Dec 1-7 1998
From merope@Radix.Net Tue Dec 1 08:31:35 1998
Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1998 08:31:33 -0500 (EST)
From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>
To: USGENWEB-ALL <usgenweb-all-l@rootsweb.com>
Subject: Daily Board Show
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Number one with a bullet!...its Your Daily Board Show!
*warning* contains editorial content. Read at your own risk!
Sunday 29 Nov 1998:
The following motion is presented (#98-9):
"Due a number of requests by County Coordinators, I move that we, as the
National Advisory Board, request and approve of RootsWeb placing a link
from the main RootsWeb web page to the USGenWeb Project main page."
The NC asks for a second and the motion is seconded. The NC has opened
the floor for discussion to continue through 3 pm EST 12/2/98 [that would
be Wednesday]; the discussion period is extendable. He also notes that
all the votes on this motion received thus far are out of order and will
be ignored [guess they aren't any better at figuring out parliamentary
procedure than they are at figuring out the bylaws.] Thus far 7 Board
members have voted aye.
The NC requests that one of the reps check out a report of a broken link
to a county page and an apparently unresponsive State Coordinator.
"A second flood, a simple famine, plagues of locusts everywhere,
Or a cataclysmic earthquake, I'd accept with some despair.
But no, you sent us Congress! Good God, sir, was that fair?"
---John Adams, "Piddle, Twiddle, and Resolve", from _1776_
This has been your Daily Board Show.
-Teresa Lindquist
merope@radix.net
From merope@Radix.Net Wed Dec 2 09:40:29 1998
Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1998 09:40:28 -0500 (EST)
From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>
Reply-To: merope <merope@Radix.Net>
To: USGENWEB-ALL <usgenweb-all-l@rootsweb.com>
Subject: Daily Board Show
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Red in tooth and claw...its Your Daily Board Show!
*warning* lots to bitch about today, lots of editorial content, you are
warned. Read at your own risk!
Monday 30 Nov 1998
Motion 98-3, Grievance/mediation committee has passed [illegally], per the
not-NC. The final vote was 12 ayes, 1 present. One Board member did not
vote. [this author is gratified to learn that the Board has learned at
least one lesson from the Ken Thomas affair: never, _ever_ let anyone see
what you are doing.]
The not-NC has received and posted to the Board a message from someone who
works for a company that produces software that newspapers use to compile
obituaries. This person is offering to include in the software a feature
that would allow the newspapers to easily email the obits to the USGW
Archives project. This offer is free of charge to USGW, and the
submitting newspapers would get the submitting byline for the data. The
rep for the archives project indicates she is interested in pursuing this
and one other Board member also supports it and recommends referring the
topic over to the archives project.
A Board member posts a long message stating his opinions on what the Board
can and cannot do and volunteers' expectations of what the Board can and
cannot do. Because of its length it will not be repeated here but it is
recommended reading [search BOARD-L under "Expectations"]; although posted
to Board-L it seems to be directed more to volunteers. [brief synopsis:
our expectations of the Board are unrealistic; they can't be held
responsible for anything except maintaining the national website, running
national elections, and giving advice. They specifically cannot handle
grievances or fix the bylaws. I have no idea _what_ gave this board
member the idea that _anyone_ expects anything of the board.]
In other news: The call for nominations for NC and SW/SC CC rep has gone
out. Since it was posted to this list, it won't be repeated here. the
nomination period runs from Dec 3, 1998 [tomorrow] through Dec 31, 1998
[that would be 12:00am Jan 1, for you literal-minded folks; apparently
shotguns will be fired to let us know when the polls have closed.] Vote
early and vote often!
This author has received a request, from a Board member, to accept a
nomination for NC, accompanied by an offer of two board members to act as
"behind the scenes campaign advisors". While I am sincerely flattered by
this request, I gently remind the board members that the board's fondness
for doing things "behind the scenes" is one of the biggest issues i have
with it. Such an offer is neither appropriate nor fair to other nominees.
[you may all rest easy; I have declined the offer to be nominated.]
"When the people is master of the vote it becomes master of the
government."
---Aristotle, quoted in The Constitution of Athens
This has been your Daily Board Show.
-Teresa Lindquist
merope@radix.net
From merope@Radix.Net Thu Dec 3 15:31:49 1998
Date: Thu, 3 Dec 1998 15:31:48 -0500 (EST)
From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>
To: USGENWEB-ALL <usgenweb-all-l@rootsweb.com>
Subject: Daily Board Show
Message-ID: <Pine.SV4.3.96.981203150725.27849C-100000@saltmine.radix.net>
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Always free, never easy...its Your Daily Board Show!
*warning* editorial content ahead; may induce nausea in some. Read at
your own risk!
Tuesday 1 December 1998
The Election Committee chair posts the nomination committee announcement
to the list with the notice it would go to the SC list and the -All list
"later this evening"
A board member questions the election committee chair as to why the long
nominating period. A two week period had previously been discussed.
On the topic discussed yesterday about the obituary submissions to the
archives, the not-NC suggests a motion to the effect that the Archives
Project should pursue the matter and report to the Board on it progress on
a weekly basis with an assessment by 1/1/98 [I'm sure he means 1/1/99;
otherwise, they're waaaaaay behind on this <g>]. He also indicates that
all correspondence should by kept by by the Archvies Project for future
reference.
The MIA Board member is back among us. She has posted a message
indicating she has been resubbed to Board-L. [a curious note...why is a
Board member doing the resubbing? According to the bylaws the NC, or the
not-NC in this case, should be the list manager for BOARD-L]
Curiosity Corner: What IS going on with the various election committees?
How many are there and who is on them? How where they formed and by whom?
Why were volunteers not solicited from the volunteer community at large?
Is the Board being properly apprised of the Election Committee's
arrangements, as required by the motion passed Oct 4 1998? Enquiring minds
want to know!
"He'd be the sort to stand on a hilltop in a thunderstorm in wet copper
armor and shouting 'all gods are bastards'."
--Terry Pratchett
This has been your Daily Board Show.
-Teresa Lindquist
merope@radix.net
From merope@Radix.Net Fri Dec 4 09:04:42 1998
Date: Fri, 4 Dec 1998 09:04:41 -0500 (EST)
From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>
Reply-To: merope <merope@Radix.Net>
To: USGENWEB-ALL <usgenweb-all-l@rootsweb.com>
Subject: Daily Board Show
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More fun than a barrel of monkeys...its Your Daily Board Show!
*warning* gratuitous editorial content dead ahead. Read at your own
risk!
Wednesday 2 Dec 1998:
A vote on motion 98-9 is called for by the (not)NC. [this is the act of
Congress required to get RW to add a link to the USGW main page from its
main page.] In this same message the (not)NC indicates that future
motions [I guess he is referring to the discussion period] will have a
starting and ending time of midnight CST, with members allowed to start
before the starting time but not allowed to continue past its end. [The
(not)NC also feels compelled to add a personal note regarding how to tell
time to nonBoard readers of the list; he's very clever, that one, but
still an obvious product of a public school education.]
13 Board members vote 'aye' on motion 98-9
Board member Trey Holt posts that he is a member of the Election
Committee, and submits the following election process schedule for the
board's approval:
Nominations Period
Dec 3, 1998 Through Dec 31, 1998
Campaign Period
Jan 1, 1999 through Jan 14, 1999
Voting Period
January 15, 1999 through Jan 30, 1999
He also indicates that he is on the Committee to observe and will be
submitting weekly reports to the Board on Saturdays.
Storm Clouds a'Brewing Corner: what is going on with the Census Project?
Acting on an anonymous tip, I checked out their web page and found that
there are now two census pages:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgwcens/
where we find a page with state links to the RW ftp directory
and this one: http://www.usgenweb.org/census/states.htm
which is the old page and which also contains links to states and online
census files.
Now the interesting thing about this is that files you get when you go
to either of these URLs are sometimes in two separate places. In this
example that I found the first URL (the new page) takes you to records
stored here: (the state and county were chosen haphazardly):
ftp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ks/sedgwick/census/1880cens.txt
While the old URL takes you to records stored here:
ftp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/census/ks/sedgwick/1880/1880cens.txt
According to the new page, transcribed records are being uploaded to BOTH
the USGW Archives Project and the USGW Census Project Archives. Now,
according to the main web page describing the special projects, the Census
Project is a subproject of the Archives project. All the data transcribed for
that project are by definition part of the Archives. The new pages have
no mention of the USGW Archives Project. Has an independent Census
project been formed? Why bother taking up twice the server space
to store the records in two places on the same server? Is the Census
Project in a process of transitioning files from one place to another on
the server? There has been extensive recent traffic about this problem
on the Archives-L list, with the Archives coordinator telling her file
managers to pull files off the 'wrong directory" and put them in the
appropriate directories, as described in the Archives guidelines. The
Census project coordinator has fired one of her state coordinators over
this and the file managers are concerned because they can't keep TOC links
straight since files keep getting moved from directory to directory and
renamed. Of course, of far more interest than this Battle of the Archives
Titans is that my anonymous tipster tells me that the appearance that
there are two ongoing Census Projects within the USGW Project is causing
some serious confusion and concern among potential transcribers and
submitters.
Never a dull day here at USGW!
This has been your Daily Board Show.
-Teresa Lindquist
merope@radix.net
From merope@Radix.Net Sat Dec 5 10:17:25 1998
Date: Sat, 5 Dec 1998 10:17:24 -0500 (EST)
From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>
To: USGENWEB-ALL <usgenweb-all-l@rootsweb.com>
Subject: Daily Board Show
Message-ID: <Pine.SV4.3.96.981205100015.28828A-100000@saltmine.radix.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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The blind leading the naked...its Your Daily Board Show!
*warning* editorial content off the starboard bow. Read at your own risk!
Thursday 3 December 1998:
Motion 98-9 has passed. Two more members vote in favor of it. One of
these notes that 24 hours is not enough time for a vote, as she did not
have an opportunity to read her mail during the voting period and when she
did read her mail, the vote was already over. The (not)NC points out that
the motion was considered passed once a quorum was reached and 2/3 of
the board voted in favor. He also points out that no time limit was set
on voting but once sufficient votes have accumulated for or against, more
votes do not change the outcome. Her affirmative vote will be posted to
the webpage.
Five Board members support the election schedule, posted here yesterday.
"If you wish to strive for peace of soul and pleasure, then believe; if
you wish to be a devotee of truth, then enquire."
--Heinrich Heine
This has been your Daily Board Show.
-Teresa Lindquist
merope@radix.net
From merope@Radix.Net Sun Dec 6 10:59:29 1998
Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1998 10:59:28 -0500 (EST)
From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>
Reply-To: merope <merope@Radix.Net>
To: USGENWEB-ALL <usgenweb-all-l@rootsweb.com>
Subject: Daily Board Show
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Which way did he go, George?...its Your Daily Board Show!
*warning* gloom, despair and editorial content ahead. Read at your own
risk!
Friday 4 Dec 1998
Only two messaged on this date:
One Board member posts to Board-L my message entitled "Election Concerns"
[previously posted to -ALL so it won't be repeated here].
The same Board member posts a message in response to the above in which
she indicates that she feels there should have been a general posting for
the Election committee as the questios were the same ones asked during the
last election and have not been addressed for the current one. She also
suggest some plan where volunteers for the various committees are chosen
in such a way the people who have not been involved before will have a
fair chance to participate. She feels this should be in place before the
next election [amen! but don't hold your breath]
"The first reaction to truth is hatred."
--Tertullian, c. 160-240
This has been your Daily Board Show.
-Teresa Lindquist
merope@radix.net
From merope@Radix.Net Mon Dec 7 12:28:43 1998
Date: Mon, 7 Dec 1998 12:28:42 -0500 (EST)
From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>
Reply-To: merope <merope@Radix.Net>
To: USGENWEB-ALL <usgenweb-all-l@rootsweb.com>
Subject: Daily Board Show
Message-ID: <Pine.SV4.3.96.981207113905.28587C-100000@saltmine.radix.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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All quiet on the Western Front!...its Your Daily Board Show!
*warning* contains editorial content. Read at your own risk!
Saturday 5 December 1998
One message posted from the (not)NC in which concerns stated by a board
member (posted here yesterday) and questions and concerns raised by this
author (also posted to -ALL previously) are addressed. In brief, he
indicates that the committee is working to correct flaws that surfaced in
July's elections and that the staffing of committees, etc should be a
separate board discussion but that he personally thinks an official call
for volunteers should be issued for projects. He posts committees and
chairs, details how committee chairs were chosen, says there was no time
to issue a call for volunteers and some committee members were chosen
because they are veterans of the last election, notes that liaisons are
being requested from each state, indicates that the board has had no
criticism of the committee and many of its (the Board's) members publicly
approve of the procedures thus far, and that the Board is being kept
sufficiently informed by its member on the Election Committee. [I have
asked the (not)NC for permission to post his message in full; if this
permission is forthcoming, I will post it to the -ALL list]
Tomorrow's news today: The Election Committee report is posted. At the
time of posting there was one nominee for SW/SC rep: Eric Segal. There
were no nominees for NC, but one has since been added: Clarice Mills
The page where nominations are posted is:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~ilhardi2/nomi.htm
As a reminder: the place to send nominations is nominate@usgenweb.org
"The first duty of a revolutionary is to get away with it."
---Abbie Hoffman
This has been your Daily Board Show.
-Teresa Lindquist
merope@radix.net