From merope@Radix.Net Mon Jan 15 08:20:44 2001 Date: Mon, 15 Jan 2001 08:20:20 -0500 (EST) From: merope Reply-To: merope To: Daily Board Show Subject: Daily Board Show Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Status: O X-Status: Smoke and mirrors...its Your Daily Board Show! *warning* contains editorial content. Read at your own risk! Monday 15 January 2001: [No Board-L traffic thus far on this date.] === On a Need To Know Basis Corner: Our Esteemed But Somewhat Integrity-Challenged National Coordinator has written to inform me that the question regarding Esther Fry's qualifications for the Board Secretary position was addressed, but not in public. Apparently, the fine members of this project have no business knowing the qualifications of a person who is about to be appointed to a position of some responsibility. Ah, no matter. Since we have noted that Esther [aka Esse to most of us] is taking Tim's side in this latest copyright flap and thinks that the author he wronged should apologize to him, we're pretty sure we know what her qualifications are. They apparently do not include a familiarity with USGW's copyright policy or its bylaws. As someone noted: "Does the project need an officer whose response to a reported copyright violation is to expect an apology from the VICTIM?" Happy Anniversary Corner: Today is the 2nd anniversary of the banning of the Root$web Four. If you are not familiar with the circumstances behind this event or its subsequent history, you can read all about it here: http://www.radix.net/~merope/rw4.htm Since the anniversary edition last year a number of things have happened. First, in June of 2000 Root$web sold out to MyFamily.com, the parent corporation for RW's chief rival Ancestry.com. Brian Leverich and Karen Isaacson, RW's founders and owners, were kicked out the door and Charles Merrin, formerly of Broderbund, was put in charge of RW. We wrote to him shortly after the sell-out was announced, and he indicated quite plainly that no bans would be lifted. In late July we contacted Mr. David Farnsworth, MyFamily.com's chief legal person, by phone and had quite a nice conversation with him. He indicated that he could see no reason to maintain the bans, but asked me to write him a letter explaining the circumstances. I did so and mailed it in early August. He never even bothered to reply. As of today, the original 30 day ban is 730 days old. === "His lack of education is more than compensated for by his keenly developed moral bankruptcy." ---Woody Allen This has been your Daily Board Show. -Teresa Lindquist merope@radix.net ------- Daily Board Show, (c) 2001 by Teresa Lindquist, all rights reserved. From merope@Radix.Net Tue Jan 16 11:10:03 2001 Date: Tue, 16 Jan 2001 11:10:02 -0500 (EST) From: merope Reply-To: merope To: Daily Board Show Subject: Daily Board Show Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Status: O X-Status: There is nothing new under the sun...its Your Daily Board Show! *warning* contains editorial content. Read at your own risk! Monday 15 January 2001: Voting proceeds on Motion 00-41, to appoint Esther Frye as Board Secretary. Thus far, eight Board members have voted "yes" and four have voted "no". Holly Timm, who originally abstained, changes her vote to "yes", noting that she has "serious reservations about the entire procedure, some of Mr. Stowell's actions or rather inactions, and the definition of a secretary's duties." She recommends strongly that the Board discuss this issue further but votes yes "in the interests of moving forward with other business." Tina Vickery notes that at the time she seconded the motion to appoint Esse Frye as Board Secretary she believed Esse was the only candidate. Turns out that wasn't the case. Tina says "upon further questioning, it was determined that there are other candidates for the position. I personally think, that should have been presented up front to all of us. And, we at this time, could perhaps be making a more intelligent, informed decision with our vote...What has been told to the other candidates? Were they even acknowledged that they weren't in consideration?, and if so how? What are the expected duties, and what qualifications led to the nomination of the current candidate?...It is becoming extraordinarily difficult to make informed, intelligent decisions without input." The USGenWeb Project is now apparently officially soliciting money for the service mark application. The following has been posted over Tim's Stowell's signature to the main project lists: "Fellow volunteers, The USGenWeb Advisory Board is working on the application for registration of our name (USGenWeb) with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO). To properly accomplish this, we must hire an attorney to review the paperwork and advise us as to proper procedures. The application fee is $325 but the real cost will be the attorney fee. With attorney fees running upwards of $75 per hour we are uncertain of the total amount needed for the filing. We already have pledges from 60 members amounting to $2067, probably more than enough to accomplish this very important task. But the Board feels that everyone should be given the opportunity to participate in funding this effort, and I agree. It is my sincere wish that we could join together and, ideally, that each member would pledge $1.00 toward this very important goal. This would be a wonderful way to bring all into full participation in protecting our name through PTO registration. When we are certain of the total cost and the total number of persons making pledges, we will call in pledges based on the maximum amount needed per person, but in no case exceeding the amount of anyone's pledge. For example, if $18 per person should be necessary to cover all costs, those who pledged less than $18 will be asked to contribute their pledge amount and those who pledged more than $18 will be asked to contribute only $18. If you would like to join in this effort, please send an e-mail by February 1 to Joe Zsedeny, jzsed@westelcom.com, with a cc (carbon copy) to John Schunk, jschunk@skpub.com, with (1) the amount of your pledge (any amount from $1 on up) and (2) a yes or no as to whether it is OK to add your name as a pledge drive participant at http://home.kscable.com/jschunk/pledge.html). We would like to allow everyone who wants to participate to do so. Won't you join in this very important endeavor?" Following a question from Richard Howland, Joe Zsedeny notes that if you have already pledged money you do not need to do so again, unless you wish to change your pledge. Tuesday 16 January 2001: Voting on Motion 00-41 continues. Thus far 9 members have voted "yes" and 4 have voted "no". === Why Am I Not Surprised Corner: So, not only is the project not entitled to know Esse Fry's qualifications or lack thereof for the Board Secretary position, apparently the Board itself is not entitled to know that there were other, possibly more qualified applicants for the job. As it turned out there were at least three others who applied, and no real indication as to why Esse was Tim's choice over them. And still, there is no public response regarding Esse's qualifications; even Esse won't answer the question when its put to her [her sole response was "Your guess is as good as mine."] This should not be this difficult. The Board Secretary will be asked, probably frequently, to rule on questions of procedure. The posted job description listed knowledge of and experience with Roberts Rules of Order and parliamentary procedure has minimum qualifications. The Board Secretary position is an important one, and a powerful one. The project has a right to know her qualifications. Period. Too Little Too Late Corner: Following a more or less sound drubbing, our Esteemed National Coordinator appears to have finally gotten the message that his behavior toward Ms. Brown [whose copyrighted work he posted without her permission] did not cast either himself or the USGW project in the best possible light. So he has posted to the USGenWeb-All list the following message [and presumably mailed it Ms. Brown as well]: "Dear Ms. Brown, Ok, I'll admit we got off on the wrong foot. I did not know of your work prior to posting it on the various lists. I acknowledge your copyright of the words you used. I'm sorry for any inconvienance this may have caused you. My delay in at least acknowledging your post was not in the best interests of my co-workers within the USGenWeb Project and for that I also apologize." This sounds remarkably like the apology of a little boy whose mommy is standing right behind him. No doubt it will allay Ms. Brown's concerns about USGW's committment to protecting and honoring copyright. Kudos Corner: The Migrations project, founded and managed by USGW's own Patrick Hays, has been selected as Family Tree Magazine's Site of the Day for Jan 16, 2001. Migrations is featured on FTM's home page at http://www.familytreemagazine.com and will also be featured in its Select Site Resource Guide, located at: http://www.familytreemagazine.com/categories.asp Congrats to Patrick and to all the volunteers of this fast growing project! Aura of Professionalism Corner: In an message sent to several project lists, the USGenWeb Census Project has formally announced the adoption of its bylaws, as reported here a few days ago. Also included in the announcement are the names of its recently elected officers: "Wayne Duncan as President, Ron Eason as Vice-president, Veda Mendoza as Secretary-Treasurer and Ellen Horner as Membership Secretary." === "I don't like the word steal, I prefer procurred." ---Tim Stowell, attributed This has been your Daily Board Show. -Teresa Lindquist merope@radix.net ------- Daily Board Show, (c) 2001 by Teresa Lindquist, all rights reserved. From merope@Radix.Net Wed Jan 17 13:15:46 2001 Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2001 13:15:45 -0500 (EST) From: merope Reply-To: merope To: Daily Board Show Subject: Daily Board Show Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Status: O X-Status: Just laughter in the dark...its Your Daily Board Show! *warning* contains editorial content. Read at your own risk! Tuesday 16 January 2001: Voting continues on Motion 00-41. Thus far 10 Board members have voted "yes" and 4 have voted "no" [and this motion has passed]. === Hogging the Spotlight Corner: Yours truly was interviewed last week by the fine folks at GenSuck . The interview has been posted at: http://www.gensuck.com/FEATURES/dailyboard/index.html Hope you enjoy! === "One day posterity will remember This strange era, these strange times, when Ordinary common honesty was called courage." ---Yevgeny Yevtushenko This has been your Daily Board Show. -Teresa Lindquist merope@radix.net ------- Daily Board Show, (c) 2001 by Teresa Lindquist, all rights reserved. From merope@Radix.Net Thu Jan 18 13:47:36 2001 Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2001 13:47:32 -0500 (EST) From: merope Reply-To: merope To: Daily Board Show Subject: Daily Board Show Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Status: O X-Status: Raining on our parade...its Your Daily Board Show! *warning* contains editorial content. Read at your own risk! Wednesday 17 January 2001: Voting continues on motion 00-41, with 11 Board members voting "yes" and four voting "no" Thursday 18 January 2001: Tim Stowell declares Motion 00-41 passes and notes that Esther Frye has been added to the relevant lists. === "When there is a lack of honor in government, the morals of the whole people are poisoned." ---Herbert Hoover This has been your Daily Board Show. -Teresa Lindquist merope@radix.net ------- Daily Board Show, (c) 2001 by Teresa Lindquist, all rights reserved. From merope@Radix.Net Sat Jan 20 08:20:46 2001 Date: Sat, 20 Jan 2001 08:20:45 -0500 (EST) From: merope Reply-To: merope To: Daily Board Show Subject: Daily Board Show Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Status: O X-Status: Hail to the thief!...its Your Daily Board Show! *warning* contains editorial content. Read at your risk! Thursday 18 January 2001: New Board Secretary Esther Frye sends the following message to the Board and the "National Commander" [possibly the best freudian slip I have seen in recent memory]: "I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for allowing me to serve as the Secretary to the board. The position is one that i will find interesting and challanging and I believe that I will be able to handle its responsibility successfully." === Sign of the Times Corner: Citing "current economic pressures in the Internet market", Heritage Quest has announced the indefinite delay of its plans to launch the GenealogyDatabase.com site, which was to have included the entirety of the U.S. federal census. === "Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature made them." ---Bertrand Russell This has been your Daily Board Show. -Teresa Lindquist merope@radix.net ------- Daily Board Show, (c) 2001 by Teresa Lindquist, all rights reserved. From merope@Radix.Net Sun Jan 21 08:26:33 2001 Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2001 08:26:33 -0500 (EST) From: merope Reply-To: merope To: Daily Board Show Subject: Daily Board Show Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Status: O X-Status: Dumb and dumber...its Your Daily Board Show! *warning* contains editorial content. Read at your own risk Saturday 20 January 2001: Joe Zsedeny reports that as of yesterda 107 volunteers had pledged a maximum of $2803 to the service mark fund. He says they plan to have the form completed and to the attorney for review by February 1. Once that is done, they will send out message to all pledgers asking for donations. He notes "Everyone who has pledged will be given the chance to donate. Accounting will be visible to all on a web site that John will maintain so that everyone can see how the money is collected and spent. This will include scanned bills and scanned checks. Teri Pettit has agreed to act as Service Mark Fund Manager." He also notes that they are applying for a Collective Service Mark "because it more nearly fits our situation." === Second Thoughts Corner: For those of you wondering why the pledge amount is less than previously reported, this is because a number of people, including this author, have decided to withdraw their pledges. Reasons cited thus far include a lack of confidence in the Board to handle this issue competently given their past record, lack of faith in a Board and "National Commander" that cannot be honest and above-board with a project even in a matter so simple as the qualifications for a Board Secretary [who, as it turns out, is not qualified for the job], and a lack of trust in a group of people who tell different stories about what exactly they will do with the money. As much as I believe USGW needs this service mark [although I don't believe we have the slightest chance of getting it], I simply cannot hand over money to people who have demonstrated so little respect for the project and its members, and so little honesty in their dealings with us. === "He who does not bellow the truth when he knows the truth makes himself the accomplice of liars and forgers." ---Charles Peguy This has been your Daily Board Show. -Teresa Lindquist merope@radix.net ------- Daily Board Show, (c) 2001 by Teresa Lindquist, all rights reserved.