From merope@Radix.Net Mon Jun 11 10:26:35 2001 Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2001 10:26:35 -0400 (EDT) From: merope Reply-To: merope To: Daily Board Show Subject: Daily Board Show, 6/11/2001 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Status: O X-Status: A service of the Emergency Broadcast Network...its Your Daily Board Show! *warning* contains editorial content. Read at your own risk! Sunday 10 June 2001: Tim Stowell notes that the current motions before the Board do not address the reunification of the two Census Projects. He asks Richard Harrison if he denies that linking to the USGenWeb Census Project after the Board severed it from USGW would not override the intent of Motion 00-10 and result in the CP being returned to its place as the official USGenWeb census project. Tim declares Motion 01-21 passed with 12 yes votes. Sundee Maynez is the new Board Secretary. Richard points out that linking to a site does not grant that site official status and that "Maintaining Motion 00-10 in force defines the relationship between the USGWP and the former USGW CP." Monday 11 June 2001: Tim asks a serious of questions about the nature of links from the USGenWeb nation pages and the relationship between USGW and sites to which it links. He asks "if a link is placed to the Inc'd group and they still call themselves the Official USGenWeb Census Project - even though you leave 00-10 in place (as you seem to think you can) won't they then have the Project over the proverbial barrel?" He wonders if the Board will ask the Census Project to remove its "resolutions page" and it claim to be the "official" USGenWeb Census Project or if the Board will place a disclaimer with the link to their site. Tim asks the Board to ponder the following issue regarding Article XVI, Section 6 of the bylaws: "shouldn't the amendments that failed to get the correct majorities in last year's election be put on the ballot again this year - automatically?...it appears that it is saying that amendments that failed could be brought up again for co-sponsorship and if they didn't make it through the process 3 times in a row, it would be dead." He asks the Board to advise the Election Committee on this matter. Maggie Stewart notes that the Archives and Recall amendments obtained the required co-sponsors last so the first part of Art. XVI, Sec 6 does not apply to them and "The second sentence implies the amendments are to appear on the ballot until adopted or until three election cycles are completed." Richard states emphatically that the failed amendments should not be automatically added to this year's ballots but they can be proposed for new sponsorship. He wonders "how much would a proposed amendment need to differ from a previously proposed amendment on the same subject in order to be considered a new and different proposed amendment?" Joe Zsedeny says he has never read the bylaws to mean that failed amendments would automatically be returned to the ballot but they could be returned to the ballot if the original sponsors still supported it. Shari Handley reads the section to mean "that an issue *may* be proposed again after failing, but must go through the co-sponsorship requirement again. If, after getting on the ballot through these means 3 times and still failing, it is a dead issue. [the poor EC must be scratching its head on this one.] Back to the census project(s) issue, Richard reminds Tim that USGW has no responsibility for content on sites to which it links, and that linking to the USGenWeb Census Project would not put USGW "over the proverbial barrel". He thinks it would be ideal if the CP would remove its "resolutions page" but it is not essential and reiterates that "the positive value of resolving this situation outweighs the confusion that might result from the conflicting claims." He reminds the Board that he has proposed in a motion yet to be seconded "that the links to the CPs be identified as links to pages outside the USGEP [sic]." Tim tells Richard his motion is dead and asks him what the "USGEP" is. He also asks "Why would any site link to a site that disparages the first site?...Are you saying it is ok with you that the Project link to pages, in effect saying this is an approved resource, that makes false claims...or that disparages the Project?" === "The right thing to do never requires any subterfuge, it is always simple and direct." ---Calvin Coolidge 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 Jun 13 14:33:40 2001 Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2001 14:33:39 -0400 (EDT) From: merope Reply-To: merope To: Daily Board Show Subject: Daily Board Show, 6/13/2001 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Status: RO X-Status: It ain't the heat, its the humidity...its Your Daily Board Show! *warning* contains editorial content. Read at your own risk! Monday 11 June 2001: Richard Harrison calls the question on the amended version of Motion 01-20. Tuesday 12 June 2001: Tim Stowell calls a vote on whether or not to vote on Motion 01-20. He stresses "This is NOT a vote on the Motion." Thus far 5 Board members have voted yes. Tim asks Richard why he ducked the questions Tim asked him previously but instead called the question. He wonders "Were they too hard or were they too uncomfortable?" Richard believes they've already covered that ground and notes "The other Board members have become silent on this issue. I think it's time to see if they want to vote and, if they do, whether or not they supprt relinking the CPs." Tim tells Richard "you are a true politician, ducking questions that your constituents continue to have." He notes that "that Joy's motion does not cover linking to Maggie's Census Project," and wonders if this is an oversight. Richard reminds Tim that the motion includes both census projects. Tim notes that the original 01-20 didn't cover Maggie's Census Project. Wednesday 13 June 2001: Sundee Maynez thanks the Board for appointing her to the Board Secretary position. === Election News: The Chair of the Elections Committee has released the following information: "Please remember that the deadline for nominations for the AB close at midnight on June 18th. We must have a response by no later than June 20th from all nominees. If you know you have been nominated or expect to be nominated - please pay attention to the deadline. The ballot MUST be set up no later than Jun 24th for a final test. Along those same lines .... The EC believes we are missing many volunteers for the Archives. Any help anyone can give us will be greatly appreciated. We are trying in every way possible to be sure we have every single volunteer's name in the list. The Election Study Guidelines state that the EC was to close the voter's list on June 1st, but this first time around we do want to get everyone possible listed so we're pushing it to the wire. The cutoff for eligibility is still June 1st - but anyone who was a volunteer prior to that - we would like to have listed. Foot In Mouth Corner: Our Beloved National Commander caused a minor election-related brouhaha a couple of days ago, when he implied that voters in regions with two seats open would only be allowed to vote once. Tim was responding to a question asked regarding a notice on the Elections web site that that person who receives the most votes will get a two year term and the runner up will get the one year term. Why Tim responded to this rather than let the EC handle it is not clear. But Tim's take on the whole situation is this: "In past elections when there were 2 CCs seats being voted on in an election and there were two different terms of office - this was how it was determined who got what seat. This was done during our very first election, a practice which still continues. Folks running for those two slots don't declare I'm running for x slot but rather run to represent the Region." This unclear response garnered him this formal appeal from Richard Howland on behalf of the ILGenWeb: "I wish to give Formal Notice that ILGenWeb will be protesting the denial of their right to vote for one of their elect able Advisory Board Representatives. I file this Formal Notice of Appeal on their behalf. Your posted intent to follow past precedent will deny ILGenWeb the right too vote for one of their County Coordinator Representatives. As they will be only able to cast votes for one County Coordinator Representative. They should be cast able to vote for two of County Coordinator Representatives and the two County Coordinator Representative Nominees receiving highest vote totals win the seats. With the higher of the two vote totals having the two year seat. Or if you prefer you may run separate ballots for each seat." Tim later tried to explain himself with a lengthy disquisition on What He Really Meant: "...in one region, in a race either last year or before there were to CC Rep positions open. There were four candidates. The EC at the time decided that the top vote getter would get the 2 year seat, the runner-up would get the 1 year seat. Voters were asked to vote for '2' persons...This is nothing new, this is not my policy...it was just an explanation in answer to a question someone asked here. I was trying to explain how past elections had been handled, no more no less. So for the IL CCs or any other state CCs in a region with 2 open slots, I believe that that is the NE/NC and the SE/MA this round, voters would, if past procedure is followed - vote for 2 candidates from the pool of candidates for that region." Clear as mud? We thought so. :) Anyways, the issue seems to have resolved itself without too much of an outcry. But it was amusing while it lasted. === "A government is not in power, it is in office, put there by the will of the people." ---Stanley Baldwin 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 Jun 14 12:47:29 2001 Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2001 12:47:28 -0400 (EDT) From: merope Reply-To: merope To: Daily Board Show Subject: Daily Board Show, 6/14/2001 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Status: O X-Status: Irritating Linda Lewis since 1998...its Your Daily Board Show! *warning* contains editorial content. Read at your own risk! Wednesday 13 June 2001: George Waller notes he will be out of town for the rest of the week. Tim Stowell posts either the second or third Election Committee report to the Board. [If it is the third, one was not shared with the project; the report will follow this message in full.] Voting continues on the call of the question for Motion 01-20. Thus far 10 members have voted yes and one has voted an emphatic no. [Looks like they'll be voting on Motion 01-20 shortly.] === Meet the New Boss Corner: A bit more information about the upcoming merge of Ancestry's message boards with GenConnect appears in this week's New Zoo Review. The article, written by Jake Gehring, promises "In the next few weeks, Ancestry.com and RootsWeb.com will be unveiling a new integrated message board system. The biggest change to the new system is the combination of two powerful message board systems (i.e., GenConnect and FamilyHistory.com) into one -- users will be able to take advantage of a much larger community in which to share experience, tips, and genealogical information. The new message boards will be indexable by the major Internet search engines, and as a result queries, discussions, and helpful suggestions from the genealogical community will reach the widest possible audience. In addition to new messages posted, the collection will contain more than 15 million messages from researchers who have shared their experience and expertise since 1987. Messages in the new system can be accessed from Ancestry.com or RootsWeb.com and access will remain free." [We shiver with anticipation...] Pocket Change Corner: As of tomorrow, Ancestry.com is raising its prices from $59.95 to $69.95 for a full year and from $19.95 to $24.95 for a quarterly subscription. If you sign up today, you can still get the old prices; if you wait until tomorrow, you'll have to open the wallet a little wider. === "Freedom is when the people can speak, democracy is when the government listens." ---Alastair Farrugia 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 Jun 14 12:52:47 2001 Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2001 12:52:46 -0400 (EDT) From: merope To: Daily Board Show Subject: Election Committee Report Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Status: O X-Status: [There is some question as to whether this is report #2 or #3. We will note that we are very pleased to see that Larry Stephens, a well-known online genealogist with a reputation for integrity, will be hosting the election this year.] === USGenWeb Election Committee Report # 3 June 11, 2001 The Following Report is submitted to the Advisory Board of the USGenWeb Project: The Election Committee announced the opening of nominations and also the URL of the Election Committee's web page. The nomination procedure is being handled as follows: Nominations are being sent to the Chair. The Chair in turn is forwarding the nomination to the Regional Teams. The Regional Teams will determine if the nominee wishes to accept the nomination. If the nominee accepts then the Regional Teams are verifying that the nominee has served in their position for a period of 12 months as of July 1, 2001 and that the position they have served in qualifies for the position they were nominated for. If the Regional Team determines that the nominee wants to run and is qualified the nominee's name is placed on the Election Web site. The nomination period closes June 18, 2001 at midnight. The deadline for responses is June 20, 2001. The final ballot must be completed by June 24, 2001 so that a final test of the voter software can be run. In the Election Committee's last report it was reported that the Election Software would be hosted by Mr. Kettmann. However, due to some technical difficulties Mr. Kettmann had to withdraw his offer. The Chair approached Mr. Larry Stephens of the University of Indiana and asked if he would be willing to host the software. Mr. Stephens agreed. At this time the voter software has been forwarded to Mr. Stephens and he is working with Michael Anderson (the author of the voting software) to get the software set up and ready for the EC to run a final test. All EC members have been busy trying to finalize the voter's list. There have been some problems with State Coordinators and Archive Managers not furnishing the lists of names for their volunteers. The EC members have been visiting as many state sites as possible to collect names that have not been forwarded to us. However, the EC is afraid that not all volunteers' names will be collected in time for the final voter list to be uploaded to the server. The Chair posted a message stating this on the ALL and the Discuss lists in hopes that volunteers will contact an EC member. Due to the problem stated above the Chair approached Mr. Stephens and asked if he would make available an announcement list. He agreed. The EC will upload all of the names we have available to the list and send an announcement to each individual about the Election and the Election Web Page. If the list can be uploaded in time the announcement will also contain information about nominations. Thru the use of this list we hope to be able to verify e-mail addresses, volunteer's names and positions and to have as accurate a voter list as possible by July 1, 2001. Linda Haas Davenport Chair, USGenWeb Project Election Committee === -Teresa Lindquist merope@radix.net From merope@Radix.Net Fri Jun 15 06:24:54 2001 Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2001 06:24:53 -0400 (EDT) From: merope Reply-To: merope To: Daily Board Show Subject: Daily Board Show, 6/15/2001 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Status: RO X-Status: The squeaky wheel gets the grease...its Your Daily Board Show! *warning* contains editorial content. Read at your own risk! Thursday 14 June 2001: Tim Stowell confirms that the Election Report published yesterday is report #2 and not #3. Tim calls for a vote on Motion 01-20. [For those of you who may have forgotten, this is the motion overturning the Executive Order and establishing links to both census projects.] Thus far 11 Board members have voted yes. [This motion has passed, the EO is overturned, and the National Commander has just been handed the first significant defeat of his tenure, IIRC.] === Feel Good Corner: A suddenly hot topic on the -ALL list is "bills of rights" for USGenWeb members. The topic was started by Joy Fisher, who noted "Just as the Constitution had a Bill of Rights added to spell out the rights, privileges, and responsibilities of citizenship, I am proposing a "Bill of Rights" to be attached to our By-Laws." Joy's original suggested Bill of Rights concerned only CCs and SCs [for some reason file managers and other project members always get left out of these things] and was just 9 pretty basic items. She asked for suggestions and in the interim Tim Stowell has sent in several additional Bills of Rights that were apparently sent to him by others. They have gotten more complicated, subjective and restrictive. Left unanswered is the question of who will enforce any "Bill of Rights" that may eventually be accepted. The U.S. Constitution is of course ultimately enforced by the Supreme Court, but the USGenWeb has no mechanism in place to ensure compliance with even our existing guidelines and bylaws and little hope of establishing one. Its an interesting thread though, go read it. Election News: Some interesting names have been posted to the Nominations page at the Election Committee website [http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgwelections/nominations.html]. Most interesting of all is that Holly Timm is running for National Commander. Just over a week ago, she was not only _not_ going to run for office again, she was publicly stating she was going to leave the project. There are a number of other incumbents running as well, including George Waller, Lorraine Newsome, Tina Vickery, and Diane Parsons. There are a number of seats that have received no nominations as of yet, so please consider running or nominating someone else for one of these positions. Nominations will be accepted through June 18. === "Everybody's for democracy in principle. It's only in practice that the thing gives rise to stiff objections." ---Meg Greenfield This has been your Daily Board Show. -Teresa Lindquist merope@radix.net ------- Daily Board Show, (c) 2001 by Teresa Lindquist, all rights reserved.