud Committee report.

21 May 2006: Cart Before The Horse NC Linda asks for a vote to accept the VFC report since no one had discussed it for a couple of weeks. The Board is well into "adopting" the report as variously amended when it sidetracks into a discussion of the meaning of "accept" vs. "adopt." After much consulting of Sturgis and much mindless and uninformed posturing from Jeff [who claims erroneously that "accept" means they can still "work on it" while "adopt" means it is a done deal], the Board suddenly comes to find that if it votes to "accept" or to "adopt" the report they are stuck with it as is and it immediately becomes binding on the Project. They also discover that all the spur-of-the-moment amendments made to the report were out of order and should have been approved by the full committee.

26 May 206: Sometimes A Great Notion Jeff Scism posts the Bylaws Revision Committee's proposed full set of bylaws revisions. They are 20 pages long and full of inconsistencies, ambiguities, and outright errors. Jeff continues to personally revise them in response to various comments received on mailing lists although it is a formal report and should go back to the committee for revisions. The Board does not seem overly impressed with the proposals and the several that comment note that they would like to see something a little less complicated.

28 May 2006: Back To The Drawing Board, Part II NC Linda declares the motion to "accept" the Voter Fraud Committee report out of order on a procedural technicality. Committee Chair George Waller decides to take the report back to the committee to have it approve the various changes before bringing it back to the assembly.

6 June 2006: One More Time George moves to adopt the Voter Fraud Committee's proposed Procedures for Fraudulent Registrations. On June 9, NC Linda asks George to set this aside in favor of discussing the Grievance Procedures Committee report, which includes a proposed bylaws amendment they wish placed on the upcoming ballot for the general election. George first withdraws the motion and then restates it on June 11 but on June 12 is informed they have to deal with another eligibility appeal before handling his motion.

9 June 2006: Smackdown After much public expression of personal loathing and animosity toward him, the Board declares Daryl Lytton ineligible to run for office in the general election.

9 June 2006: O RLY? GPC Chair Scott Burow tells the Board he intends to present the proposed bylaws amendment under the urgency clause of the bylaws; he also tells them that they have to make it happen by June 15 so that the EC has time to include it on the ballot for the upcoming election.

16 June 2006: Smackdown II The Board finds Teresa Lindquist ineligible to run for office in the upcoming general election.

19 June 2006: Smackdown III The Baord finds Tim Stowell ineligible to run for office in the upcoming general election.

19 June 2006: The Neverending Story NC Linda once again opens the floor for discussion of the motion to adopt the Fradulent Registration procedures. The Board suddenly discovers the section of the report detailing the Technical Advisor position, some deficiences in requirements for filing an accusation of fraudulent registrations, and the "awesome responsibility" of accusing someone when you cannot prove or disprove their innocence.

26 June 2006: Easy Come, Easy Go George withdraws the Fraudulent Procedures motion.

28 June 2006: The New Neverending Story The Board begins discussing the Grievance Procedures Committee report. Other than some meandering questions from Jeff and a few gently paternalistic responses from Scott, there is little discussion.

1 July 2006: Bobble Heads The USGenWeb annual general election is delayed for an unspecificed length of time for unspecified reasons.

1 July 2006: And Again... NC Linda begins posting the proposed Grievance procedures to the formal list, including a proposed "urgent" bylaws amendment and asks Scott for a motion to adopt the procedures. The Board gets almost to the point of voting when Phyllis Rippee decides to ask some more questions about the procedures.

5 July 2006: InfightingDarilee files a grievance against NC Linda over being moderated on the DISCUSS list.

7 July 2006: Voting for the general election begins a week late.

7 July 2006: Bull In A China Shop NC Linda calls the vote on the motion to adopt the proposed grievance procedures, even though there is a question on the floor about whether the procedures conflict with the bylaws. Scott Burow, Chair of the GPC and the procedures' author, claims they do and that an urgent bylaws amendment is thus required; many others note that they do not conflict with the bylaws and thus no urgency to amend the bylaws is warranted. The Parliamentarian is conveniently out of town and unavailable to render an opinion, and the vote proceeds.

11 July 2006: Come Hell Or High Water The Board adopts the new grievance procedures. It is a full month before they discover that the procedures they passed missing entire sections due to a cut-n-paste error by the NC.

11 July 2006: Forging Ahead The Board begins to discuss Scott's so-called "urgent" amendment to the bylaws. The Board focuses most intently on the provision that denies members their right to a representative of their choice.

20 July 2006: Better Late Than Never In the continued absence of the Parliamentarian, NC Linda renders an opinion that the procedures do not conflict with the bylaws, thus depriving Scott of his major argument supporting an urgent bylaws amendment. Apparently unfamiliar with the Board's parliamentary authority, she repeatedly cites someone called "Strugis" in support of her opinion. The Parliamentarian concurs with this opinion in absentia and the Board discusses how grievances filed after passage of the new procedures but before the Grievance Committee is seated will be handled. NC Linda notes that any new grievances will be handled under the new procedures even though there is no time-frame for establishing the Grievance Committee. [As of this writing, September 30, the committee has not yet been established.]

23 July 2006: Hurry Up And Wait In an attempt to jump-start the discussion so that the proposed amendment can make it onto the run-off ballot, NC Linda posts her own version of the bylaws amendment to both the Board list and the project general mailing lists. The Board briefly turns to discussing the thorny issue of enforcing the proposed "binding outcomes" of grievance procedures.

31 July 2006: Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun In response to NC Linda's request to get a move on, Scott and Jeff post competing versions of the proposed bylaws amendment. Scott's is narrowly focused on grievances. Jeff's, on the other hand, incorporates several of his idees-fixe, including codifying discipline procedures, enumerating several committees, giving the Board the right to intervene in state business, and appointing mail list managers. Both proposals eliminate the member's right to have a grievance heard by the Advisory Board.

1 August 2006: Ticking Clock The new month begins with the Board continuing to discuss the "urgent" amendment in a most leisurely fashion. Some Board members also begin to ask for a definition of "urgent" in regards to the motion. The amendment's proponents switch to the tactic of declaring that "severe and grave harm" will befall USGenWeb's members if the amendment is not passed. The Board also begins to discuss violating the bylaws in order to get the amendment on the run-off ballot and conform to the EC's election schedule.

6 August 2006: Don't Let The Door Hit You On Your Way Out NC Linda dismisses the Grievance Procedures Committee. Scott moves to have the Board propose an urgent amendment to the bylaws. The motion is shortly amended without bothering with the usual parliamentary hoo-hah usually surrounding amendments. The Board refuses to justify the need for an urgent amendment.

11 August 2006: New Faces The results of the 2006 annual election are announced. Although only one incumbent, Jeff Scism, was defeated at the polls several new faces will be joining the Board for the 2006/2007 term.

12 August 2006: The Board passes the urgency motion. [As of this writing --30 September 2006-- the Board has not yet managed to present this "urgent" amendment to the membership and has not discussed it for over a month.]

12 August 2006: Housecleaning The Board begins to discuss removing the old mediation procedures and replacing them with the new grievance procedures. This discussion is derailed when the Board suddenly discovers that the new procedures are missing two crucial sections. The Board then turns to discussing the reinsertion of the missing sections and fixing up some of the wording in the procedures, most noticeably the part that requires that the Special Projects Representative sit on the Grievance Committee. Several Board members appear quite confused as to which grievance procedures the Board is currently operating under. Scott, who had originally held that it would take the Board 2-3 weeks at most to seat the Grievance Committee now allows as to how it might be more prudent to use the old procedures until the committee can be seated.

20 August 2006: Cry Havoc Root$web's changes to its list software begin to cause problems, including missed messages, for Board and Project members.

22 August 2006: Last Chance The runoff election begins.

22 August 2006: Applying A Bandaid The Board passes the repaired grievance procedures and begins to discuss an effective date for the new procedures and the wording of a call for volunteers for the new Grievance Committee. Scott changes his mind again and decides no effective date is needed, since the committee will be seated in a "few weeks."

22 August 2006: She Never Was Good With Numbers Neatly capping off her tenure, which began with incorrect motion numbers, NC Linda announces that she inadvertently skipped over number 06-12 when numbering motions. This is incorrect; she skipped over Motion 06-11.

22 August 2006: Final Answer NC Linda reposts the Voter Fraud Committee report but instructs the Board not to discuss it until the discussion of grievance procedures is finished.

28 August 2006: Racing the Clock Scott moves to propose the urgent bylaws amendment to the membership for voting. Lame duck Jeff Scism objects to the clause permitting representatives and suggests it be removed. There is some other desultory discussion. The motion does not receive a second before the clock runs out on the Board's term and expires.

30 August 2006: Under The Wire With one day to go in the current term, the results of the runoff election are announced. Scott Burow is elected National Coordinator and a couple new faces will be joining the Board.

1 September 2006: Who's Your Daddy? Outgoing and unlamented National Coordinator Linda Haas Davenport hands the keys to the kingdom over to Scott Burow.

TO BE CONTINUED....

© 2006 by Teresa Lindquist, all rights reserved.