From merope@Radix.Net Mon Jul 16 11:28:15 2001 Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2001 11:28:14 -0400 (EDT) From: merope Reply-To: merope To: Daily Board Show Subject: Daily Board Show, 7/16/2001 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Status: O X-Status: No news is good news...its Your Daily Board Show! *warning* contains editorial content. Read at your own risk! Monday 16 July 2001: [The Board has been silent for several days now] === Election News: The election is apparently proceeding without a hitch, or at least without the anger and recriminations that accompanied last year's fiasco. This time around problems appear to be limited to problems with bouncing email addresses and burnout on the part of the EC volunteers. We have heard very few complaints about the actual voting processs, the server, or the responsiveness of the EC. As of Jul 12, 318 people had voted; IIRC, this is about one third of the number that usually vote in the national level elections. The voting period is now half over; please do not forget to vote! Of course, no USGW election would be complete without mudslinging, and we are pleased to note that this season's smear campaign was inaugurated by none other than our own Esteemed National Coordinator Tim Stowell. Tim used the excuse of posting his own picks for offices to publish vague allegations and innuendo about NC candidate Holly Timm. Pressed for details, he failed to provide any, tossed around the word "ethics" a few times and disappeared. So far, two of his picks have publicly distanced themselves from him, with one of them [Jana Black] noting: "Tim is perfectly capable of speaking for himself if and when he chooses to express himself...he has had no problem communicating his beliefs when he so chooses...when he does express himself he is responsible for the taste he leaves in the mouths of everyone who reads what he wrote..." The allegations about Holly were reported on in the DBS in February 2000 [yes, a year and a half ago], and no evidence has been presented that the issue is ongoing. Holly addressed the Board at the time it happened and nothing further came of it. Holly has released the following statement: "there were some problems with some book orders I lost track of back then which as far as I know got sorted out. But the allegation is not that I didn't sort that out at the time but that I solicited on Rootsweb lists and pages. The complaint to Rootsweb did state that but their investigation showed that I never did use mailing lists or pages on Rootsweb to sell my books as wasperfectly clear in discussion with theboard at that time. The only connection to Rootsweb at all ever was a small link in my copyright statement that some of the material on the site was available from Footprints which was a clickable link to my offsite page listing my books. At the time of the complaint that listing had been taken down a couple of months earlier and all links removed. I have never ever used Rootsweb or USGenWeb commercially nor promoted my books on any mail list." Tim also dissed NC candidate Phyllis Rippee, claiming that she violated the confidentially of the Service Market Committee. However, one of her colleagues on that committee has publicly refuted these allegations as well. And for some bizarre reason, Tim has claimed that one of the candidates is running under an assumed name; further details will probably not be forthcoming unless someone can figure out what he's talking about. Easy Come, Easy Go Corner: A few weeks ago we passed along a note about a group of USGW volunteers who were banding together to launch a new online genealogy service. We are sad to report that their effort has succumbed, as have others, to the difficulties of working together online. The group released this statement: "In response to the actions of MyFamily.com and its subsidiary companies in reorganizing message boards and so forth, Traci Parsons-Holder of Aledo, TX got together a group of people to launch a new free genealogy service called GenBoards and GenSites. This group held a number of meetings, to work on incorporation paperwork as a non-profit corporation in the State of Texas. The group made substantial progress and was at the point of filing when some members became disenchanted with some actions taken by the group, and withdrew their support. With great sadness, the group dissolved. Some of the members of the group have moved ahead with their own agenda to offer alternatives for genealogists. I imagine that you will be seeing some announcements of those efforts in the near future. In the meantime, I can only say that I am sorry things did not work out for this project and thank you for your interest and encouragement." Better News Corner: Also recently announced are new message boards, patterned on GenConnect and offered to USGW volunteers free of charge, for collecting queries and other information. This new system is being run by former National Coordinator and long-time USGW member John Rigdon. For more information, please visit: http://www.genboards.tzo.org === "Elections are won by men and women chiefly because most people vote against somebody rather than for somebody." ---Franklin P. Adams This has been your Daily Board Show. -Teresa Lindquist merope@radix.net ------- Daily Board Show, (c) 2001 by Teresa Lindquist, all rights reserved.