CHAPTER VI. THE DILL EPISODE. Part 2
~ Aftermath ~
In the days following Megan Zurawicz's announcement that the Dills and Pat Smith had
incorporated USGenWeb, Inc., the dominant sentiment expressed on the mailing lists was one of
confusion. Several people indicated that they had removed the links to the usgenweb.com
domain, although they had not yet been requested to do so and even Megan was counseling that
such action might be a bit premature. Others asked what the incorporation meant and how it
might affect them and their material, whether or not this affected their copyrighted works, and
whether or not the new corporation would begin charging for access to the information. Some
CCs began talking of legal solutions, the validity of trademark status, and whether or not the
USGW Project was even a legal entity. In a very few days, a simple announcement of an
incorporation that had been invisible to the project membership for three months, had morphed
into an attempt to "take over the project" and "claim ownership of the US GenWeb Project".
[Many of these questions could have been alleviated by the National Coordinator had she chosen
to fully explain the situation to the membership, including mentioning the Dill's repeated
assurances that no changes in how USGW operated were ever considered or planned.]
Immediately after the announcement, the Dills were not apparently forthcoming with an
explanation because they were not list members and thus were unable to post to the mailing lists.
They did send an explanation and an apology on March 19 to several lists as well as to private
email addresses, but it was not forwarded to the lists until the following day. Even Megan made
it clear, however, that discussions with the Dills were continuing with the Board, as they tried to
work out issues involving the incorporation. On March 19, 1998, after nearly a full day of
confused list postings, Megan posted the following [apparently in response to the Dill's
apology, which the lists had not yet seen, but which had been sent to her privately]:
But the next stage is: now what are you going to do about it?
You have to know that the folks in the project certainly aren't going to
be comfortable with USGenWeb, Inc. owning the usgenweb.com domain and
that continuing to be the website of The USGenWeb Project on those
terms." [USGENWEB-ALL, 19 March 1998]
At this point, Megan also began publicly asking questions about the usgenweb.com domain,
"because it has never been asked publicly, and because I think that's where the discussion
*needs* to be." According to Megan, "usgenweb.net and usgenweb.org are for all intents and
purposes the property of The USGenWeb Project." [This is not now nor was it then the strict
truth. The usgenweb.net domain belongs to Megan herself. The usgenweb.org domain belongs
to RootsWeb. Although both owners have claimed that the domains belong to the project,
neither has ever actually transferred the domains over to the project, and both have ignored
requests from the Board to change the administrative contacts to the new National Coordinator.
This is essentially the same arrangement for which they so castigated Jerry Dill during the brief
time he had control over the usgenweb.com domain.] Megan said that she had offered to buy the
domain from the Dills but that she was " refused on the basis that they felt there was NO
difference between them privately owning it and it belonging to the project and that no one could
question that they "had the good of the project at heart"." According to Megan, "Back in the
beginning, the domain was registered to Dale Schneider and the pages were on his server, by the
consent of the national coordinator at that time, John Rigdon. To the very best of my knowledge
... that arrangement was made because it worked at that moment; there was not an intent to
commit the project to having its main pages permanently "owned" by any server."
[USGENWEB-ALL, 19 March 1998].
This message is interesting because at the very least it shows that the National Coordinator
explicitly ascribed ownership of the usgenweb.com domain to Jerry Dill. Later, it would be
claimed that he never rightfully owned the domain; it is, however, apparent that for all intents
and purposes, the National Coordinator of the USGenWeb Project did in fact agree that he was
the rightful owner and was capable of passing ownership to another person. And she is not the
only person to do so, nor was this the only statement she made on the issue. She and other project
members in discussing the domain name issue made statements like:
"While we're sorting out this issue with the folks who founded USGenWeb, Inc., there have been
*no* directives from the board to abandon the .com domain (which belongs to those people, or at
least to the Dill family)." [Megan Zurawicz, USGENWEB-ALL, 19 March 1998]
"However, usgenweb.com is the personal property of Jerry Dill to do with as he pleases, whether
or not The USGenWeb Project National Coordinator or Board approves." [Celia Snyder,
USGENWEB-ALL, 19 March 1998]
"You have to know that the folks in the project certainly aren't going to be comfortable with
USGenWeb, Inc. owning the usgenweb.com domain and that continuing to be the website of The
USGenWeb Project on those terms." [Megan Zurawicz, 19 March 1998, USGENWEB-ALL]
"USGenWeb easily fails to fit "commercial". If ISOC ever prodded InterNIC to be more rigorous
about top-level domain assignments, usgenweb.com is *easily* the domain most likely to be
pulled. Except that usgenweb.com is now owned by a for-profit Idaho corporation, so it's
probably OK." [Brian Leverich, USGENWEB-ALL, 19 May 1998]
Even Dale Schneider apparently never publicly challenged Jerry's statements that Dale had
transferred the usgenweb.com domain to USGenWeb, Inc. during their negotiations in early
March over usroots.com. Apparently, the only person who publicly claimed the domain did not
belong to the Dills was Linda Lewis, who stated that "My understanding is that it is still
registered through Internic in Dales [sic] Schneider's name. Jerry has only changed the
administrative contact information. The domain is still registered to Dale in Nebraska."
[USGENWEB-ALL, 19 March 1998] Another project member verified with InterNIC that as of
February 1998, the usgenweb.com domain was still registered to Dale Schneider.
On March 20, 1998, Megan notified the State Coordinators that Jerry had offered to make the
National Coordinator the administrative contact for the usgenweb.com domain [the exact
arrangement that existed for the other two domains], but his offer was rejected. According to
Megan, "I polled the board, and the responses that I received were unanimous. There is a major
philosophic difference between the status of .org and .net and this offer, even though this change
will make them "look alike" on paper." She claims she and Brian Leverich [owner of the
RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative] had publicly made a commitment to the USGenWeb
Project that it could control the usgenweb.net and usgenweb.org domains, but "Jerry Dill is
offering to allow the project to put one name on the record of his private property. That's not the
same commitment at all, although it may look like it." [STATE-COORD-L, 20 March 1998]
Jerry Dill also offered to sell the corporation to the USGW Advisory Board for the amount it cost
him, Lucy, and Pat Smith to form it. This is the offer as made to the Board by Jerry Dill, circa
March 18, 1998:
Megan responded to this offer as follows:
To which Jerry responded:
According to Jerry Dill, the "condition" that the USGenWeb Project community form a "Board
of Directors" that was acceptable to the entire community referred to the creation of an
elected Board, and did not refer to the removal of any specific persons from the existing
Board. [personal communication, 1 Oct 1999] Megan had originally consented to take over the
NC position in September 1997 on the condition that elections be held eventually and she had
then proceeded to appoint an Advisory Board, which in some correspondence is called a "Board
of Directors". Perhaps incidentally, Megan and her appointed Board had made no movement
toward instituting elections until this crisis with the incorporation occurred. Jerry was in effect
asking her and the Board to live up to their promise of holding elections in exchange for
acquiring the corporation.
On March 21, 1998, Celia Snyder, who as USGW Webmaster had authorized password access to
Jerry's server, clandestinely removed the USGenWeb pages from his server, at the direction of
the Advisory Board [Celia Snyder, USGENWEB-ALL, 10 May 1998]. In response to this, Jerry
sent the following message to Megan, the Board, and several other persons [one of whom was an
attorney]:
Just a word to the wise, here. Theft of pages from any web site is just as
illegal as theft from a library, a private business, a home, etc., etc.
Copying is one thing, removing them entirely without express written
permission constitutes theft.
Please don't lose sight of the fact that The USGenWeb Project web pages have
been on the USGenWeb.Com site since the beginning of the project. Copying
them to USGenWeb.Org or .Net was done with permission and in an emergency.
Removing them from their home site IS theft.
You have NOT done your home work. You do NOT have your legal facts
straight. You do NOT have permission to remove those pages. Effective
immediately, you do NOT have permission to access the usgenweb.com domain.
Be very, very careful."
This message set off another round of confused and angry posts, most of which centered around
the mistaken interpretation that Jerry's message claimed ownership of the project, when
in fact, he claimed ownership only of a few pages that resided on his server. The NC and the
Board did little to quell these misconceptions, and as will be seen below, actually perpetuated
them. Jerry's legal claim to these pages, which were authored by Celia Snyder in her capacity as
webmaster for USGW, is doubtful. Today he says, "I was wrong in making that statement. It
was just one of those times when I reacted in anger and made myself look stupid. The very most
I could have asked for was some advance notice, so I didn't just wake up one morning and find
all the pages gone. Of course, they were fearful (if they even considered it, which I doubt) that
*if* they gave me any warning, I would lock them out." [personal communication, 4 Oct 1999].
As it was, the pages were removed without notice and the main USGW page was left blank until
Jerry posted a replacement page.
Following the removal of the USGW pages, Jerry posted a copy of the map with links to the state
pages, so that people visiting the usgenweb.com address would not find blank pages. The Board
objected to this, stating it was "confusing", and demanded that he change the background and
remove the map. He complied with these requests, but maintained a table of links to the states,
in order "to make it a usable link to the USGenWeb Project, because USGenWeb.Com was the
name known to the public and to not put a link in place, would have been very inconsiderate of
the public and disrupting to the to serious researchers." [personal communication, 4 Oct 1999]
He also posted some advertisements for RootsQuest.com, his own server business, on the pages
at the usgenweb.com domain, which were no longer "official USGW pages". These "ads"
apparently consisted solely of a notice that read, "These links are furnished courtesy of
Rootsquest.com, serving the entire genealogical community. We own no data herein, but we
safely maintain any data *you* entrust to our custody", and a banner ad for "USGenWeb, Inc."
Some project members discovered these ads and went ballistic, claiming that he was
commercializing the project. The notices were quickly removed, but their brief appearance on
the usgenweb.com domain has been neither forgotten nor forgiven, and has been cited as one of
the reasons the Board eventually decided to break all association with the domain name.
According to Linda Lewis, "The Board decided to remove those links right after it was
discovered that Jerry had placed a very commercial page at www.usgenweb.com, advertising
webspace, mailing lists, etc. for RootsQuest.Com, and a large banner at the top of the page
saying "USGENWEB, INC." [USGENWEB-ALL, 10 May 1998]
On April 4, 1998, Megan released a general public announcement that was posted to the national
pages of the USGenWeb Project. The announcement read:
======
The astute reader will notice several interesting things in this announcement. For instance, the
title of one of the sections states "USGenWeb Inc. Claims Ownership of USGenWeb Project".
There is no evidence that USGenWeb, Inc. ever claimed ownership of the Project. Jerry
Dill did claim ownership of the usgenweb.com domain, and the National Coordinator of the
Project did accept and support the validity of that claim. Claiming ownership of the domain
name is not the same as claiming ownership of the project. There is also a blatant error: in the
list of servers which Brian Leverich/Karen Isaacson/RootsWeb owned or controlled, the
usgenweb.org domain name is missing. Instead it is merely listed as a domain they "housed".
They have in fact owned this domain since September 1997.
There is also an obvious "commercial" for RootsWeb, a company that itself was and is for-profit,
and a distinct encouragement of the project volunteers to switch their links from one for-profit
server to another. [Megan Zurawicz's husband was at one time an employee of Rootsweb and
many former and current Board members are paid staff members or personal friends of the
owners, and there is a distinct whiff of hypocrisy about much of the Project's dealings with that
company.] RootsWeb is famous for calling the fees for its web and mail lists services
"donations" and for telling its "sponsors" for some three years that they were in the process of
incorporating as a not-for-profit, something which never actually happened. The Project's
reliance on this for-profit company to own its domains, house its pages, and provide space to its
Archives exposes it to the same risk they thought they ran with Jerry Dill's server. But somehow,
this did not concern the USGW Project NC or Board.
Although several project members asked the Board and Megan to change the incorrect
implications and the outright errors in the announcement, they were never changed and this same
basic announcement, with only a few modifications that do not substantially alter its message,
is still posted today as official Project history.
As soon as this announcement was made, all project members were instructed to remove their
links to the usgenweb.com domain, and to instead point them to usgenweb.org. The pages at
usgenweb.com, although not official project pages, continued to link to the USGW pages.
Nothing further happened with the corporation and for several months, the situation remained
basically unchanged.
~ Domain Names Again ~
Throughout the next few weeks, Linda Lewis and Dale Schneider worked quietly in the
background to facilitate the return of the usgenweb.com domain to Dale's control. Although
Dale had verbally agreed to transfer ownership of this domain to USGenWeb, Inc. as the
corporation's only asset in January of 1998, there is apparently no existing record of this
agreement. Jerry states that the agreement to transfer the domain name to the corporation was
made in December 1997 during the course of an IRC session with the other members of the
corporation, wherein Dale specifically stated for the record that the domain name was the
property of the corporation. According to Jerry, at that meeting the decision was made that Dale
would keep the USRoots.Com domain and whatever income came in from it, in turn for putting
the USGenWeb.Com Domain into the corporation. Thus, the name of the corporation became
USGenWeb, Inc. [personal communication, 1 Oct 1999]. The only person who is known to have
logged the session was the fifth partner, who claimed later that the log was lost during a hard
drive crash. In later correspondence with Dale in which the transfer of the domain name was
specifically discussed, he did not challenge the corporation's ownership. Apparently, no one in
USGW but Linda Lewis ever publically challenged Jerry's ownership of the domain name, and as
shown above a concerted effort was made to disassociate USGW entirely from usgenweb.com.
In mid-June 1998, Linda Lewis and Dale Schneider participated in a three-way phone call with
InterNIC. Although the substance of this phone call directly affected him, Jerry Dill was not
invited to participate. During the course of this phone call, they persuaded InterNIC that the
domain name was never properly transferred to the corporation and that Jerry had no authority to
make any changes to the registration. They also alleged that Jerry forged Dale's name on
documents and pretended to be an employee of Dale's in order to have the contact names changed
on the InterNIC registration. Jerry denies both of these allegations. According to him, shortly
after the incorporation of USGenWeb, Inc. was accomplished, he had, as required by InterNIC
policy, written a letter on corporate letterhead and signed it as President of the Corporation,
advising InterNIC of the change in ownership. InterNIC changed the registration information as
requested, and Jerry duly paid the registration fees on the domain name when they came due.
[personal correspondence, 1 Oct 1999]
Following Linda and Dale's phone conversation with InterNIC, Jerry Dill received notice that the
usgenweb.com domain would be transferred back to Dale Schneider and that all traffic to it
would be re-routed. Jerry immediately filed a protest, and according to InterNIC's own rules at
the time, the domain name should have stayed at his server until the dispute was resolved.
However, Jerry was not able to forestall the re-routing of the domain and on June 18 he posted
this notice to the USGenWeb page located at usgenweb.com:
[Editor's note: this notice seems to be mistaken, as the domain name was routed to RootsWeb,
and not Dsenter.com.]
He also posted the following message to his customers who were about to find that all their pages
would no longer be available:
=======
On June 19 the usgenweb.com domain was routed to RootsWeb and an announcement was made
that the domain was no longer routed to Jerry Dill's server. Jerry Dill, however, continued to try
and get InterNIC to return to USGenWeb, Inc. the domain that he felt rightfully belonged to it.
According to Jerry:
They violated their own rules and did none of that. We had no warning, except from the USGW
rumor mill. One morning, the USGenWeb Domain was no longer accessible on our server.
InterNIC refused to discuss the matter. We appealed to their legal department.
Several weeks, probably 2-1/2 months later, we received an answering machine message from a
fellow at InterNIC (we still have that tape), then an InterNIC email "official Notification," that
the USGenWeb.Com domain would be reinstated to our server the following morning. That
never happened. The next thing we received was a notification that one of the parties had
declined to accept the change.
When InterNIC makes changes in a Domain registration, they contact the persons named on their
file as Administrative Contact, Technical Contact and Billing Contact, if any (not required).
Although they did not do that when they took it away from our server, they did do it, when they
were switching it back. Obviously, Doc objected. Again, all we could get from InterNIC
was silence." [personal communication, 1 Oct 1999]
Jerry Dill finally gave up attempting to regain the usgenweb.com domain and more or less is no
longer involved much with the USGW project, although he does still offer free web space and
mailing lists to USGW participants. Lucy and Pat are both still actively involved in the Project,
although for obvious reasons they rarely speak publicly regarding Project issues. Their attempts
to explain their actions and intentions have caused them only grief, and as Pat Smith once noted,
"Since I was not online much to take the abuse, nobody got any satisfaction out of badmouthing
me." [personal communication, 1 Oct 1999]
That is essentially the end of the history of this episode. And yet, its not the end of the story. As
detailed in the next part, the events that took place over a few short months in 1998 have never
stopped affecting the Project.
On to Part 3!
"For my own part, although I can't speak for all, I'm more than willing
to accept an apology, as an apology, that says "gee, we screwed up."
"Since the domain name usgenweb.com is the personal property of the Dills and they can do
with it as they pIease with no input for the NC or the board of the The USGenWeb project, I have
a couple of questions I'd like to see answered." [Ginger, gingerh@intrnet.net,
USGENWEB-ALL, 19 March 1998]
"Now, we *have* a corporation. The three of us who are the incorporators are ALL very
involved in the USGenWeb Project and totally dedicated to it's purpose. We do not *need* to
own USGenWeb, Inc. Owning it is not an asset for us, nor do we see any personal benefit to be
gained. However, (now here's the solution I mentioned above) if the USGenWeb Project
community could form a Board of Directors, acceptable to the entire community, we would be
more than glad to sell our ownership to that Board. Then, no single individual or "secret
conspirators" would own the corporation. Then, the USGenWeb Project could operate as a
business, doing what the USGenWeb Project originally set out to do. The Board could be elected
on a periodic basis by the members of the project and officers could be nominated and
elected by either the Board (most sensible approach) or by the project members at large. The
selling price for the corporation would be exactly what we spent to form it -- $750.00."
"That sale offer, if it gets stuck, is not going to get stuck over the money. Let me
make that clear up front. But it sounds like the price is the Dills dictating a restructuring of
the board and possibly the replacement of the national coordinator, and I see no reason why that
should be permitted. If the board is not in agreement with that, let me know now.....I've no
problem with stepping down, I do have a problem with being removed in a power play."
"Megan, I did NOT say anything about removing the Board or the NC. That is NOT my call.
My point was simply the Board must be acceptable to the USGW community, or it won't be
effective. Please don't misinterpret what I said. I must remind you, right here in front of
everyone, that I was one who pushed and helped you become the NC. I have NOT turned against
you, nor anyone else."
"Regarding the USGenWeb Project web pages illegally removed from
usgenweb.com:
An Announcement Outlining Recent Events Regarding The USGenWeb Project - April 3, 1998
The purpose of this announcement is to assure the volunteers of The USGenWeb Project and the
Internet genealogical community that The USGenWeb Project is committed to continuance as a
*Not-For-Profit* organization. Recent events have made this announcement necessary.
History of the Project: The USGenWeb Project was established in June 1996 with the goal
providing Internet-based *FREE* access to genealogical resources on the web. Since
then, the Project has grown to include about 3,050 of the 3,137 counties in the United States.
The associated Archives Project, as of April 1, has over 588 megs of data in text format for
FREE downloading. That doesn't include images of actual documents. Other major projects
include: The Census-Online Project, The Tombstone Project, and The Military Records Project.
It is estimated that over 1,641 volunteers are involved in the various aspects of The USGenWeb
Project.
Until recently (March 22, 1998), The USGenWeb Project's main webpages were mirrored at
three sites: www.usgenweb.com on the USRoots server, www.usgenweb.org and
www.usgenweb.net on the RootsWeb server.
Unfortunately, due to actions taken by three volunteers, the webpages located at the
www.usgenweb.com domain name have been discontinued. Volunteers for The USGenWeb
Project should use either usgenweb.org or usgenweb.net as links in their websites and make any
changes as soon as possible.
A brief history of the events leading to this situation are outlined below for those who may be
interested:
USGenWeb Inc. Formed Without Board Knowledge
On January 1, 1998, several Project members incorporated (unknown to anyone on The
USGenWeb Project Advisory Board) themselves as a *FOR PROFIT* corporation called
USGenWeb, Inc. When this was discovered by the Advisory Board on March 16, 1998, it came
as a great shock since one of the main webpages (www.usgenweb.com) was located on a server
maintained by one of the incorporators.
The immediate concern was that volunteers and users of the website might get the wrong
impression that The USGenWeb Project had become a for-profit organization, which is
NOT true.
USGenWeb Inc. Claims Ownership of USGenWeb Project
The Advisory Board held email conversations with the owner of the server, and during that
conversation, it became clear that while he apologized for his actions and gave assurances that he
meant no ill, he was unwilling to agree that the usgenweb.com designation was anything less
than his property (or more specifically, the *property* of his corporation, USGenWeb, Inc.).
*On the other hand, the individuals who had registered usgenweb.org and usgenweb.net both
publicly stated that those designations *DO* belong to The USGenWeb Project, and that they act
only in a custodial capacity for the benefit of The USGenWeb Project and its users.
During the course of the same email conversations, he offered to sell USGenWeb, Inc. to the
Advisory Board for $750 (the incorporation fee). However, he stated that the Advisory Board
would have to be reorganized on his terms. The current Advisory Board flatly refused to accept
this demand and the offer of USGenWeb, Inc. The reasoning of Board was that it didn't matter
who owned USGenWeb, Inc. It's a "for-profit" Subchapter S Corporation and no matter the
reason for it's incorporation, as long as it was associated with The USGenWeb Project,
it would imply that the Project was also "for-profit."
USGenWeb Inc. Claims Ownership of USGenWeb Project Files
At this point, the Board decided to remove The USGenWeb Project website from the
usgenweb.com domain. Project members with authorized password access to the server
did so on March 21, 1998. The Board also requested that all Project volunteers change any links
on their websites from usgenweb.com to either usgenweb.org or usgenweb.net which are hosted
by Rootsweb. To the best of our knowledge, this request has been accepted by volunteers with at
the most, a minimal of discontent.
Unfortunately, after these changes were made (i.e., removing the national website), the
individuals involved with USGenWeb, Inc. then stated that they (the corporation) owned The
USGenWeb Project pages, that the pages were removed illegally, and that they had been mirrored
at usgenweb.net and usgenweb.org on the RootsWeb server only with permission. This was
outrageous and totally unacceptable news to the Advisory Board. It would be tantamount to a
parking garage claiming ownership of your car if you parked it in their facility.
Confusion Caused by Format of usgenweb.com Site
Since then, the usgenweb.com site has made several changes to webpages there. The most recent
being a webpage displaying The USGenWeb Project map with links to the states and a page
related to The On-line Census Project. The Advisory Board has requested *in writing* that those
pages be removed. The Board feels that the posting of those pages on that domain name
continues to be a source of confusion to the genealogical community, implying that there
is some connection between USGenWeb, Inc. and The USGenWeb Project. We want to do
everything possible to assure that the level of confusion is reduced. This announcement is part of
that effort.
RootsWeb Supports and Assists USGenWeb Project Unconditionally
To restate the important points: The USGenWeb Project continues to be dedicated to FREE
access to genealogical resources on the Internet. We are working hard to reduce the confusion
which has arisen because of the usgenweb.com incorporation. We again ask that any volunteers
that have not done so already, please change all their links to the national website to one of the
following: www.usgenweb.net or www.usgenweb.org.
Lastly, we've become aware that there's some significant confusion in the genealogical
community about who's affiliated with what server, and where the various USGenWeb domains
are housed. (Housing refers to a domain, not owned by a server, being resident on the server.)
(Listings accurate to the best of our knowledge).
Jerry Dill and USGenWeb, Inc. own or control:
usgenweb.com
rootsquest.com
usroots.com
Jerry Dill and USGenWeb, Inc. house:
usigs.org
Brian Leverich, Karen Isaacson and RootsWeb own or control:
rootsweb.com
rootsweb.net
rootsweb.org
Brian Leverich, Karen Isaacson and RootsWeb house:
usgenweb.net
usgenweb.org
worldgenweb.org
iigs.org
cyndislist.com
We've never had any problems with the RootsWeb people whatsoever, and they've never been
anything but utterly helpful to us. We deeply regret the difficulties they've been caused by some
people confusing them with the USGenWeb, Inc., group. RootsWeb's dedication to free
genealogy access on the web is evidenced by the fact that if you are reading this message on a
genealogy mailing list, it is probably one of the over 3000, housed on the RootsWeb server.
Recent Actions of The USGenWeb Advisory Board:
1. The formation of two committees: Elections Committee and By-Laws/Website Standards
Committee. While informal discussion of this has been ongoing, these have only just been
formed (the names aren't even official yet), but plans are to include additional non-board
volunteers as members to be involved with the processes of both.
2. Other issues seem to constantly sidetrack any progress the Board is making in getting anything
done. We are continually called upon to try to *put out fires* created by inflammatory messages
to several of the lists. For the record, decisions announced by the national coordinator are made
only after consulting the Board.
3. Investigation of "Unincorporated Nonprofit Association" status. We are trying to learn whether
every state has such an act. "Nonprofit Association" means an unincorporated organization, other
than one created by a trust, consisting of three or more members joined by mutual consent for a
common, nonprofit purpose.
Recommendations for Volunteer Pages:
The USGenWeb Project Advisory Board would like to encourage all volunteers to place the
following on their websites:
Copyright 1998 by (your name)
And, be sure to change to 1999 next January 1st.
Special Thanks:
Last, but certainly not least, we want to thank all the volunteers for their patience and support at
this trying time. It's you and your work who make us proud to represent The USGenWeb Project.
- The USGenWeb Project Advisory Board
which is:
National Coordinator: Megan Zurawicz--pigolit@ix.netcom.com
Special Projects Representatives
Archives: Linda Lewis--cityslic@ix.netcom.com
Census-On-Line: Kay Mason--kmfkm@ptw.com
Tombstone: Pam Reid--pamreid@dc.jones.com
Regional Representatives
Central
State Coordinator: vacant
County Coordinator: Kelly Boldan--kbloldan@polaristel.net
Northeastern
State Coordinator: George Waller--hbladm1@uconnvm.uconn.edu
County Coordinator: Bob Bamford--heritage@snet.net
Southern/Midwestern
State Coordinator: Fred Finkbiner--fred@claynet.com
County Coordinator: Celia Snyder--cgsnyder@uiuc.edu
Western
State Coordinator: Don Spidell--dspidell@zekes.com
County Coordinator: Susan Bellomo--bellomos@netgate.net
Server Representative (Non-voting)
RootsWeb: Karen Isaacson--karen@rand.org
======
"URGENT NOTICE: The USGenWeb.Com domain has been victim of Piracy on the Internet.
Dale 'DOC' Schneider has fraudulently changed the ownership, name, and DNS location of the
Domain. InterNIC will process their database update early tomorrow morning, Eastern time and
this site will go down. The new location for USGenWeb.Com will be at Dsenter.com, the
copartner in this fraudulent take over. We apologize for the loss of services that will be
effected by this event. We will do our best to get things back in order as quickly as possible."
Subject: LISTOWNERS: We lost the battle............
Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1998 21:09:50 -0700
From: "Jerry E Dill"
=======
"I tried for several months to get them to rescind their mistake. According to their own written
rules on Domain disputes, they were to have given all parties 30 days to provide proof, rebuttal,
etc., before they made a decision. In the interim the rules state the Domain will remain where it
is currently held, until such time as the dispute decision is made.
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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. Most of the preceeding information was gleaned from the archives of the USGENWEB-ALL and STATE-COORD mailing lists, and some was obtained from forwarded personal communications. Jerry and Lucy Dill and Pat Smith graciously consented to be interviewed for this article. I would also like to thank Linda Lewis for providing information on these events from her archives. As Dale Schneider has only a rootsweb.com email address it was not possible to contact him directly; attempts to contact him by alternate means have not been succesful. Several other people have helped me research this material, I'd like to thank them by name, but as they are still project members to do so would invite reprisals against them. SoYou Know Who You Are, and you have my thanks! |