Apr 26-30 1999

From merope@Radix.Net Wed Apr 28 19:47:05 1999

Date: Wed, 28 Apr 1999 19:47:04 -0400 (EDT)

From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>

Reply-To: merope <merope@Radix.Net>

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Subject: Daily Board Show

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Squeezed fresh every day...its your Daily Board Show!

*warning* contains editorial content. Read at your own risk.

Monday 26 April 1999:

The NC welcomes the Board members back to work with the following message:

"I hope all of you had some time to relax and get lots of data on line in

the time we've been off. While in some ways it was a restful week, it was

also a week of tragedies. The Salt Lake incident, the shootings at

Columbine High School and the death of one of our SCs all happening within

the last ten days was a lot of input upon one's well being. Memorials to

each are now on our 'front door' and we are getting several nice comments

about our statements there."

A board members moves to appoint Pam Reid as the new webmaster for the

national web page. The motion is seconded. The NC gives it motion number

99-10 and indicates the "upcoming votes" paeg at the national website has

been changed to indicate that Motion 99-10 is open for discussion.

One Board member enthusiastically supports Pam's nomination: "Pam is an

accomplished graphic artist and web page designer. She has also

demonstrated, in her past positions, the self discipline necessary to

accomplish her work promptly and professionally, all qualities needed for

the job of presenting the best face on our project, our front door. I

would hope that we could all unanimously support Pam for our National

Project Webmaster."

But wait! There is is dissension in the ranks! Another Board member

posts that "I'd like to call a point of order. The motion numbered 99-10,

I believe to be out of order and illegal in that Kay Mason, may be being

ignored at the moment, but is the present member of the WebMaster team and

as such has something to say in the matter before any nomination can be

made. In other words, we have a webmaster who has been denied access to

the position and being usurped."

To which a colleague responds: "I fail to see how Kay is being denied

anything. She was assistant to the previous webmaster and would have

served in the event the webmaster was incapaciated. Because the webmaster

resigned, the board has every right to nominate whomever it chooses,

including Kay, and have them stand for election." This position is

supported by another Board member who state, "As the Assistant SC of

FLGenWeb, I am not preordained to take the helm if the FLGenWeb SC

resigns. An assistant is just that, an assistant. We can nominate the

Assistant, but there is nothing saying we can't nominate someone else."

Pam, putative candidate for the webmaster position, posts her

recollections of how the previous webmaster was selected: "When the Board

was first formed (and I am referring here to the first non elected Board),

it became apparent pretty quickly that we needed to find someone new to do

the USGenWeb national pages. There were problems with Sir James (and I am

sure Megan will back me up on that). So, a committee was appointed from

the Board members to design a new national site." Celia and Kay were both

on this committee and Celia became the webmaster. She stayed on as

webmaster after the elected Board was seated, following a vote by that

body to retain her. Kay was made assistant to perform the webmaster

functions in the event Celia was unable to. Pam points out, "I do not

recall any discussion at that time about the assistant taking over should

Celia resign." Pam also points out that she is not doing this to further

her own nomination, but as one who has "served on the Board since its

inception and have been a party to most of the decisions, votes,

processes, etc."

Kay, putative contender for the position of webmaster, responds that she

wasn't a member of the first webpage committee as it was formed before she

joined the Board. She directs Pam's attention to "the post that Bonnie

McVicker-Briggs made to Board-Exec on the 18th. for information on the

asst. webmaster job."

Yet another Board Member asks, "While I remember very distinctly of Kay

being appointed assistant webmaster to carry on in the event that Celia

was no longer able, I can't find it in the votes or in my files. Can

someone provide me with the action that made Kay the assistant webmaster?"

She thinks both would be excellent webmasters, but feels she needs to how

Kay came to be appointed as assistant.

Another Board members posts minutes from the IRC Board meeting held in

October in which Nancy Trice, former NC, appointed Kay to the committee

and noted "The bylaws call for a webpage committee. Kay will make the 2nd

person on the committee as the board rep to the committee and will step in

in case you are incapacitated or unavailable." As the Board member points

out, "there is no mention of an Assistant Webmaster."

A Board member moves that "the motion to appoint Pam as webmaster be

amended to include Kay Mason, and that an election be held."

In response to this, a Board member posts a request for clarification of

wording of the proposes amendment, "I presume you mean "include Kay as

assistant" or "include Kay as committee", but as written could mean "to

include Kay as webmaster" or even to include Kay as a part of Pam, which

likely won't set well with either person's family.<G>"

Tomorrow's News Today: The amendment for Motion 99-10 is seconded; more

talk about the webmaster position.

Update Corner: Although the Board was away over the weekend, there was

some traffic on Board-L. Here's a brief recap:

On Friday 23 April, two messages were posted expressing sorrow over the

recent demise of State Coordinator and former Board Member Don Spidell.

On Sunday 25 April, the NC posts a message of condolences, presumably to

Mr. Spidell's family, signed by all the Board members.

This has been your Daily Board Show.

-Teresa Linduist

merope@radix.net

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From merope@Radix.Net Thu Apr 29 20:12:10 1999

Date: Thu, 29 Apr 1999 20:12:09 -0400 (EDT)

From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>

Reply-To: merope <merope@Radix.Net>

To: usgw_all@listbot.com

Subject: Daily Board Show

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Pretty fly for a white guy...its Your Daily Board Show!

*warning* contains editorial content. This means you. Read at your own

risk!

Tuesday 27 April 1999:

The amendment to Motion 99-10 (to include Kay as webmaster) is seconded.

The amendment is reworded for clarity and now reads: "I move that motion

99-10: Be amended to say: In as much as both Kay Mason and Pam Reid have

expressed the desire to be the webmaster of the USGenWeb Project's

national pages, that an election be held to choose a webmaster."

The revised amended Motion 99-10 is seconded.

The NC posts a message pointing out that "when the Secretary position was

filled I found that a Motion was made to 'create' the position of

Secretary and that after that motion (99-x) passed that nominations were

accepted for the position." He wonders if the Board might want to do

things the same way for the webmaster position. He believes that "folks

would have to vote whether or not to include Kay in the Motion for

appointing Pam as Webmaster first, since it is an amendment before voting

on the main motion which in effect would make such voting a

mini-election." He asks the board their opinions on this.

Desperate Times Corner: Things must be getting tight over at Rootsweb.

Not only are they snuggling up to Genealogy.com [a front for The Learning

Company, owner of Family Treemaker] and selling their users for two bucks

a head to FamilyPoint [which harvests user information for advertisers],

now their loyal supporters are apparently spamming non-Rootsweb mailing

lists trying to drum up dollars. Following yesterday's publication of the

RW Review this message has showed up under different authorship on two

unrelated mailing lists to which this author subscribes [and one of them

is not genealogy related]: "Off topic for a minute: Anyone who uses/has

used/has gained info, etc from Rootsweb, please take a look at their

member page. I just got a notice that only 7% of users have contributed

anything. Somehow doesn't seem fair for a service so vital to the

genealogical community. Every little bit helps." [Can you imagine what

would happen if a user posted a message like this about a non-Rootsweb

company to a Rootsweb mailing list?]

Also according to the RW Review this week, RW is expanding into new

realms: "Another thing that RootsWeb is doing is launching new hobby

communities, the first of which will be for pet owners, then cooking and

home crafts, gardening and home improvement, and travel. We hope that

spreading the cost of developing software and operating servers across

several communities will enable us to provide many new facilities for

genealogists." Its been awhile since we've heard talk of these new

"communities", but back in July 1998, in a message to TEAM-ROOTSWEB, Brian

said, "It's no secret that RootsWeb will probably start up new

pets-oriented and home-arts-oriented Web and list sites within the next

few months." In another message on the same topic he states, "There's

probably no help for it, but in point of fact ... The other sites will

subsidize the genealogical community...If we do other communities, we

will be probably be structuring them such that they run in the black.

That will be good for the genealogical community." [Hope the cat lovers

and backyard gardeners know their user fees are going to subsidize

genealogy. On a personal note, I can hardly wait for Brian to start

banning users for not sufficiently supporting heirloom tomatoes or exotic

cat breeds.]

These must be desperate times indeed.

"All bad precedents began as justifiable measures."

---Gaius Julius Caesar

This has been your Daily Board Show.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

------

From merope@Radix.Net Fri Apr 30 18:33:53 1999

Date: Fri, 30 Apr 1999 18:33:52 -0400 (EDT)

From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>

To: usgw_all@listbot.com

Subject: Daily Board Show

Message-ID: <Pine.SV4.3.96.990430182745.7257A-100000@saltmine.radix.net>

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Goin' for broke...its Your Daily Board Show!

*warning* contains editorial content. Read at your own risk!

Wednesday 28 April 1999:

There is no Board-L traffic on this date.

Tomorrow's News Today: The NC throws open the floor for discussion of the

amended [second version] Motion 99-10 [for webmaster]

"... The dominant purpose of the First Amendment was to prohibit the

widespread practice of government suppression of embarrassing

information...."

--Justice William O. Douglas, New York Times v. Unites States

(Pentagon Papers)

This has been your Daily Board Show.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

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