CHAPTER V. THE CENSUS WARS
~ PART 3: Good Intentions~
In the waning days of February 2000 the "Census issue" heated up again, when National Coordinator Tim Stowell out of the blue declared the seat of the Census Project Representative to be vacant [Kay Mason, who was the elected representative of the USGenWeb Census Project had not been heard from since August 1999]. Over the weeks following his declaration, several events occurred: the Board voted to declare the seat vacant, the Census Project elected a Ron Eason to fill the seat [although at this writing the Board still has not appointed him], Shari Handly proposed Motion 00-6 to force a merger on the two census projects, and finally on April 5, Tim Stowell issued Executive Order 2000E-1, in which he summarily and in violation of the bylaws delinked the Census Project without due process or a vote by the Advisory Board. [For more information read the The Daily Board Show starting with February 25 2000.]
On April 7, 2000 John Schunk, the proprietor of SK Publications, submitted the the following merger proposal to the various members of the census projects and other parties, including Ron Eason, Maggie Stewart-Zimmerman, Linda Lewis, Joe Zsedeny, Connie Burkett, Wayne Duncan, and Tim Stowell:
2) Maggie Stewart-Zimmerman becomes Coordinator of the USGW Census Project. This would be accomplished by mutual consent of the USGW Archives Coordinator (Linda) and the Census Project Coordinator (Ron). CP (Census Project) personnel are retained, but ACP (Archives Census Project) File Managers are also welcomed to be integrated into the Census Project
structure. Ron is allowed to select what leadership role he would like to perform in the Census Project."
John explained that he was giving Linda and Ron an opportunity to show the project that the issue did not come down to a power struggle between the two of them. Both, he said, were willing to give up total control of the Census Project, but a succesful merger would take a great deal of cooperation between the Census Project and the Archives Census Project. John particularly noted that he "hoped that [Ron] could fill the role of CP Board Rep, as his consituents have currently selected him for that position." He also noted that his proposal was "motivated solely by a desire to achieve the best possible outcome for the Census Project, for the Archives, and for the USGenWeb Project as a whole." He also told Linda and Ron that a negative answer from either of them would terminate the process.
Linda responded quickly and said she would require a contract of some kind in order to prevent a replay of past events; this contract would include:
2. No closed/unarchived lists that keep the volunteers in the dark.
3. The census coordinator is required to make sure all volunteers know that the census project was created *for* the Archives, by the archivists/file managers.
4. To protect the census project in the future from being overtaken again, by inside or outside forces, there must be password protection and coverage."
She also noted that these were only a few things she could think of. She told John that because of "distrust" many volunteers would refuse to work with other members of the project, "because of the attacks and lies." She also stressed that the "official guidelines" [Archives] must not be compromised.
Joy Fisher, the Assistant Coordinator for the Archives Project, also noted that, due to all the mistrust, "there needs to be a public statement of exactly what was agreed to." She asked that two additional items be included in the proposal:
2. Do away with dual directories. Right now there is only about a half a gig, but when completed there may be as much as a terabyte (1000 gig) of data. It is a bit much to expect any one to provide dual support at that point."
Joe Zsedney, the Archives representative on the Board added no caveats or conditions, but merely said he would support anything the two sides could agree on.
Connie Burkett, the Assistant coordinator for the USGenWeb Census Project, also did not add any caveats or conditions, but thanked John for his efforts and noted the proposal was "pretty much in line with what we had hoped for in the blending of the two projects....It will take a little bit of discussion to work out the kinks in what you've proposed and in the other issues that remain to be addressed."
Ron Eason, National Coordinator of the USGenWeb Census Project, responded to the proposal and the comments by the Archives staff members by posting his own proposal:
2.) Ron Eason retains his position as the Coordinator of The USGenWeb Census Project, just as he was elected to do. All Census Project personnel remain and all ACP personnel who desire to shall be absorbed into the Census Project in an appropriate level position. Maggie becomes an Assitant Coordinator and acting Liason Officer between The Census Project and The Archives Project. Connie Burkett retains her position as Assistant Coordinator and Liason Officer for the File Managers and Wayne Duncan retains his position as an Assistant Coordinator and Liason Officer for the State Coordinators."
***Note 2: The terms of elected officials is set forth in the By-Laws and as per the guidelines of said By-Laws another election is scheduled to take place later this year at which time all properly nominated Staff who are eligible for such position shall be able to run for the open position.
3.) The USGenWeb Census Project shall retain their current pages at the same address they have been known to reside at and where all current volunteers have "bookmarked" for easy transition of all involved, with an advisory committe created to create and impliment upgrades to those pages to reflect a change. It is requested that Sue Soden be the head of that committe and that Maggie be also assigned to create a blended atmosphere. But the end result shall be voted on by the core volunteers.
4.) There should be set up a level of password access to the directories that the archives wishes us to use and it should be agreed that Census Project FM's and selected Census staff shall access those directories without breech by any others. The Census Project will upload files to the Archives directories provided, so as to be searchable by the Rootsweb system.
5.) No one shall be allowed to ever touch or remove or cause to be inaccessable any pages of The USGenWeb Census Project without the proper due process afforded under the By-Laws of The USGenWeb Project. At which time The USGenWeb Census Project shall be duly notified in writing of whatever grievance and have the opportunity to make the necessary changes or refute the claim(s) made. [When this proposal was made, the Census Project had been delinked and unavailable for two days. Ed.]
Ron also stressed that he was not in a power-struggle with Linda, but that "as the duly elected Coordinator of The USGenWeb Census Project I have an obligation to the Volunteers and Staff who have backed my position of remaining who we are and what we have become." He also invoked the past history of failed merger talks between the two projects, noting "we
have come to expect that if someone isn't placed in power from the Archives,then there won't be a deal...The Archives is always willing to negotiate as long as someone from the Archives is in charge and we make the concessions."
John then told Ron that he perceived a stumbling block in Ron's proposal: essentially that there must be a high level of cooperation between the Archives and the Census Project for any merger to work. John also noted that unfortunately the level of trust between Ron and Linda was so low that he could not foresee any kind of working agreement ever developing. John essentially terminated the negotiations at this point, saying "Ron, I know I was asking a lot of self-sacrifice on your part. I'm sorry that it apparently isn't to be."
Connie said she doesn't see the stumbling block, since Ron has nothing to do with the census files and would not ever have to work with Archives staff. Her staff handled the files and she personally would "have no problem building a good working relationship with the Archives Coordinator," and felt that building a good working relationship with the Archives Coordinator will help round out her training." Ron also noted that, since the Census Project is autonomous, it should not matter whether he and Linda could get along. John did not agree with their assessment since the events of the last year and a half [since the Census Project declared its independence from the Archives] had demonstrated "what happens when there is not a good working relationship between the Archives Coordinator and the Census Project Coordinator...If the Archives and the CP aren't "that close," then I think we will continue to have the same lack of communication and trust that has characterized the past year and a half." Ron once again stressed that the Census Project had duly elected him as their Coordinator and had made it clear to him that they didn't want him to step down. He also reiterated that he was willing to work with Linda and wonders why she isn't willing to try and work with him. John pointed out that if Ron were to ask his staff members to support Maggie as their Coordinator "for the greater good of the Project (CP and USGW)", and assured them of their continued autonomy as a Special Project, they would certainly accept that. At this point, John once again declared the negotiations over, saying "if you and/or any of the Archives reps on this cc feel there is any value in continuing this discussion, I will be happy to moderate further....Otherwise, it's my judgment that my proposal at this point is dead."
During the course of these public negotiations [at least among this small group], Tim Stowell sent a private email message to Ron Eason, in which he apparently attempted to bribe Ron by using a Board seat as bait. The message, dated 8 April 2000, reads in part:
The rest of the negotiating team apparently was not aware of Tim's private negotiating efforts; Joy Fisher and Linda Lewis specifically denied knowledge of Tim's proposed arrangement [personal communication].
Ron did not accept Tim's offer, and although there were a few more messages back and forth, that essentially ended the negotiations.
Note: Except for Tim Stowell's private message to Ron Eason, the entire text of these messages is available as of 14 April 2000 at http://home.kscable.com/jschunk/usgw.html; thank you to John Schunk for making them available.
On to Chapter VI!
"1) The USGW Census Project remains the Census Project and functions as outlined in the Bylaws. Its purpose is get census transcriptions in the USGW Archives, but it is an autonomous project in the sense that its Coordinator cannot be removed by the USGW Archives Project Coordinator. The USGW Archives Census Project ceases to exist as such.
"1. Volunteers, coordinators and transcribers, must be aware of the purpose of the census project.. that it's to get complete transcriptions online in the USGenWeb Archives.
"1. All mailing lists must be archived and searchable. There can be a private list for the top folks to discuss personnel moves, but it must be archived (searchable with a password). The NC (or the NC's delegate shall be a member of any private list.
"1.) The Census Project remains as is. We maintain our name, and our autonomy. The Archives relinquiches it's desire to control The Census Project and resigns itself to be a Special Project within the USGW, just as the By-Laws directs it to be and we remain a Special Project just as the By-Laws direct us to be. We are supposed to be equal, and separate. The Archives Census Project ceases to exist.
***Note 1: Some of the SC's for the Census Project have been the SC for their particular States long before the ACP came into existance and shall retain the state(s) that they desire. Others that they are willing to relinquish shall be given to incoming SC's.
"If you will accept John's proposal and if the agreement is signed by all parties - Margaret Stewart for USGenWeb Archives Census Project, Ron Eason for USGenWeb Census Project, Linda Lewis for USGenWeb Archives, John Schunk for S-K Publications and Tim Stowell for USGenWeb Project - and if that signed agreement is made public to the world in return I shall press
for your immediate seating to the AB...Maggie, Linda and I have agreed to this arrangement."
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© 1999 by Teresa Lindquist, all rights reserved. The opinions expressed above are solely those of the author; they may not reflect those of the USGenWeb Project or its members. The USGenWeb Project Advisory Board does not endorse this site and is not affiliated with it. |