Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Dance This Mess Around

Head 'em up, move 'em out...its Your Daily Board Show!

THEY'RE BACK: Scooter called the meeting back to order promptly yesterday and noted that
the October minutes have at last been posted. Greta suggested a couple of corrections, but
otherwise the Board was still apparently on vacation.

LACKING SUBSTANCE: The October minutes are kinda thin. As we recall, much of that
month was spent watching Scooter contort himself into unusual positions over use of the
USGenWeb logos, with the eventual result being that he gets to decide who can use the logo, but
just about anyone can use the USGenWeb name for personal profit. The Board also never fixed
the glaring confusion that remains the September minutes, nor did they ever formally accept
them, possibly because none of them really care if they make no sense whatsoever. The October
minutes are at least a wee bit more coherent.

-Teresa Lindquist
Editor & Publisher, Daily Board Show
Doing the shy tuna since 1998

Posted by merope at 5:35 AM 0 comments    

Friday, November 24, 2006
Fat And Happy

Stuffed to the gills...its Your Daily Board Show!

GANG OF TWO: Just before recessing for the annual American festival of over-indulgence,
Scooter announced that he was appointing Mike Peterson and Alice Allen to a special committee
to "review, consolidate, and revise the Standing Procedures." [Well, at least half the committee
will have some sense.] The pair of them will start work on December 1, will operate on an open
mail list, and will have until April Fool's Day 2007 to report their recommendations to the Board.
Scooter neglected to mention the third member of the committee, which is of course himself. But
perhaps he will be busy behind the scenes working his hand puppet again.

Shortly after this announcement, and after some dithering about whether they were adjourning or
recessing, Scooter recessed the Board until November 27.

-Teresa Lindquist
Editor & Publisher, Daily Board Show
Overeating while the world starves since 1998

Posted by merope at 6:15 AM 0 comments    

Monday, November 20, 2006
Just A Soul Whose Intentions Are Good

On the upswing...its Your Daily Board Show!

SWEPT AWAY: Scooby Mike announced the result of the Board's deliberations on the challenge
to the NVGenWeb election. As wholly expected, they found no evidence that "the election
management or participating volunteers violated any bylaws/procedures or performed any
unauthorized actions or illegalities." Mike also went through the charade of relinquising the
Chair back to Scooter, announcing that the Board is no longer in Executive Session, and subbing
Bettie and Scooter back to the Sekrit Sandbox [which must be a great relief to Scooter, who no
longer has to pretend to be someone else].

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW: Phyllis posted a long explanatory message to Paul about the
history and provisions of Motion 06-14. She noted, "...this AB has its hands tied by the fact that
Motion 06-14 prohibits us from proposing any change to the current bylaws stating the
responsibilities of the AB....although events since that time have indicated that more changes
might more realistic to what actually...Had we been told that we had no other choice than to
accept Motion 06-14's limitations and decree of "urgency", I would not have WASTED my time
trying to make the wording smoother and more professional appearing...I sincerely believe that
the original intent was for the motion to be ready to present at the time "urgent" was declared, so
that the steps could be followed and the Project could be saved from whatever threat was
present."

Mike, back to his old inarticulate self, then posted a longish message in which he noted "I agree
with Scott that under the spirit and intent of the discussions over 06-14 the proposal shouldn't go
beyond grievances," but then managed to explain things so that adding business not involving
grievances really does involve grievances. [Wait. That is actually pretty much like Scooter.] He
then posted yet another version of Article VI, Section 3 that includes changes that do not involve
grievances.

LOOTING AND PILLAGING: Just for the heck of it, in case anyone hasn't noticed, folks over
on the DISCUSS and HELPPAGES list are thoroughly encouraging a bunch of French relic
hunters who are using metal detectors to loot WWII relics from the beaches and farms of
Normandy. Its OK because any incidental dog tags they find they are sending over here to be
reunited with next of kin and that's just nifty. We suppose digging up and removing artifacts from
historic battlefields is peachy over there; here, of course, it would get you in some pretty big
trouble.

BONUS QUOTE: "The present proposal before ABChat, as a result of much discussion and
great input from membership, is an attempt to make it even more clear by dropping the word
'elections'...It also adds 'special committees' to the establishing and overseeing statement, and
some rewording of the grievances clause. Nothing has changed from the spirit and intent of the
original Section 3 paragraph. Nothing has changed from the spirit and intent of the discussions
leading up to 06-14." --Mike Peterson

-Teresa Lindquist
Editor & Publisher, Daily Board Show
Curmudgeonly since 1998

Posted by merope at 5:18 AM 0 comments    

Saturday, November 18, 2006
The Monkeywrench Gang

Yoink!...its Your Daily Board Show!

DEADFALL: The Board continued to discuss the grammatical issues with the proposed urgent
bylaws amendment. This most fascinating discussion centered for a time on whether lopping two
letters off the end of a word constituted rewriting a sentence. But then the discussion took a
wholly unexpected turn when Phyllis asked, "Are we bound to this motion...to the extent that we
cannot suggest wording in regard to current bylaws Article VI, Sec. 3 except to add a phrase
about the grievance committee?" Scooter finally allowed as to how the Board was indeed so
restrained and Phyllis responded by suggesting that the Board rescind Motion 06-14. Scooter of
course protested this, noting that "...the more realistic approach would be to confine ourselves to
the adjustments needed to implement the Grievance Procedures...re-designing those sections in
ways which exceeds the focus of 06-14, no matter how appropriate the changes may be to the
overall bylaws, is not within the spirit nor the action contemplated in the original motion." Phyllis
observed somewhat drily that the "realistic approach" is not to let the oversight of a previous
Board hamper this one in its work and that it would have been nice to know earlier that "there
could be no changes made other than grammar and possible punctuation." The discussion caused
some obvious distress in Paul, who asked, "Are we now saying that the grievance procedures we
recently passed cannot be implemented without a bylaw amendment? Thought the bylaws impact
issue of the new GP's was previously raised and deemed inconsequential." He also suggested
rescinding Motion 06-14.

But of course that approach wouldn't work either. Motion 06-14 was passed not only to allow the
Board itself to amend the bylaws but also to allow them to do it urgently and bypass all that
silliness with state sponsorship and lengthy public comment periods. Rescinding Motion 06-14
would not permit the Board to lard up their amendment with non-grievance related items, it
would remove the option of amending the bylaws from them entirely. Unless of course they pass
another motion declaring that explicitly permitting the Board to establish committees and
allowing Board members to personally run local elections is of urgent consequence to the
well-being of the Project.

-Teresa Lindquist
Editor & Publisher, Daily Board Show
Gumming up the works since 1998

Posted by merope at 6:25 AM 0 comments    

Thursday, November 16, 2006
Dilatory Tactics

Along for the ride...it's Your Daily Board Show!

SWATTING FLIES: With 10 Board members indicating that they agreed with Chairman Mike's
ruling against Paul, Mike declared his ruling "supported", but not before lighting into Paul for
using "dilatory tactics." Interestingly enough, Mike's eloquence again escaped him [Scooter must
have been offline yesterday] and his smackdown consisted mostly of random citations of Sturgis,
inaccurate claims that he made no rulings [although 10 Board members just supported them], and
observations of his own profound fairness in even giving Paul's points of order the time of day.
After babbling on for a paragraph or three, Mike offered to either "withdraw the question
completely from the board and allow [it] to die for a lack of a second or allow the board to make
the decision on whether the chair's ruling stands," but in short order decided instead to uphold his
own ruling and just be done with it.

-Teresa Lindquist
Editor & Publisher, Daily Board Show
A model of efficiency since 1998

Posted by merope at 5:45 AM 1 comments    

Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Like A Rolling Stone

Gathering moss...its Your Daily Board Show!

FULL SPEED AHEAD: As expected, Paul Buckley objected to Mike's decision to overrule his
points of order and appealed. In short order, Mike posted both Paul's points of order and his own
ruling and asked the other Board members to "agree or disagree" with the ruling. By press time
nine Board members had indicated they agreed with Mike's ruling, but Paul then asked "Is not an
appeal of a ruling by the chair a privileged motion subject to member discussion before a vote?"
[Actually, it isn't. Discussion is not in order unless the Chair invites it, and why would Mike do
that? It would just slow the juggernaut down.]

TORTOISE AND HARE: Mike disagreed with Paul's assessment of the proposed bylaw
amendment, and noted "I do not see anything which 'changes' existing election procedures nor do
I see any 'changes' in oversight. The current specific words of 'overseeing elections' is being
replaced with the general responsibility of AB overseeing all committees which also is not a
'change'. When considering all the attention in the last few years to all the discussion on bylaws,
pro and con, it seems it would become clear why the wording is very important." [Which pretty
much makes Paul's point.] Paul responded by pointing out that 1) their is no urgent need for the
bylaws amendment; 2) several of the proposed changes to the amendment have nothing
whatsoever to do with grievances or establishing the Grievance Committee.

-Teresa Lindquist
Editor & Publisher, Daily Board Show
Saving the cheerleader since 1998

Posted by merope at 5:45 AM 2 comments    

Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Ready To Rumble

Pitchforks and torches...it's Your Daily Board Show!

GOOD OLD FASHIONED ASS WHUPPIN': Over the last couple of days NC Scooter posted
not one, not two, but four responses to Fred Smoot's challenge of the NVGW election. Scooter is,
shall we say, legally inclined so the missives are lengthy, quite professional, and very boring.
We've noticed before that he really seems to come into his own whenever he can puff his chest
out and go after another volunteer, and its nice to see him so evidently enjoying himself. [Its also
nice to see he has that much spare time on his hands with all the pending Board business.]

After Mike "Alter Ego" Peterson finished posting Scooter's rebuttal, he asked the Board members
to indicate whether or not they were recusing themselves and one by one they all, with the
exception of Scooter and Bettie Wood, indicated they would most definitely NOT be recusing
themselves. A number of them said it with such emphasis that it appears they are also enjoying
themselves immensely. Mike then moved the whole shebang into the Sekrit Sandbox for
"reviewing evidence, discussing, and developing findings," on their way to the inevitable finding
that Fred's challenge is without merit.

PUT UP OR SHUT UP: And then the first roadblock to rolling Fred Smoot reared its head. Paul
Buckly raised two points of order, noting that neither a motion to consider the challenge nor a
motion to move into executive session has carried. Mike [channeling Scooter again]immediately
ruled both of Paul's points of order out of order and told Paul to either recuse himself, agree to
the gag order and play in the Sekrit Sandbox with the rest of them, or submit recommendations to
Mike for presentation to the rest of the Board in its spider hole. That's where it stands now. Paul
of course has every right to appeal the decision, which would throw the points of order to a vote
by the entire Board.

RAINING ON THE PARADE: While the charade over the election challenge proceeded on the
formal list and in deep dark secret, there was still some desultory conversation on the Board's
chatty list on the proposed urgent amendment. Mostly it involved moving more words around
and fixing more grammatical and spelling errors, but once again Paul threw a wrench into the
works by wondering aloud if perhaps his colleagues aren't overstepping their bounds a bit with
their "wordsmithing." He noted, "Of particular concern are proposed changes to AB duties
beyond establishing new grievance procedures that imply changes to existing election procedures
and redefining "oversight" responsibilities." There's been no response to this observation thus far.

-Teresa Lindquist
Editor & Publisher, Daily Board Show
Storming the castle since 1998

Posted by merope at 5:57 AM 0 comments    

Sunday, November 12, 2006
Long Uphill Climb

Then a sudden drop...it's Your Daily Board Show!

STILL AT IT: The Board, or at least a small part of it, continued to discuss the upcoming change
in the bylaws. The conversation now includes Greta and Gorgeous George in addition to Phyllis
and Mike. Most of the discussion has centered on basic word-smithing regarding the grievance
procedures themselves, but a couple of them cannot leave off trying to tweak the language
regarding elections and standing committees, which is straying a bit from the charge given them
in Motion 06-14. That motion limited them to amending the bylaws to "establish the Grievance
Committee as a standing committee of the USGenWeb Project." But of course it would be foolish
to let the opportunity of an "urgent amendment" slip away without taking advantage of it.

EARLY RETURNS: The NVGenWeb election ended a couple of days ago and we are pleased to
announce that the new SC is Robert Bremer. NVGenWeb should be in most capable hands for
the duration of his tenure. In other related news, Scooby Mike posted Fred Smoot's statement
regarding his challenge of the election and invited Bettie, Scooter, and Pat Scott to respond. Thus
far their replies have not hit the public list.

-Teresa Lindquist
Editor and Publisher, Daily Board Show
Going south since 1998

Posted by merope at 7:15 AM 3 comments    

Friday, November 10, 2006
Ghost Writers In The Sky

Like a puppet on a string...its Your Daily Board Show!

WHEREAS AND WHYFORE: There has been something of a burst of discussion on the bylaws
amendment topic. Most of the Board appears to be sitting this one out, however, since all the
discussion thus far has been between Mike and Phyllis, with a suggestion or two tossed off by
Scooter. Many of the posts are just Mike repeating what Phyllis has recently said and most of
Phyllis' posts are minor word rearrangements and changes and grammar corrections.

Of interest however is Mike's attempt to "expand" the goal of the proposed bylaws amendment,
which is to enshrine Scooter's pet project into Project law. His first suggestion for rewording
includes adding this little gem to Article VI, section 3: "overseeing The Project national and
regional elections; establishing and overseeing The Project standing and special committees."
This of course goes beyond the intended scope of the proposed bylaws amendment, which is to
establish the rights of members with regard to grievances. We recall Jeff Scism trying this exact
same thing last session and Scooter getting all up in his face about it. Scooter is strangely silent
on Mike's suggestion, however. Perhaps he has seen the light.

KANGAROO COURT: The Board continues to fitfully discuss the challenge to the NVGenWeb
Election, which ended yesterday. Fred asked for an extension on the time permitted him to
provide details of the evidence supporting his charges. Mike denied this and threatened to
proceed without him. Fred also indicated that if the Board, with the exception of Paul Buckley,
did not recuse itself, he would need copies of all Board-Exec correspondence regarding the
election and his grievance and challenge. [He contends that since Bettie has involved the Sekrit
Sandbox since she first volunteered to run the election the Board is tainted. Wethinks that the
Board has indeed discussed the election, as well as Fred and his challenges, extensively and of
course any release of the Sacred Sekrit texts would show just how poor his chances are before
this bunch. We expect Scoot..um, we mean Mike will reject this request as well.] Bettie Wood
provided response to the charges, which is little more than a recap of the sequence of events and
her own interpretation of the bylaws. Finally, Fred posted the first part of his response to the
alternate CC forum; it has not yet made it to the Board's list.

[We note with interest that Mike's newfound coherence of the last couple of days escapes him
entirely in his discussions of the bylaws amendment. He, however, has full grasp of it whenever
the NVGenWeb election challenge is discussed. Curiouser and curiouser.]

PRETZEL LOGIC: Over on DISCUSS, Scooter's officious attempt to cow Fred Smoot and
anyone else who might say "Yawn" to his special friends into submission by threatening to reveal
private email correspondence turned into a discussion of Tina's theory of brutal list management,
confusion over what Scooter really means when he says he won't get involved in personal
discussion until he does, and the meaning and implication of simple words. As usual, the more
Scooter tried to explain himself, the deeper the hole he dug for himself. Before it degenerated
into the debate-ending "if you don't like it unsub" rhetoric, the list members were treated to 1) the
ludicrous spectacle of Scooter gallantly defending Tina "Howitzer" Vickery, a listmanager who
has always been capable of giving way more than she gets and who appears to relish keeping
Fred in line; and 2) the spastic floundering of an NC who was kind enough to inform us that he
won't involve himself in the private emails between two Project members unless, of course, he
wants to. At the end of the day, we must conclude that the NC reserves the right to publicly
chastise any member for anything they say to any other member in private, depending on his
whim at the time. He, um, you know, "knows it when he sees it."

Realistically speaking, this all comes down to a pissing match between two little boys in a
schoolyard and if Scooter had been able to restrain himself that is all it would have ever been.
Fred happily takes every opportunity to goad the usual suspects into behaving badly [which isn't
that hard], and most recently has filed at least two complaints with the Board that involve Scooter
personally. The Board considers these nuisance grievances designed to harrass individual
members and hamper their work toward the USGenWeb Of The Future and they intend to rubber
stamp their approval of their colleagues' actions with all due haste. Scooter is tweaked at Fred
because Fred has twice challenged his involvement in the NVGenWeb election and has decided
to use the power of his office to make a public example of Fred, mostly by alluding to the just
awful things Fred said to Tina. ["Yawn". I mean, wow, how brutal can you be?] Scooter never
acknowledged Tina's snarkier-than-thou response to Fred and seems to have inserted himself into
this brou-ha-ha uninvited. But hey, why turn down an opportunity to publicly go after someone
with whom you have personal issues and moreover who cannot respond to you in the forum in
which you attack them? It's even better if you can do it while you are facing both a grievance and
a challenge from that person.

[BTW, we said "yawn" to Tina and Scooter too and the hammer hasn't dropped on us yet. But
then we aren't currently involved in grievances against the regime. Can it be that Fred is just
"special"?]

CONTEXT IS EVERYTHING: Apparently some old fart or other at Scooter's local American
Legion bar says that USGenWeb's use of the flag in its advertising is both tasteful and
appropriate. They allow however as to how their opinion would be entirely different if the same
logo were flying over a website of which they personally disapproved. The USGenWeb logo is
not a flag; it is a representation of a flag. Whether you find the logos uplifting or insulting may
depend heavily on how you feel about USGenWeb itself. So, what it all comes down to is a
matter of personal preference and interpretation. Much like when someone says "yawn" to
someone else.

BONUS QUOTE: "Yawn." --Fred Smoot

DOUBLE BONUS QUOTE: "Fred .. watch your tone. "Yawn" is unacceptable to me." --Tina
Vickery

SUPER DOUBLE BONUS QUOTE: "I think anyone who looks at the situation with an open
mind can see the underlying message of the statement...In my view, it was intentional,
disrespectful, and conveyed a message far more that the mere word used." --Scott Burow

-Teresa Lindquist
Editor & Publisher, Daily Board Show
Pun intended since 1998

Posted by merope at 6:45 AM 3 comments    

Thursday, November 09, 2006
Snooze Alarm

More equal than others...its Your Daily Board Show!

FOX GUARDING THE CHICKENS: Acting the NC, Mike Peterson posted the steps and
timelines for the investigation of the NVGW election. [The post is more coherent than he usually
manages; we wonder who actually wrote it for him.] As required by Sturgis, the entire
proceedings will be posted to Board-L and thus will be in the permanent record [until Root$web
decides to lose the posts]. He started by posting Fred Smoot's original challenge and requested
that Fred provide "the grounds for your challenge and your allegations with the inclusion of
specific names, places, events, coupled with specific references, by paragraph, to cited standards,
policies, rules, bylaws, guidelines, etc." in two days. [Again, just a wee bit more lucid than we
usually see from Mike.] A bit later he published a similar request from Scooter, denying most of
the allegations and demanding specific incidents. [It is truly amazing how similar their writing
styles have become over the last couple of days.]

JUGGLING ACT: While the Board chews over this piece of gristle, Mike decided to move
forward with the next item of business on the Board's agenda, that of finalizing the wording on
the "urgent" bylaws amendment. [Man, you can almost see the strings. Or is he a hand puppet?]
Although of vast consequence to all members of USGenWeb, each of whom has suffered
horribly from the lack of it, Scooter and the Board have permitted this vital item to languish for
going on three months now while they fritter away their time with minor distractions. Mike
moved the discussion over to the informal list, where thus far it languishes still.

GETTING PERSONAL: Meanwhile, over on the DISCUSS list, some minor chain-yanking over
the proper display of the flag has gotten way more interesting than it should have. It seems Tina
"NC In Her Pocket" Vickery got her panties bunched a bit by something Fred said to David
Samuelsen and sent him a private cease and desist letter. He sent her a one-word reply which
prompted Tina to go ballistic. [For some reason she expects everyone to treat her with the utmost
deference and respect at all times although she rarely extends that courtesy to others]. Even
better, it also provoked Scooter Himself into posting an oblique and self-serving post to
DISCUSS about it. He stoutly defended Tina, assured us all that private harrassment of
individual members of the Project would not be permitted under his watch, and then threatened to
publish any correspondence which he considers harrassing. Of course, his personal message to
Fred was not quite so polite and amounted to a threat to publish Fred's private correspondence to
him. [We must assume from this that privately harrassing members of the Project is OK when the
NC does it.] Fred, of course, responded by publishing the entire thread of correspondence over
on the alternate CC list, where the flotsam and jetsam of the Project are now on notice that our
NC has only laid down with dogs, he apparently likes it.

So now, instead of this being a private tiff between Fred and Scooter and Ms. T [which sounds
like a cheesy 70s sitcom] its now an entirely public embarrassment. It is amazing to us how easy
it is to goad these people into behaving badly. Its not even a sport anymore.

BTW, the single word response that Fred sent to Tina when she barked at him? "Yawn."

BONUS QUOTE: "I'm not easily confused." --David Samuelsen

DOUBLE BONUS QUOTE: "Harassment in private...so you can play the poor pitiful
victim in public isn't going to work. If insolence and antagonism towards members is your
choice, I'll expose it and take the consequences of public opinion for
revealing private emails. I will not have any member of this project treated with less than
respect." --Scott Burow

-Teresa Lindquist
Editor & Publisher, Daily Board Show
Sleeping in since 1998

Posted by merope at 5:50 AM 1 comments    

Wednesday, November 08, 2006
O Frabjous Day!

Calloo! Callay!...it's Your Daily Board Show!

ALL MIMSY: The Board has been silent ever since the November agenda was posted four or
five days ago. Yesterday, however, Scooter popped in to announce that he was relinquishing the
chair temporarily because a challenge has been raised to his involvement in the NVGenWeb
election. Mike Peterson will be the acting NC and Chair of the Board's meeting while the
challenge is addressed. Bettie Wood, also up to her chin in the NVGenWeb election, recused
herself as well [which is a change for her; usually she just claims impartiality and forges ahead].
Mike is "initiating an investigation into allegations" and will shortly inform the Board as to
timelines and step to his investigation.

FRUMIOUS BANDERSNATCH: As our more astute readers will have already guessed, the
challenge to the NVGenWeb comes from NVGW CC Fred Smoot, who has already filed a
separate grievance in the matter. Since this grievance will not be heard for some months if at all
[since the once and future Grievance Committee can just reject it out of hand], and since Scooter
was kind enough to point out various provisions in Sturgis under which members may challenge
elections, Fred filed his challenge to the election on the following grounds:

1. That procedures required for carrying out a fair election were not observed, that actions
conducting the election were unauthorized, illegal, and possibly politically motivated,

2. Provisions in the USGenWeb Project bylaws were not correctly interpreted or followed and
that these violations could cause changes with the results of this election, and if allowed to stand,
future elections.

3. The USGenWeb Project bylaws do not allow direct participation by the Advisory Board in
XXGenWeb elections.

4. The USGenWeb Project bylaws do not allow direct unilateral participation by any Advisory
Board member in XXGenWeb elections.

5. USGenWeb Project bylaws do not allow any Advisory Board member to personally count the
votes XXGenWeb elections.

6. The USGenWeb Project bylaws allow the creation of a "Elections Subcommittee" (EC)
however the bylaws do not designate the EC to conduct XXGenWeb elections.

7. The USGenWeb Project bylaws only require that State Coordinators be elected. The bylaws
are silent as to how the XXGenWeb election should be conducted.

8. Even though some people believe that the Advisory Board should micro-manage XXGenWeb
business, the bylaws do not indicate such.

9. NC Mr. Scott Burow and SWSC CC Rep Ms. Bettie Wood should recuse themselves from the
challenge proceeding because their impartiality might reasonably be questioned because of their
personal involvement in the NVGenWeb Project election.

10. The Advisory Board as a group (with the exception of Paul D. Buckley) should recuse
themselves from the challenge proceeding because their impartiality might reasonably be
questioned because Advisory Board member Bettie Wood has kept the Advisory Board
personally informed via Board-Exec of her personal involvement in
the NVGenWeb Project election."

Note that under Sturgis a challenge does not stop an election or keep elected officials from taking
office and even if the challenge were upheld it may not change the results. However, a ruling on
the challenge whichever way may set the stage for future local elections within USGenWeb. It is
a good opportunity for the Board to define the limits on its members' behavior with regards to
local business. Yeah, right.

-Teresa Lindquist
Editor & Publisher, Daily Board Show!
Beamish since 1998

Posted by merope at 5:55 AM 2 comments    

Saturday, November 04, 2006
Plain As The Nose On Your Face

Something wicked this way comes...its Your Daily Board Show!

RERUN SEASON: After a couple more posts about the "spotlight county" on the logo on the
informal list, Scooter posted November's agenda. Here it is:

Announcement of the posting of the minutes
Committee Reports Due: Newsletter Committee's 3rd Qtr Report
Unfinished business: Finalizing the proposed bylaw amendment; Pending Grievances;
Fraudulent Registration Procedures; Discussion of updated CC guidelines;
Discussion of Financial Procedures Committee; FGS Membership; Request from Teresa
Lindquist - RE: Motion 02-12
New Business: Election Committee; County Spotlight Logo
Announcements: Call for GC volunteers; Seating of SOP Committee
Adjournment

Apparently fixing and finally approving the September minutes doesn't even qualify as
unfinished business.

NOW THAT YOU MENTION IT: It's kinda funny actually. The focus of the discussion on the
Board's informal list yesterday involved the criteria that goes into selecting the spotlight county
of the month in the newsletter. As it turns out, the Newsletter Committee does the deciding and
from all appearances they are pretty free and easy with their choices. As we've seen in the recent
past atually being part of USGenWeb is apparently not important. As is now demonstrated by one
of the current selections, neither is following the most venerable and ancient of the CC
guidelines, that of displaying an approved USGenWeb logo. [Our thanks to a reader for bringing
this to our attention.]

-Teresa Lindquist
Editor & Publisher, Daily Board Show
Displaying the proper logo since 1998

Posted by merope at 6:40 AM 3 comments    

Friday, November 03, 2006
Hit Or Miss

Hardly worth the effort...its Your Daily Board Show!

GET JIGGY WITH IT: Having given the Board members slightly more than half a day to object
to adjourning a meeting in the middle of ongoing business, Scooter closed the October meeting
and immediately convened the November meeting.

Over on the informal list, the Board is currently discussing the shape of the November agenda.
Mike suggested adding seating the "GP committee" [he most likely means the Grievance
Committee] to the list, but Scooter told him they probably wouldn't get to this month. Greta
wanted some information on the items dealing with Financial Procedures Committee, the FGS
membership, and the CC guidelines revision and Scott gave her some bare-bones information.
[All three items are hold-overs from Linda Haas Davenport's tenure. The financial committee is a
legacy from the time David Samuelsen was holding the Board over a barrel over the remaining
FGS 2005 funds and is an extraordinarily bad idea. There is a small handful of people who will
see to it that USGW remains a member of FGS whether it wants to or not and the Board might as
well not waste time talking about it. And Linda already rewrote the CC guidelines without
actually changing anything; her revision disappeared without lament, although it is still online
someplace hidden in the depths of the USGW home page.] Jan asked to add an item about
creating a logo for people chosen as "county of the month" to display; Scooter said he'd add it in
as new business.

Also on the chatty list, they finally worked up a call for volunteers for the Grievance Committee
they all liked [well, the handful of them that bothered to discuss it] and it went out last night.

THE STATE OF THE STATE: We haven't read the State Coordinators mailing list for a week or
so and went over to check it today. We found a very bizarre series of messages there regarding
the NVGenWeb SC election. About a week ago, outgoing [gone actually] SC Pat Scott solicited
for members of an Election Committee, specifying members from out of state. Several people
volunteered, none of whom made it onto the final list [Ed Gordon, Gail Kilgore, Maggie Stewart,
and Bettie Wood made the cut]. Some of the messages are apparently directed at us personally
and involve a phantom offer on our part to help with the committee. [No idea; we corresponded
with her briefly and it appears she has mixed us up with Mari Byers somehow. Clearly, she's
retiring not a moment too soon.] About halfway through the conversation, the headers change
from the bland "Nevada SC election" to the somewhat less bland "Appalling Situation". It turns
out that Pat forwarded a quite nasty message from one of her CCs regarding Fred Smoot to the
list and then tried to claim she hadn't done so. Fred pointed this out, Pat got fairly inflamed about
it, and the discussion went downhill from there. Although Although Scooter tried to put the
kibosh on the discussion both Fred and Pat continued to discuss it for some time afterward.

And somewhere in there Joy "Archives Uber Alles" Fisher joined the very tiny state of Nevada as
a county coordinator.

JIBBER-JABBER: SEMA SC rep Paul Buckley has offered to set up a SEMA discussion list for
the region's members to help him represent them better. It's a noble idea, but we wonder why he
thinks a third list would get any more subscribers than the two SEMA discussion lists already in
existence.

DOUBLE YOUR PLEASURE: For some reason, we are getting every pearl of wisdom that
drops onto the Board's informal list twice. Anyone else having this problem? It's hard to check
the list archives, because they are still broken. [According to various Root$web hangers-on the
Conglomerate has known for some time that it's archiver is broken but fixing that sort of thing
isn't high on its priority list. So much for any sort of meaningful record of messages. It may
explain why some of our recent messages are missing from DISCUSS. Or maybe it doesn't.]

-Teresa Lindquist
Editor & Publisher, Daily Board Show
Got nuthin' since 1998

Posted by merope at 6:50 AM 2 comments    

Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Dawn Of The Dead

Something in the air...its Your Daily Board Show!

GRAB BAG: Desperately trying to wrap up business as the end of the month loomed, Scooter
tried to conclude each of the pending business items. He first tried to shush Paul, then tried to
work up a final version of the call for volunteers for the Grievance Committee, and then noted
that the September minutes had finally been sorta corrected. [They still are ignoring the
incoherent mess at the top, but whatever. They want to look like they are illiterate, that's their
business.] Then he tried to adjourn the meeting but even as a motion was being made and
seconded business was proceeding, which makes no sense at all. Generally, one doesn't adjourn a
meeting until business is done, but this is after all the Board.

So, while Scooter was frantically trying adjourn the meeting on time for a change, Larry Flesher
submitted some minor suggestions to amend Cyndi's version of the call for volunteers, Cyndi
volunteered to be the fourth Board member listed as a contact on the call, Mike pointed out yet
another error in the cursed minutes, Scooter agreed to have this fixed as well, and coming in
under the wire right before midnight, Scooter published what is apparently the final version of
the call for volunteers for the Grievance Committee.

GAS BAG: Over on the election front, we've heard finally who will be counting the votes in the
NVGenWeb election. It turns out that Board member Bettie Wood is indeed one of four vote
counters and thus is taking the definition of "overseeing elections" in all new directions. Fred
Smoot, who filed a grievance against Bettie claiming she has a conflict of interest, has prudently
decided to have the new Grievance Committee handle that grievance. [He'd have no hope of a
fair hearing with both Scooter and Bettie hipdeep in the election itself and with Bettie copying
the Sekrit Sandbox on all her election emails.] But we've also heard that Fred has decided to file
a direct challenge to the election, in addition to and apart from his grievance against Bettie.
Election challenges are not covered in the bylaws or other USGenWeb guidelines, so Fred will
file his challenge under guidelines provided in Sturgis. Under these guidelines, the Board must
address the challenge immediately and they must make the outcome of their deliberations public.
We don't think Fred has a chance here either [the Board will control the show the whole way],
but it should be interesting.

-Teresa Lindquist
Editor & Publisher, Daily Board Show
Rolling damage since 1998

Posted by merope at 6:20 AM 1 comments