Monday, October 30, 2006
Postage Required

Making gravy without the lumps...its Your Daily Board Show!

DEAR PRUDENCE: The Board continues to demonstrate the difficulty of writing a simple letter. After few Board members noted how they like Cyndi's simple format, Scooter said he "wouldn't have much difficulty with that," but went on to suggest adding more details to the letter, so that potential volunteers know that they are volunteering for the committee and not some other job and so that whoever receives the letter knows what position the applicant wants. [Somethings he wants simple, like motions regarding his control of the logo, others not so much.]

This prompted Paul to both support Cyndi's suggestion and to make a trenchant observation on how dismissive and/or belligerent people in NCGenWeb usually are with regards to Board announcements. He then asked, "Has the 'Grievance Committee' been approved by the USGenWeb Membership?...does it in fact violate the USGenWeb bylaws?...shouldn't the AB first consider the two grievances before it, rather than fretting over new procedures?" [No, no, and who knows?] Apparently having only the strength for one post a day, Scooter didn't respond.

-Teresa Lindquist
Editor & Publisher, Daily Board Show
Wordiness is next to godliness since 1998

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Sunday, October 29, 2006
Clean Sweep

Hardly worth getting out of bed for...it's Your Daily Board Show!

MOLASSES IN JANUARY: Scooter declared Paul's motion to return the September minutes to the Board Secretary dead for lack of a second. He then reposted a slightly revised version of the proposed wording for the Grievance Committee call for volunteers and asked if any further revisions were necessary. He asked the Board for its input on which of them should receive emails from volunteers, but no responded to that request. However, Cyndi made the perfectly reasonable suggestion of just referencing the guidelines themselves in the message; this suggestion has the effect not only of shortening the message itself but encouraging potential volunteers to actually go read the guideines. It has thus far gone unrecognized.

Speaking of the guidelies, we're still curious as to what constitutes a "national level position." The guidelines don't specify an office, so the term could be taken to mean anyone who has served on a national level committee such as the EC or Bylaws Revision Committee. It could also include the heads of the various Special Projects since those projects are all national in scope.

MEA CULPA: So, we've heard back from our little bird, who corrected a glaring error we made in our report yesterday. Cyndi Enfinger was duly elected as SC of PAGW two years ago and the election she is now running is the regularly scheduled one for her replacement [although it is apparently a month late]. She did not, as we speculated here, use her Board position to take control of the state [well, at least not recently]. Our confusion stemmed from a misreading of the blurb on the PAGW home page thanking Carol Hepburn for her work as Assistant State Coordinator [we missed that very important "Assistant" when we read it yesterday], and our recollection of Carol's recent retiring from USGW. Our apologies to Cyndi, Carol, and PAGW for the error.

It is correct, however, that Cyndi's fellow Board member Bettie Wood is participating in the election, as well as running the NVGW election, which continues apace. And according to our correspondent, apparently Cyndi has decided that she will step down from the SC position directly into the vacant ASC position, although we would imagine that whoever is elected SC will be free to replace her with someone else if they so desire.

BUTTER WOULDN'T MELT: We asked on a couple of lists yesterday whether or not Scooter is counting votes for the NVGenWeb election and, saints be praised!, we actually got a response to the question in a timely fashion. He claims he isn't and has only made the voting template he designed and which sits on his own site available for NVGW to use. He didn't offer any more information on his role in the election.

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

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Saturday, October 28, 2006
Devil's Playground

Coasting...its Your Daily Board Show!

IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE?: There has been no sign of Board activity for four days now; apparently the burning issues of the day aren't actually all that urgent. Scooter finally got around to asking for a second on Paul's motion to return the September minutes to the BS for revision. None was received so that motion is dead. The minutes are still posted in all their intelligible and disorganized glory, and we imagine they will stay that way. [Because, you know, spiting us is way more important than accurately representing the Project's business.] The call for volunteers for the Grievance Committee has apparently moved into the realm of "who gives a damn" and with three days until they need to go through the charade of adjourning and reconvening, October pretty much looks like a wash.

FOXES IN THE HENHOUSE: With the Board apparently on walkabout several Board members have found other projects with which to busy themselves. As we all know, Bettie Wood continues to run the NVGW SC election, although a grievance is pending that challenges the propriety of her involvement. A couple of days ago, seeing that all was on track and that the Board would not put a hold on the election, former SC Patricia Scott lit out for the territories, leaving the state leaderless for at least two weeks. Bettie has recently put up a webpage for the election on her own TXGW account with the schedule and other pertinent information, including the voting form for the election. And what do you know? The voting form is being hosted on NC Scott Burow's very own Marion county, MO page. So not only do we have a Board member running an election, we apparently have an NC counting the votes. No wonder Scooter was so disinterested in Fred Smoot's grievance and Bettie has steadfastly refused to name any of the five vote counters. [We were kinda wondering if Scooter was going to give up his little side business of running elections once he became NC; apparently he is not.]

In a quirky little aside, the voting page itself is attributed to Lincoln D. Stein of the Whitehead Biomedical Research Institute who wrote the open-source code for the cgi script. The link to the WBRI, however, goes directly to Root$web's home page and Dr. Stein isn't exactly credited with the script so much as just having his name tacked on at the end as if the page belongs to him. What's up with that?

Meanwhile, over in PAGenWeb there is another election for SC going on, and Bettie Wood is deep into that one too. A little bird tells us Bettie isn't directing this one but she's one of the five people chosen by fiat to run the election. The show itself is being run by Board member Cyndi Enfinger who apparently personally selected these five people to run the election and count the votes. This "PA Election Committee" was suddenly sprung on the PAGW membership without any request for volunteers and all of them are members of the Archives [who Cyndi represents on the Board]. Cyndie also took advantage of the temporary dearth of leadership in PAGW to annoint herself to one of the two Assistant SC positions; the state page, however, currently lists her as the State Coordinator. We are not sure how this came about, since according to both the bylaws and the state guidelines the ASC should have taken over the SC duties when needed and PAGW has a perfectly capable ASC in Nancy Janyszeski. It appears that Cyndi, who is normally but a lowly County Coordinator in PAGenWeb, took advantage of her Board position to declare herself ASC so that she could then take over the state and directly run the election.

It is heartwarming to see the various Board members take such deep interest in controlling and directing the outcomes of local elections. State Coordinators after all form the pool from which most future Board members will come and you can't be too careful about who you let into the party.

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

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Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Where Angels Fear To Tread

Like water on stone...its Your Daily Board Show!

MOVING RIGHT ALONG: After Motion 06-19 was withdrawn, Scooter asked the Board for consensus on tabling the Standard Procedures discussion until he can form a committee. Once 10 Board members indicated they wanted to table the issue indefinitely, Scooter decided to go forward with the next agenda item without benefit of a formal motion and vote to table the Standard Procedures business item. [Our NC apparently floats serenely above parliamentary procedure, which he finds to be silly.]

HERDING CATS: Before Scooter could post the next business item, Alice recommended revising the embarrasingly bad September minutes before they are cast into stone. The little bit of discussion on this was incoherent, with Scooter stating that "there should be a separator in between the minutes and the request." [No idea what he means. The two mussed up logo items are separated by another unrelated item. Adding a separator will just confuse them further.] And Paul's motion to recess for the Labor Day weekend is still jumbled in with Scooter's gag order. Paul moved that "that the September Minutes as submitted to be returned to the Secretary for a more concise summarization and resubmitted." Scooter has completely ignored this motion and it has not been seconded.

BABY MAKES THREE: At long last, Scooter has moved to shepherd his pet project to some sort of fruition. The next item on his agenda [which is not the next item on the published agenda] is issuing a call for volunteers for the Grievance Committee. He dug up his predecessor's suggested wording and moved the discussion over to the informal list to hash out the final version. Karen pointed out some wording in the call for volunteers that conflicts with the procedures and wondered who was eligible to sit on the committee itself. Scooter suggested some new wording and said he also didn't know who would be eligible to sit on the committee. Paul, who appears to be something of a stickler for details, then asked where in the bylaws a Grievance Committee is mentioned and noted, "The procedures I just read seem to override the bylaws...and supercede the authority of the AB." Scooter referred him to the voluminous archives of the two Board lists regarding the new grievance procedures and also gave him the short version of the events. Paul observed that he's not interested in the work of previous Boards; he just wants to know if the bylaws have been changed and noted, "...if they have not, why are we proceeding with implementation of some other procedures not approved by our project members?...what I've seen so far has not helped my concerns about the AB overstepping its authority." Scooter, sounding perhaps a tiny bit exasperated, told Paul, "The procedures for handling grievances were adopted by the board. Per the findings of the NC and the Parliamentarian...they are not in conflict with the bylaws...The Grievance Procedures are in place and effective as of August 22, 2006. Our discussion here is to define the wording in the call for volunteers to implement them." There's been no further public discussion on this item.

CRUISIN' FOR A BRUISIN': An odd item of business came over the formal Board list yesterday involving a grievance filed by Fred Smoot. Fred has filed a grievance with his representatives as currently required by the bylaws regarding the NVGenWeb SC election. Board member Bettie Wood apparently intends to run that show all by herself and Fred contends that she has a conflict of interest and that her deep involvement is in violation of the bylaws. What came over the Board list was Scooter's snarky reply to Fred's initial filing, which Fred cc'd to Board-L. In a private followup post to Fred and the rest of Fred's cc: list, Scooter offered to either hold the grievance until the Grievance Committee is seated or move it immediately to the Board [which is, of course, now out of the business of addressing grievances] for its consideration. He's also having his "inadvertent" post to Board-L removed from the archives.

[Incidentally, Fred named us as his representative in this grievance, which we imagine caused some panties to twist. This came as something of a surprise to us since we hadn't discussed the issue of representation with Fred prior to his message.]

Paul has now responded to the grievance as well and noted that Scooter's response to Fred "is not within the authority of the NC." He also observed that under the current bylaws Fred has a right to submit a grievance and "it is up to the board to publicly examine and decide it." So far Scooter has not responded publicly to Paul's concerns and we doubt he will since this is a matter for the Sekrit Sandbox and Paul bowed out of that little play date.

There is a certain timeliness factor involved with all this, since Bettie is forging ahead with NVGW's election and Scooter has not ordered her to stop until the grievance is addressed one way or another. By the time Fred's concerns are even nominally addressed they will be entirely moot, which of course is the goal.

We are curious as to other states' experience with Board-run elections. Most of the elections we are aware of were "overseen" by Board members but usually the nuts and bolts stuff [gathering nominees, handling votes] was passed off to either the EC, to Scooter's voting club, or to some other disinterested parties. Bettie appears to be intending to handle all of this herself, even going so far as to set the rules for the election, establish a web page, and call for nominations. If anyone has experience with this kind of extreme "oversight" in a state election by the Board or any of its members, please send us the details. Georgia and North Dakota don't count.

-Teresa Lindquist
Editor & Publisher, Daily Board Show
Watching the detectives since 1998

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Monday, October 23, 2006
Square One

Shake a tail feather...it's Your Daily Board Show!

BACK TO THE FUTURE: Scooter formally withdrew Motion 06-19 yesterday. He noted "It is my understanding...that it is the intent that the chair appoint a committee to review the current standing procedures...and to make recommendations as to alterations and additions so to make them both functional and consistant with By-law and proper Parliamentary Procedure and to return those recommendations to the board for review and/or implementation." He promised to appoint a committee as soon as he has an opportunity to discuss "the parameters and it's function" with the volunteers [what volunteers?] and he'll announce it when it's a done deal.

DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE: Scooter also announced that the September minutes were up and would be considered official if there are no objections. Wow, what a mess! We have to wonder if BS Donna actually wrote these or if she had substantial input from Scooter because usually she is more coherent than this. The section on the announcements from the NC jumbles at least three items of business and is so confused it is unintelligible. The section on the August minutes includes bits of the "logo usage" business item for some reason. The general style has changed dramatically [and not for the better], perhaps in an attempt to clarify the source of the cut-n-paste comments that the minutes are now almost entirely composed of. Whatever. These are the worst minutes we have seen in a long time. The point of minutes is to succintly summarize business that occurred at a meeting for the permanent record, not to obfuscate it to the point of confusion. Donna should rewrite these in her own legible style and ignore any more "helpful" input from our NC.

GONE AND FORGOTTEN: Over a month after Josh "Boy Wonder" Taylor resigned as Parliamentarian to pursue more meaningful endeavors, Scooter finally got around to thanking him for his year of service to the Board.

ICING THE CAKE: Word came to us from a little bird yesterday that Scooter has put Tina "Jackboot" Vickery in charge of State-Coord as well as the DISCUSS list. Apparently it took some doing to get any information on the identity of the list manager and there was no public announcement to the list itself so it must be some kind of big secret. We have already heard of a couple people having their subscription requests denied or ignored, so Tina may have already started her good work on behalf of our NC.

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

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Sunday, October 22, 2006
Do The Hustle

Big hair and a bad attitude...it's Your Daily Board Show!

DO NOT PASS GO: After one day of discussion, wherein various people enumerated several problems with accepting the Standing Procedures as they are, Phyllis asked for leave to withdraw Motion 06-19. She noted, "Because the motion was called for by the NC, I made it. The RAL has suggested that a committee formed to review and revise the current standing procedures...Because of the flaws in the current procedures, I believe that this committee should be appointed...but will not make that belief a motion." Karen agreed to withdraw her second and thus far no one has registered any objection to abandoning the motion. Scooter hasn't formally withdrawn the motion at this time but that should happen in short order. It looks like the Board may be considering establishing a Standing Procedures committee after all.

FINGERS IN THE PIE: We are told that SWSC CC rep Bettie Wood will be running an election in NVGenWeb to pick a new SC. Long time SC Patricia Scott has resigned and the state organization does not have guidelines for choosing a successor. It's not clear how this came about; Pat says she wrote to Bettie and asked for help, but Bettie says she wrote to Pat and volunteered her services. Anyways, the EC is currently incapable of running any elections due to numerous resignations in its own ranks and at this point it's looking like an actual Board member will be personally conducting a local election. This may or may not be what the original framers of the bylaws had in mind when they listed "overseeing elections" and "aiding the state projects" among the Board's several duties.

-Teresa Lindquist
Editor & Publisher, Daily Board Show
Nails on a blackboard since 1998

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Friday, October 20, 2006
Games Without Frontiers

Back from our adventure...it's Your Daily Board Show!

THE EMPORER HAS NO CLOTHES: While we were away, the following happened:

1) Motion 06-18 passed with 11 Yes votes and one No vote. The Board did not, however, move immediately to formally approve Scooter's decision to grant the Indiana Historical Society permission to use the logo. We assume this is because that particular decision was already made and is a done deal. Look for the USGenWeb logo at a bookstore near you.

2) The Election Committee presented its quarterly whitew...er, report. Aside from a typo, the Board seems inclined to accept it and a couple of them sang the EC's praises. We note with some amusement that the EC took care to note that it addressed all of three of the password errors they would admit to. For some reason the report does not mention the passwords sent in both the main election and the runoff election to someone who notified them both times that they were no longer a member and should no longer receive passwords. Go figure.

3) Scooter announced, in perhaps the most convoluted way possible, that Denise Wells will be staying on as Newsletter Editor.

4) Scooter asked for and received a motion to accept the current Standing Procedures along with the recently passed Motion 06-18. This motion was quickly seconded but instead of numbering it and opening it for discussion on Board-L, Scooter tried to move it to the informal list for discussion. Phyllis quickly called him on this with a point of order, so Scooter numbered it and opened it for discussion and away they went. Discussion thus far has touched on a couple of points. Mike suggested establishing a committee "to make the Standing Procedures and any temporary SOP's permenant," and recommended a committee composed of five Board members meeting on an open list and producing a finished product by April Fools' Day 2007. Greta thought this was a load of hooey and noted, "The AB's history...suggests to me that committees derail any significant action on behalf of the great majority of volunteers out there in the counties and archives." When Mike suggested that the Board might better serve its constituents by having clear, consistent procedures in place rather than relying on precedent or whim, Greta observed, "it's a lower priority at this particular moment in USGenWeb than moving on to substantive issues."

A couple of Board members have also questioned why Scooter wants to approve standing procedures that include obsolete mediation procedures. Eventually, Linda observed "My understanding is that we are still working under the old grievance/mediation procedures until the new procedures are put in place via a bylaws revision and setting up the committe." She also suggested replacing all the mediators, whose terms have long since expired, once the motion has passed.

GOOD MONEY AFTER BAD: Now, as we recall, our old NC declared the new grievance procedures effective as of August 22, 2006. So Linda's assertion that they are operating under the old procedures until they can get the new ones all spiffed up and the bylaws revised [hoo boy!] is mostly wrong. We can see wanting to perhaps run them in tandem until grievances submitted prior to August 22 are out of the system, but if that is the case they should add the new procedures to the Standing Procedures and include a sunset date for the old ones. It wouldn't be that hard to do.

Aside from the obsolete grievance procedures, the standing procedures as they currently stand are chock full o' problems. At the very top it says they are meant to be temporary only, but other than to add to them once in a while, the Board has not revisited them. Instead, they have taken to "accepting" them each term essentially unchanged. It would perhaps be more meaningful to remove the statement about the temporary nature of the procedures and replace it with a statement noting the Board may revise the procedures as needed.

The section on Meeting Schedules notes that the Board will convene on the "first working day of each month" but that is only rarely observed and "first working day" is undefined. NCs usually seem to just open the meeting whenever they get around to it. The "order of business" is likewise honored mostly in the breech, since new business is always addressed before unfinished business [which is why most "unfinished business" items languish for months at the bottom of the agenda]. Although the procedures allow for flexibility to address immediate needs, it might be better to just accept that the Board doesn't like addressing old business and move "new business" up the hierarchy.

We are fairly sure that the entire section entitled "Informal Discussion" is out of order, since it permits formal voting in an informal meeting. [Although "Executive Session" is definitely a formal meeting per Sturgis, the Board has decided that theirs will be done informally so they don't have to deal with pesky parliamentary rules. Unfortunately this precludes them from taking formal votes in the Sekrit Sandbox.] In any case, the part of this section that addresses voting should be moved to the section on voting.

Upon reflection, Mike's idea of a Standing Procedures Committee doesn't appear to be such a bad idea. They could work on polishing up the SPs while the Board addresses other business. We imagine this was his intention and it is unfortunate that Greta shot it down without thinking it through.

-Teresa Lindquist
Editor & Publisher, Daily Board Show
Waiting for the great leap forward since 1998

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Sunday, October 15, 2006
Don't Tell The Band

Going down with the ship...it's Your Daily Board Show!

WHILE THE CAT'S AWAY: A couple of days ago Scooter scooted off to the left coast for the weekend. Since they apparently don't have that newfangled internet thing out there, he left Silent Larry in charge for the weekend. After a decent interval, Larry called the vote on the now amended Motion 06-18 and at press time the vote stood at 5 Yes votes and 1 No vote. One of the Yes votes was forwarded to the Board on behalf of Phyllis Rippee, who apparently was too sick to mail the Board directly but not so sick that she couldn't mail Larry.

BTW, the last post in the Root$web archives is Scott's sayonara message from two days ago. It appears that Root$web's archiver is also noncommunicado.

TAKING CANDY FROM BABIES: We've talked to the fine folks at USGenNet about the unseemly behavior of Edward "Pride of USGenWeb" Hayden. USGenNet tells us that Edward Hayden was most definitely not using their services to fleece old ladies. Neither he nor the Little Society he may have spent years ripping off have ever had web space on USGenNet. As near as they can figure, the initial letter was sent to their Treasurer in error because of the similarity of the names of the two organizations. We are assured that the letter was promptly forwarded to Scooter [right before he lit out for the territories] and we imagine the Board is now hunkered down in the Sekrit Sandbox figuring out how to disappear this shameful episode.

We will bet a dollar that our clever Scooter will simply declare that what happened between Edward Hayden and Little Society was between them and doesn't involve USGenWeb at all. It's unlikely they will even look into it further. To sanction him in any way would imply that USGenWeb has some sort of control over his behavior and that might make us liable should any legal wrong-doing be found by the AG. If anything, Edward will get a private slap on the wrist and a not-too-sincere admonishment not to do it again, and the the whole thing will be forgotten as soon as possible. The NC may even write a polite "sorry, can't help you letter" to Little Society. You'll never hear about any of this publicly, of course, because it's a "personnel matter" and even though we won't protect the Little Societies of this world, we will sure as hell protect one of our own.

Our new NC is a very smart man. The usual suspects will be able to get away with all sorts of things while he washes his hands and looks the other way.

-Teresa Lindquist
Editor & Publisher, Daily Board Show
Looking to get on the gravy train since 1998

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Friday, October 13, 2006
Badger Badger Badger

Mushroom!...its Your Daily Board Show!

ONCE MORE WITH FEELING: The amendment to Motion 06-18 passed with 12 Yes votes and one No vote. The Board has now moved on to not discussing the main motion. Although a few project members have made a little noise about the whole laxness and generic nature of something that will be shortly be carved in stone, we suspect this motion will pass handily if only because the Board is tired of dealing with it.

JOB OPENINGS: The Election Committee is looking for volunteers to help it fix next year's elections. No, we jest. Seriously, if you want to do lots of hard work for no pay and be in on all the sekrit EC goings on, send an email to Ellen Pack and let her know you are interested.

SNOW JOB: We can fully understand why the Board members might be distracted from the public business at hand. They are apparently busy with a problem of a far greater magnitude. A wandering tattler dropped by yesterday and left us in possession of a letter written October 7 to "US Gen WEB" from a small local society in Louisiana that has apparently been sending Edward Hayden money for years for hosting their city site. A lot of money. According to the letter, their payments ranged from $150-500 from "time to time to cover the space we took up on the world wide web." The checks were made out to Edward personally and apparently both sides were happy for the arrangement, although from the tone of the letter the relationship was occasionally rocky. At one point the author of the letter noted, "we always lived in fear of him." They were, however, careful to note that Edward never coerced them and that sending the fees was entirely voluntary.

Eventually, when things went south for good, Little Society found out that Edward had registered all three of their domains in his own name through 2011 and retained control of all their passwords. According to the letter, he asked them to remove their site, promised to help them move it to a new server, and then obtained the name of their new server and used it to "mess everything up," including breaking the hyperlinks and deleting the site. One month prior to Edward deleting the account, they had sent him another $150.

Now that it's out from Edward's sheltering wing, Little Society has discovered to their apparent chagrin that they can purchase their own domains and arrange for their own host company and its all "much cheaper than the hundreds of dollars we were sending to Mr. Hayden every year."

Edward Hayden is a very long-term member of USGenWeb. He's pals with all the Right People. He's listed on the Project history page as basically one of the founders, and currently serves as the State Coordinator of LouisianaGenWeb as well as co-cc'ing Clark county in ARGW with Betsy Mills. He also maintains a separate Clark county page, complete with the official USGenWeb logo, that lists himself as the county coordinator. He also apparently runs a domain called Pastracks.com that hosts, or used to host, quite a few USGenWeb and non-USGW sites, and one called e-hayden.com which is listed as the name server for pastracks.com.

One interesting thing about this is that Edward Hayden may have been using USGenNet to host the society's site. [The letter was sent to the Treasurer of USGenNet, but references USGenWeb throughout.] USGenNet is very generous in hosting nonprofit sites; the actual DNS hosting would have been $25 a year and the webspace itself would have been free. So why did Little Society feel it needed to send Edward thousands of dollars over the years? Why did he even cash the checks if he was using a very low-cost site to host their webpages? Was a member-in-good-standing in USGenWeb in his capacity as SC of LAGW actually fleecing a bunch of old ladies for pocket change? Was he diverting funds that should have gone to USGenNet as donations for their free hosting service? If he wasn't using USGenNet, how was he managing to host such a small site at such high cost? Was he hosting it on his own sites at pastracks.com or e-hayden.com? Did he ever provide an accounting to Little Society of where their money was going? Was he taking some serious advantage of people who clearly are not Internet-savvy? At the very least, why didn't he just tell them this could all be done much cheaper on their own? Or is this all just a big misunderstanding?

For all of this grief, Little Society is still incredibly gracious and kind toward USGenWeb and actually thanks us for "having been a guest on the US GEN WEB." [Gotta love those Southern manners.] They do note, however, that the "Attorney General's Consumer Division is now looking into the matter." Which could prove to be very interesting.

BONUS QUOTE: "My question is how did this one man get so much power over a group of 585 senior citizens?" --The lady who runs Little Society and who personally paid Edward Hayden out of her own pocket

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

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Wednesday, October 11, 2006
You Must Remember This

Riding the tiger...it's Your Daily Board Show!

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: With only a small bump when Bettie wondered aloud why her constituents' questions had not been answered, the amendment to Motion 06-18a is well on its way to passage. At press time, 10 Board members had voted YES to amend the motion and one had voted NO. Now they just have to pass the main motion and then they can, as one volunteer noted, get on with other things. We expect after that the next order of business will be the approval of the request by the Indiana Historical Society to use the logo in its upcoming publication.

ALL IS CALM: Out in the rest of USGenWebLand everything appears peaceful. Except that the soon-to-retire SC of NVGenWeb apparently thinks she can hand the reins over to her successor without benefit of an election.

-Teresa Lindquist
Editor & Publisher, Daily Board Show
By and for USGenWeb members since 1998

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Monday, October 09, 2006
Brought To You By The USGenWeb Project

Where the chips fall...it's Your Daily Board Show!

WHERE'S THE BEEF: A couple days have passed since any Board member has discussed Motion 06-18. After being asked a second time, Scooter answered a handful of constituent questions in a somewhat desultory fashion. He'd been avoiding addressing them in the hopes that someone else would step up to the plate. According to our NC, "this is a very narrowly focused motion to handle a specific issue. It is not designed to prevent or deal with inappropriate use of the logo that has occurred. It is designed to handle requests to use the logo that are made prior to any use."

Scooter apparently doesn't want to interfere with any of the commerce now going on under the USGenWeb Name, and wants to make sure the door is open to future financial opportunities for members and others. [Such as the recent suggestion to sell t-shirts and tote bags with the logo on them, which has already been discussed on DISCUSS.]

Also according to Scooter, "...when such a request is made...the NC would have the responsibility to examine the request and make a determination of whether it would be appropriate to use the logo in the manner requested...Based upon that examination, the NC renders a decision on whether to allow or deny the request and advises the entire AB of that decision...If there is not a unanimous decision for or against, then any AB member could bring the matter to a formal vote by the board on that specific usage. It would not be a case of a single individual making the decision, as any board member can prevent the decision made from happening with an objection to the decision."

This part we actually agree with. If it works as intended, which in USGenWeb always seems to depend more on the flip of a coin than on anything else.

TROUBLE IN PARADISE: Over on the helpful help list, some trouble has reared its unhelpful head. First off, there have been a lot of messages and a couple of people have objected to the unarchived nature of the list and the lack of a message-board-like format. When they complained about it, Ellen helpfully told them to cease discussion of the topic. Second, someone asked whether or not it would be OK for them to post a link to something for sale on their USGenWeb page. When Fred Smoot observed helpfully and accurately that the bylaws on the topic are open to a great deal of interpretation and suggested the CC get formal permission from their SC, Ellen helpfully threatened him with permanent ban from the list. Thus does the personal become the political. Or is it the other way around?

-Teresa Lindquist
Editor & Publisher, Daily Board Show
Making news out of nothing since 1998

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Saturday, October 07, 2006
Dollars To Donuts

Tastes great, less filling...it's Your Daily Board Show!

MOTION SICKNESS: Most of the Board proceeded to not discuss Motion 06-18a, which will dramatically simplify Motion 06-18. Bettie Wood forwarded a couple of questions from her constitunts, which were ignored. A few members continued to discuss with Paul the issue of whether the motion was appropriate under the bylaws and Sturgis but Paul eventually gave up and said that he too had no further discussion.

This version of the motion reeks of fatigue. Although they've only been discussing the logo use issue for a week and half it seems like much longer, particularly since none of them anticipated what a big can of worms granting Scooter "Father Knows Best" Burrow carte blanche with the logo would open. The more they tried to address the legitimate concerns of the membership about commercial use and promotion of the Project, the more bloated and complicated the motion became, and the less happy Scooter was with it.

They've now returned to the "short bus" version of the motion, which does not limit the use of the logo to non- or not-for-profits, does not limit the logo use to printed materials, does not require public notification when use of the logo is granted, and gives the decision of logo use entirely to the National Coordinator. But, you say, the Board may object to the NC's decision! Well, that may be true on paper, so to speak. But Scooter thus far has overruled every objection put before him and any NC will have the power to do the same. "Your point is not well-taken" are very powerful words. Our current NC doesn't keep one of those pesky parliamentarians around to advise the Board, so he's pretty free to keep on interpreting things however he pleases. He has squirrely interpretations of the bylaws and Sturgis, and we've already seen that he supports allowing members to use the USGenWeb name in blatantly commercial activities. There isn't any reason to think he won't continue to be generous in this regard, particularly when doing so will benefit his new found friends and allies.

-Teresa Lindquist
Editor & Publisher, Daily Board Show
A publication of the USGenWeb Project since 1998

Posted by merope at 7:35 AM 0 comments    

Friday, October 06, 2006
Mumbo Jumbo

Dizzy from all the spinning...it's Your Daily Board Show!

MOVING ON: Five days into October, Scooter finally got around to adjourning the September meeting and posting an agenda for the new session. Of course, he had to repost the agenda to include the Voter Fraud Committee's report, which he usually forgets all about. The corrected agenda is below. Paul wondered if perhaps they might make an effort to "set the agenda at the beginning of each month in an order of proceeding, and follow it." He's apparently still struggling with all the items the Board did not find the time to get around to last month.

BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD: The saga of Motion 06-18 continued yesterday with an abrupt change in direction, or more correctly a turn back in the direction of Scooter's original proposal. Greta, who it appears will be a prolific spawner of motions, moved to amend Motion 06-18 [and this will be third amendment on the floor] as follows:

"I move the following be added to the USGenWeb Standing Procedures: PERMISSION TO USE A USGenWeb LOGO: In the event a request for permission to use one of the USGenWeb Logos in a publication is received, the NC shall notify the AB of his/her intent to accept or reject the request. Unless an objection is registered the NC's decision will stand."

Readers will note that the restriction to non-profits has disappeared [this takes care of the Ancestry.con and Lulu.com stuff], as has any requirement for public notice [so we won't know to object when Scooter gives others permission use the logo for personal gain]. And of course, people who don't ever ask for permission but just go ahead and use the logo aren't affected by this at all. Perhaps we should just start referring to it as The U$GenWeb Project.

Karen seconded the motion and Scooter opened the discussion on Motion 06-18a. Paul raised an immediate objection, noting "the motion is presently out of order in that the USGenWeb bylaws do not provide for standing procedures and previous AB standing procedures have not been ratified by the current AB." Linda explained to him that parliamentary procedure allows organizations to establish standard procedures that do not need to be revised each time new members are seated.

SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW: Here's the October agenda:

-Announcement of the posting of the minutes (approval etc)
-Committee Reports Due: Election Committee's 3rd Qtr report, Newsletter Committee's 3rd Qtr Report
-Announcement regarding Newsletter Editor.
-Call for motion to accept the currently posted Standing Procedures.
-Unfinished business: Logo Usage - Pending motion 06-18; Finalizing the proposed bylaw amendment; Call for volunteers and selection of initial GC members; Pending Grievances; Discussion of updated CC guidelines; Discussion of Financial Procedures Committee; FGS Membership; Request from Teresa Lindquist - RE: Motion 02-12
-New Business
-Announcements if there are any
-Adjournment

The astute reader will note that the unfinished business section rarely changes much, other than to get bigger.

-Teresa Lindquist
Editor & Publisher, Daily Board Show
Huffing and puffing since 1998

Posted by merope at 7:10 AM 0 comments    

Wednesday, October 04, 2006
The Bitch Is Back

The end of an era...it's Your Daily Board Show!

STILL AT IT: The Board struggles still with Motion 06-18. Scooter once again explained to Paul the whys and wherefores of the topic, which Paul seemed to appreciate. Most other comments were just thanking Greta for still plugging away at it.

DO NOT PASS GO: George Waller announced today, with apparent sadness, that he is stepping down as DISCUSS list manager and handing the reins over to Tina "Sh*ts And Giggles" Vickery. We are very sorry to see him go. We've been accused many, many time of being overly partial to George because he lets us say whatever we want on his list, but that is incorrect. We are overly partial to George because he lets everyone say what they want. Despite his deep-seated and obvious personal dislike for many of us, he has managed a degree of tolerance and fairness that the rest of the usual suspects would do well to emulate. But fat chance of that. They just see him as weak.

So, that's pretty sad. Now here's the funny part. We are told by a Board member who takes vigorous exception to putting Tina back in charge of the list that our little crack about Scooter's manhood the other day finally pushed him over the edge and he's decided he's had enough of putting up with the rabble. [Bet he drives a Hummer too.] First on the to-do list was taking care of the problem with the DISCUSS list where he gets asked all those impertinent questions. Poor George, who has neither the heart nor the desire to be the kind of jerk Scooter was looking for, bowed out. Tina Vickery, on the other hand, has a serious fetish on for the jackboot and the iron fist, and she will be more than happy to deliver a list where Scooter can posture and grandstand without fear of rebuttal. As an added bonus, of course, appointing her was sure to twist our knickers. So, there you have it. Good soldier George fell on his sword to pave the way for the return of the Discuss Dominatrix. Our source told us that Tina has been given leave to manage the list however she chooses; Scooter will not intervene. [And yes, we have seen his self-serving crap on the list. We don't believe any of it. We've seen what his word is worth.]

But, we can always find a silver lining around every cloud. With Tina controlling the list, Ellen, Betsy, Shari and the rest of the usual suspects will no doubt be back in force. And they are usually very good copy.

HELPING HAND: We are pleased to report that we have been subscribed, apparently with full posting privileges, to Ellen's little help list. And all it took was three tries and a snarky article in the DBS. It's quite the helpful list too, if a little obsessed with scanners. As you might expect, the usual suspects are all there in force [Ellen, Joy, Nola, Dick, Tina, et al.], with few others in evidence. But you don't have to post to learn and so far we learned three useful things today. And we are all told that just as soon as Root$web gets around to it the list will be archived. So y'all should hie yourselves on over and join up. Particularly if you want to know anything at all about scanners.

ART IN A DARK HOUSE: Several of you have asked about the new graphic heading up the page and some of you have recognized it. That, readers, is the "USGenWeb in Mourning" logo. It dates to the time when Tim Stowell drove one of many nails in USGenWeb's coffin by ejecting the Census Project. Back then people linked to it instead of the real USGenWeb logo in protest and we still run across it now and again tucked away on USGenWeb pages [sometimes in surprising locations], usually fronting a link to the DBS. A reader reminded us of it yesterday and we thought we'd put it rotation with the Jolly Roger, since another little bit of USGenWeb died this week. We'll toss the official logo in now and again to keep ole Scooter on his toes.

We also think we'd like to have more logos to put there on a sorta-regular cycle. So if any of you out there with mad graphix skilz would like to try your hand at making parody logos using any of USGenWeb's official or alternate logos feel free to send them in. If they look good in that little space in the masthead and aren't offensive we'll use them. We'd especially like one with big fat dollar sign smack in the middle of the logo. Just, you know, to commemorate Scooter's complete and total acquiescence to the commercial use of the USGenWeb name.

-Teresa Lindquist
Editor & Publisher, Daily Board Show
On the razor's edge since 1998

Posted by merope at 10:50 PM 0 comments    

Kiss And Make Up

The calm after the storm...it's USGenWeb's Daily Board Show!

WORDSMITHING: The Board continues to try and craft a version of Motion 06-18 that will make some sense and do what they mean it to do. The latest version of the proposed motion includes a clause that any use of the logo will be "to promote the project in a favorable manner," and a provision to include the outcome of decisions in the monthly Board minutes. [This is because they will be discussing any proposed use of the logo in the Sekrit Sandbox and they don't want anyone objecting until it is too late.] The more they tweak it the longer it gets, and of course, Paul still has reservations about the motion. He wonders why it is needed at all and whether the current version addressess the myriad concerns expressed by constituents.

The September meeting still has not been adjourned nor has the October meeting been called to order.

DO THE RIGHT THING: Joy Fisher popped into the DISCUSS list yesterday to share her viewpoint on the royalties situation. Her take on this is a bit different than that of Josh Taylor [who clearly knows what he's talking about] and Linda Haas Davenport [who first tried to deny she would be receiving royalties but then allowed as to how she thinks it's perfectly OK to profit off the USGenWeb name]. Joy's tale is more one of confusion and false starts. She notes, "When FGS first brought up the possibility of recording the talks, they mentioned a selling price of $1.49...I did not want the royalties and considered turning them down. Then there were folks asking on discuss if we would post our presentations...So I signed on with the intention of sending the royalty checks back to FGS as a donation. Just before leaving for Boston, I received an e-mail informing me that the recording company had pulled out because they did not think they would recover the recording costs. When I got to Boston, I was informed that an anonymous donor had agreed to front the recording costs and...there was an agreement form to sign. On that form, there was no mention of royalties, cost or any other financial details. I assumed that there would be no payment to the speakers...Today, I went to check. Reading lulu’s policy they state their charge is 25% of the “royalty”. Since I signed no agreement with lulu...I am not sure who is getting the $1.59 'royalty'."

She then proceeded to pledge her royalties, should she receive any, to nonprofit local genealogical and historicial societies, a very nice gesture and one that should serve as a model to the other members of USGenWeb who may receive payment from selling materials associated with their volunteer work for USGenWeb. Linda seems to need her pennies though so we expect we won't see a similar announcement from her.

SINS OF OMISSION: Still no comment from NC Scooter on his position on all this.

PRIVATE IDAHO: Scooter announced yesterday a new list [well, it's not new, its a resurrected list from the old days] to "provide a friendly and helpful means of communication across state and project lines for USGenWeb members seeking and willing to give assistance in all technical aspects of building and improving USGenWeb pages,
including the creation and use of graphics, as well as assistance in attracting and displaying submissions, meeting researcher needs, utilizing our special projects, and so forth, in pursuance of the Project goals." The list will not permit "Political discussion and announcements, off-topic notes, and/or flaming and rude, sarcastic or offensive language."

Funny thing about it though. The list manager is Ellen Pack, head of the Election Committee and one of the most political people in the Project and one of the quickest to turn nasty when she gets her dander up. And it appears that she's already turning her "helpful, friendly" list into a political football. We tried to subscribe to the list yesterday but as of press time have received neither a bounce-back nor a welcome message nor any list messages. The list turns out to be unarchived, which is extremely odd for a "help list" that claims to be nonpolitical, friendly, and helpful. What would they have to hide? Why would they even want to hide the friendly helpful advice about FTP, websites, etc.? Seems more than a little bit counterproductive to us.

As someone commented to us last night, it looks like Scooter has paid back the person who elected him by giving her and the usual suspects their own private playground. He probably should have noted when he made the announcement that the "help" list is not for anyone and only select members of USGenWeb may join.

-Teresa Lindquist
Editor & Publisher, Daily Board Show
Observing how nothing ever changes since 1998

Posted by merope at 5:50 AM 1 comments    

Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Mum's The Word!

Dancing with the devil...it's USGenWeb's Daily Board Show!

OFF ON A TANGENT: Despite all the righteous indignation on the DISCUSS list in recent days, the Board did manage a brief return to business last night. On the informal list, Greta suggested this new version of Motion 06-18:

"I move the National Coordinator have, upon request, the authority to approve or deny use of The USGenWeb Project logo(s) in published written materials of non-profit historical and/or genealogical societies. Approval or denial may only be made after informal conference with the Advisory Board and with the support of the majority of AB members. All decisions regarding the use of the USGenWeb Project logo must be reported to the Advisory Board. This authority will be included as an article in The USGenWeb Project Standing Procedures."

Now, we kinda like this version, although all its parts are confused and contradictory. Giving the NC authority to approve or deny logo use only when the Board approves isn't really giving the NC any authority, and there's no real reason to report decisions about logo use to the Board when the Board will be making the decision. But it does take the decision out of the hands of someone who is pretty clearly inconsistent and biased when it comes to these sorts of things. Other than Scooter patting her on the head for speaking up, Greta's suggestion was ignored. In short order, the Board turned to the far more pleasant and less challenging topic of communication with constituents.

In other Board business, the original amendment to Motion 06-18 still languishes, the September meeting has not been adjourned, and the October meeting still waits in the wings with no agenda.

PENNIES FROM HEAVEN: After a few misstarts and some prompting by someone with some actual class, Linda Haas Davenport finally admitted that she, Joy, Betsy, and the rest of the speakers are indeed profiting, along with commercial business Lulu.com, off of the USGenWeb name. They are all receiving royalties from their speeches given as part of the USGenWeb track at the recent conference. Linda apparently finds the situation unpleasant as she expended some time griping both about how much the FGS conference cost her and how little she will receive from her royalties.

TAKING OUR TOY AND GOING HOME: As we suspected, Scooter has now officially, and oh so snarkily, declined to answer our very simple question about whether or not he approves of the use of the USGenWeb in blatantly commercial activity. Who can blame him really? If he says he doesn't approve, everyone will wonder why he doesn't do something about it. [We understand most men don't like allusions of impotence.] If he says he does approve, he gets to go down on record as the first National Coordinator to approve of the use of the USGenWeb name for commercial activity. So rather than answer a very simple and very legitimate question from a constituent, he chose to sidestep it with a whole lot of bilious ranting that basically sought to blame the messenger. [Hey, we can't help it if his reign is already plagued with scandal.] Refusing to play our game, he danced off to play a game of his own choosing, one that involves a grown man hiding behind the logo and his own well-polished aura of outrage and rectitude. This is not really a game you can win by not playing, but we'll be glad to send him a consolation prize. Perhaps the first hot-off-the-press issue of the newest Lulu.com publication "The USGenWeb Daily Board Show, Volume 1: 1998." A little bird tells us he'll certainly be able to state an opinion on that.

BONUS QUOTE: "Nothing is going to any speaker at the convention - USGenWeb or otherwise." --Linda Haas Davenport

DOUBLE BONUS QUOTE: "Each of us speakers (USGenWeb or not) signed an agreement saying we understood and agreed we would receive no compensation for the use and sale of the recordings made of our sessions." --Linda Haas Davenport

SUPER BONUS QUOTE: "I stand corrected. I didn't remember that clause in the agreement I signed, but since each speaker's presentation was an original work it does make sense that each of us would receive a royalty for the sale of a recording." --Linda Haas Davenport

-Teresa Lindquist
Editor & Publisher, Daily Board Show
Wondering what the DBS would look like in print and sold for $1.99 since 1998

Posted by merope at 6:15 PM 1 comments    

Monday, October 02, 2006
Fire In The Hole

Breaking rocks in the hot sun...it's Your Daily Board Show!

TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS: Oh, who are we kidding? The Board did no business today. The show on the DISCUSS list was far too diverting.

GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH: We are not kidding. Grab the kids, make the popcorn, crack open a cold one, and settle in. This is like our wildest entertainment dream come true. In the past few days, we have seen our NC dance the most amazing dance. First he tried [unsuccesfully] to get the Board to grant him carte blanche in determining who gets to use the logo. When that failed because the Board was prompted by constituent concerns to modify this approach slightly to include some miminal oversight role for themselves, Scooter suddenly claimed all along that his intent was just involving "written and published" materials. He also managed to observe that "There is nothing to prevent a member from using the logo in a written format as long as it is not for individual profit." When a small demonstration of what exactly that means was graciously provided, Scooter transmogrified into some kind of righteous avenging angel [we bet he's cute when he's pissed, rowwr!], told us to take the logo down or we'd have to go to our room without any supper, and is now busy not answering questions of the "what did he know and when did he know it" variety regarding the revelations earlier today that USGenWeb members and/or the FGS are selling, for cash money, all the presentations recently made as part of the USGenWeb at FGS 2006 track. [Go to Lulu.com and toss in search phrases like "usgenweb", "linda haas davenport", "betsy mills", and "joy fisher", and enjoy the opportunity of watching the USGenWeb name used to peddle crap for $1.99]

Now, our beloved NC wants us all to focus on the logo issue because the documents that are for sale don't display the logo. But several of them do use the USGenWeb name, which is the registered service mark [we've never registered the logo], and apparently that is OK. In fact, when we brought the matter of these materials, many of which blatantly say "USGenWeb" right in the title, to his attention he said [and we quote most happily], "The topic is logo use. My replies go to logo use." We must assume from this [although we will hazard a guess that his stance on this will change tomorrow] that it is OK to profit off of the USGenWeb name, it's just not OK to use the logo unless he says you can. You can bet if our name were on one of those publications for sale on Lulu.com his reaction would be of an entirely different nature, logo or no logo.

And the best thing of all? No, it's not George "Wants A Better Nickname" Waller telling us he is going to shun us for the entire month of October, although that was pretty funny. It's not the gaggle of dimwits cheering on Scooter's frantic flailing about and comparing the posting of a silly pirate flag to the recent depressing antics of the duly elected leader of a South American country from which we need to buy oil [could have been worse, could have been OMG TERR0R1STS!!!11!!]. It's not watching how ugly people can get while they propose denying other people their right to an opinion they consider ugly, or how utterly unaware of how ugly they are, or even how a thin-skinned list manager doesn't see any need to put a stop to it. It's not even the wholly unexpected, but oh man someone's god must love us discovery that every single USGenWeb member that presented at the recent FGS conference is selling their speeches via something called Lulu.com [or even that just five minutes worth of quick and dirty on Google finds a dozen other sites displaying the Sacred Logo without permission and without benefit of actually being part of the Project]. Come to think of it, we can't actually decide what the best part of this is, unless it's watching Scooter demonstrate just how quickly the USGenWeb's latest shining hope can turn into the same warmed-over gruel we've been served for years. One month is all it took. It must be something "funny" in the tea they serve over in the Sekrit Sandbox.

ON A MORE POSITIVE NOTE: We can at least bring cheer to one member of our USGenWeb family tonight. We've had recent cause to update the "site last updated" info on many of our Project webpages. We know how much distress the older dates have caused former NC Linda "http://www.lulu.com/content/407169" Haas Davenport over the years. We've fixed it now.

BONUS QUOTE: "It doesn't matter who you vote for, the government wins." --Some bumpersticker we saw recently

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

Posted by merope at 10:25 PM 0 comments    

We Fought The Law And The Law Won

You've been punk'd!...it's Your Daily Board Show!

ON SECOND THOUGHT: Scooter's minions continued to discuss Motion 06-18, although in short order their attention was diverted by our Dear Leader's righteous shenanigans over on the DISCUSS list. [We can just imagine what the Sekrit Sandbox was like yesterday afternoon.] Scooter and Mike continued to work on getting Paul on board with the Program, but to no apparent avail. Suzanne observed that Paul had made a good point and suggested that the Board "designate 'authorized' use only to non-profit genealogy publications instead of the ambiguous, 'non-profit organizations'". This perfectly legitimate suggestion was ignored, as was Larry's from the other day.

After taking a brief break from his busy schedule to publicly attack a Project volunteer over use of the official logo, after he said publicly members could use the logo so long as they do not profit from it, Scooter entertained motions to adjourn the "October" meeting. As of press time, the motion has been made and seconded but no further action has been taken on it.

DRAMA QUEEN: The astute reader will notice that the USGenWeb logo no longer graces the masthead. That's because NC Scooter "Jam Yesterday, Jam Tomorrow, Never Jam Today" Burow, who you might think would have better things to do, decided to get medieval on us over it. After some more of his paternalistic twit-speak, and some chiming in from faithful servants George "Lockstep" Waller and BS Donna "Goosestep" Allen, Scooter issued an ultimatum: Take the logo down or, or, or...else. [We think he might have stuck out his tongue, but can't be sure. Also, we note he has taken to pretending he doesn't read the DBS.] We trembled with fear, really we did. Anyways, for your amusement, from Scooter's "cease and desist" order:

"The DBS is not a sanctioned page of the USGenWeb Project. You...may use the logo on your County page, but not under any circumstances on the DBS. I don't think, under any stretch of the imagination, that anyone will call what you do there "promotion of the Project". Since it is not a sanctioned page, you may not use the logo without permission. Using the logo is also against the TOS of blogspot, where you agreed upon signing up for your account that you will not...upload, post or otherwise transmit any Content that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights of any party. I have been advised that I must tell you specifically that you are infringing upon that trademark by using the USGenWeb logo on the DBS page. You are officially notified...the USGenWeb logo must be removed from the DBP blog by 12:00 noon CST on October 2, 2006. You've made your point, I don't think you need to take it any further."

That will teach us to take the man at his word. Anyways, Scooter is correct. We did make our point, or more accurately, he made it for us. So now we are making a new point.

We are curious, however, why the NC, who cannot apparently tell people who can use the logo [that's the point of ill-fated Motion 06-18], is nevertheless able to tell them who can't. We doubt that answering this question will be high on Scooter's priority list in the second month of his tenure.

BONUS QUOTE: "Members, by virtue of their membership, have always been able, and are required, to use the logo on their websites. There is nothing to prevent a member from using the logo in a written format as long as it is not for individual profit." --Scott Burow, 30 September 2006

SUPER BONUS QUOTE: "Since I have been advised that you have deemed it appropriate to insert the USGenWeb logo on the DBS, I'm informing you now that it is highly inappropriate to do so and you should take it down immediately." -Scott Burow, 1 October 2006

DOUBLE SUPER BONUS QUOTE: "‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less. The question is which is to be master—that’s all.’" --Lewis Carroll, Alice In Wonderland

-Teresa Lindquist
Editor & Publisher, Daily Board Show
Proudly a part of USGenWeb since 1998

Posted by merope at 6:20 AM 1 comments    

Sunday, October 01, 2006
Give The Devil His Due

Newly redecorated...it's Your Daily Board Show!

CORN MAZE: The Board and Paul continued to dance around the proposed amendment to Motion 06-18. Paul, apparently completely frustrated with the discussion, decided to withdraw both his objection and his point of order, but this was misunderstood by a handful of Board members who continued to press him for an explanation of his objection. Paul tried to clarify that his objection was to the attempt to amend the motion via "general consent," but appeared confused as to where the group is in the proceedings. Scott tried to clarify this for him but this only drove Paul to note that "The issues raised by Motion 06-18 are complex and will not be resolved by our bantering about parliamentary procedures," and to again withdraw both his objection and his point of order. This confused some Board members even further and they continued to press him for details on his point of order. After he reiterated that it was withdrawn, Scott restated the motion and most of the Board then commenced to not discussing it. Paul, who apparently has some grave if inarticulate concerns about this motion, once again posted a meandering message that touched on US trademark law, the intent of former Boards in trademarking the Project name, the bylaws, and the nature of non-profit organzations.

Somewhere in all the smoke and confusion, Larry proposed some "minor wordsmithing" that requires the NC to seek Advisory Board input prior to approving the outside use of the logo and which Scooter has completely ignored. Also, Bettie published some of the concerns expressed by her constituents, which have thus far have also been ignored by everyone.

You know, they could have just done this quicker if they actually voted on the amendment.

WORD SALAD: In a related development, we are pleased to report that after a few other Project members asked to know who was asking to use the logo and for what purpose, Scooter finally decided to answer the question. Turns out it's the Indiana Historical Society, which plans to publish a collection of articles by professional genealogists and the like and which they will call "Finding Indiana Ancestors: A Guide to Historical Research." Scooter also graciously described the specific nature of the use of the logo: "One of the articles to be published is on internet research, and the project is discussed in the article. They have asked to use the logo as an illustration in this article when the work is published, and obviously, provide the URL to the project as well."

That is, as we have noted before, absolutely fabulous and this specific use at least should be approved. But as a sideline to this conversation, Scooter made some interesting statements. The first is this little gem:

"Members, by virtue of their membership, have always been able, and are required, to use the logo on their websites. There is nothing to prevent a member from using the logo in a written format as long as it is not for individual profit."

Those of us who've been with the Project for a very long time know that this isn't exactly true. Just a few months ago, the Absolutely Not Affiliated In Any Way With USGenWeb Committee To Raise Moola For USGenWeb took the logo off it's page because it wasn't sanctioned by USGenWeb. Projects like IAGenWeb have had to form separate entities to raise funds to support their activities. Individual members have been chastised for using their sites to ask for donations in support of Project business. There is absolutely no history in this Project of anyone being permitted to use the logo, USGenWeb name, or their Project-affiliates sites for any purpose involving the exchange of funds. But since Scooter says it's OK, we've added the logo to the DBS. This is most definitely "written material," so it looks like we are covered.

The second interesting thing Scooter let drop was this:

"There is no mention of other, non-USGenWeb internet sites using the logo. The motion has, and always was regarding any printed matter produced in the form of publications related to genealogy by non-profit organizations."

Interestingly enough the amended version of the motion, which they are mostly busy not discussing, doesn't restrict the use of the logo to "printed matter", it only specifies "written materials or publications." This encompasses a much broader range of potential uses and would easily include web pages, ezines, and the like which are written and published entirely electronically [including the DBS]. If they mean the motion to include works on paper they should say so specifically because, as we all know, whatever their intentions are now eventually someone will point out that the permission granted to the NC by this motion does not prevent him or her from authorizing the use of the logo on non-USGenWeb pages. And then all heck will break loose.

-Teresa Lindquist
Editor & Publisher, Daily Board Show
A USGenWeb publication since 1998

Posted by merope at 7:20 AM 0 comments