Dec 11-17 2000

From merope@Radix.Net Mon Dec 11 13:15:17 2000

Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2000 13:15:15 -0500 (EST)

From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>

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Chock full o' holiday spirit...its Your Daily Board Show!

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

Sunday 10 December 2000:

Tina Vickery urges Tim Stowell to forward the email soliciting volunteers

for the standing Election Committee to the project mailing lists.

Voting on Motion 00-29 [to apply for a service mark] proceeds. Thus far,

11 Board members have voted "yes" [this motion has passed; now lets see

what they do or, more likely, don't do with it].

===

Trouble In Paradise Corner: A rather interesting email has made its way

to the DBS newscube via the usual channels. Originally posted to the

TNGenWeb mailing list, it lists a litany of charges against our own Dear

Leader, Tim Stowell. The message is from former TNGenNet board member

Chip Brown [with whom I recently had the pleasure of serving on the ESC]

and begins with the observation that Tim clearly is unfamiliar with the

bylaws of TNGenNet even though he sits on its board and remarks

on his inability to keep up with even the barest minimum of his duties as

USGenWeb National Coordinator. It ends with the not-too-surprising

revelation that he actively promised to "get rid of" several USGW members

and organizations affiliated with or supportive of the USGenWeb in

exchange for the help of his supporters in getting elected [this "help"

included harvesting email addresses so that Tim could send last-minute

spam to USGW voters]. Those targeted for purging include Fred Smoot,

Carole Hammett, USGenNet, and surprisingly [for a board member] TNGenNet

itself. The message also accuses Tim of instigating many of the major

problems through which TNGW has recently struggled. Chip now regrets

anything he did that helped Tim get re-elected as NC and has called for

Tim's immediate resignation. He has also indicated that his complaints

and concerns will go before the USGW Advisory Board [where it will no

doubt be fast-tracked to the 90 or 120 day schedule].

In a related area, we have also received information from other sources

that current TNGenWeb SC Nancy Cole has suggested that she will personally

alter the bylaws of TNGenNet in order to avoid calling elections in 2000.

The bylaws currently require that TNGenNet hold elections in even numbered

years, but time is rapidly running out on that clock.

===

"It may be true that you can't fool all the people all the time, but you

can fool enough of them to rule a large country."

---Will Durant

This has been your Daily Board Show.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

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From merope@Radix.Net Tue Dec 12 16:34:25 2000

Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2000 16:34:25 -0500 (EST)

From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>

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

To: Daily Board Show <usgw_all@listbot.com>

Subject: Daily Board Show

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Paddle your own canoe...its Your Daily Board Show!

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

Monday 11 December 2000:

Tina Vickery, in her capacity at "NE/NC County Coordinator

Representative, and as a member of the ESC committee," asks Tim Stowell to

forward the solicitation for volunteers for the Election Committee to all

project mailing lists and post it to the USGW home page. She also

requests "that the ESC be thanked for a hard job well done, and that all

USGenWeb volunteers be encouraged to take an active role in the future of

the USGenWeb Project elections."

Shari Handly says she will personally forward the message to the SE/MA

regional list. Tina thanks Shari but notes that it is her hope "that it

will go to the Project from the National Coordinator."

Holly Timm notes that since Tim appears to be having ongoing email

problems, she has forwarded the call for volunteers to the lists herself.

Tim Stowell [finally chiming in] notes that he will send it where he can,

but he does not subscribe to all the lists.

===

Call For Volunteers Corner: The following has gone out to all the

central project mailing lists; you are welcome to forward it wherever

else it might be appropriate [state and county lists, for example]:

"The USGenWeb Project Advisory Board is recruiting volunteers to serve on

the Standing Election Committee! This subCommittee will operate year round

and members serve a two-year term. Representative duties of the

subCommittee include conducting all

national level elections; maintaining current voter rolls; and researching

voter software. The Advisory Board, along with members of the Election

Study Committee, encourage all USGenWeb Project members to visit

http://www.timmweb.pair.com/esc/report.html for more details of this very

important committee within the USGenWeb Project. If you are interested in

participating on this committee, please contact Tim Stowell

tstowell@chattanooga.net, National Coordinator AND Holly Timm,

Representative at Large hollyft@bright.net by December 22, 2000."

Nest of Vipers Corner: The article yesterday on the latests doings in

TNGenWeb has lured some interesting critters out of the woodwork. A

correspondent has explained to us that the TNGenNet bylaws are in

conflict, as they both order new elections every even numbered year and

grant elected officers two year terms. Since the bylaws were not enacted

until 1999, the current SC has decided to honor the portion of the bylaws

that grant two year terms and will call elections in 2001. This will of

course result in a continual failure to honor the provision in the bylaws

the requires that elections be held in even numbered years. [Actually,

the TNGenNet bylaws require only that new slates of candidates be proposed

in even numbered years and that elections follow. They could conceivably

publish a new slate now and hold elections in 2001. Perhaps not what the

authors of the bylaws intended, but we have our own Glorious Leader to

thank for demonstrating what can be done with a little wiggle room.]

Another source claims that Chip Brown is using this contradiction in the

bylaws to destroy TNGenNet, since Tim Stowell has failed to do so as

promised. And its even been intimated that Tim himself is behind this,

since it would be more than a little unseemly for a sitting board member

to actively work to destroy the organization he was elected to serve. We

hear from Chip's own words that he's been happy to do Tim's dirty work in

the past; is this just more of the same?

===

.. they do not mean to lie; but, taking no pains to be exact, they give

you very false accounts."

---Samuel Johnson

This has been your Daily Board Show.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

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From merope@Radix.Net Fri Dec 15 13:34:16 2000

Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2000 13:34:16 -0500 (EST)

From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>

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

To: Daily Board Show <usgw_all@listbot.com>

Subject: Daily Board Show

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Wouldn't you know...its Your Daily Board Show!

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

Thursday 14 December 2000:

Tim Stowell announces that Motion 00-39, to obtain the service mark for

"USGenWeb", has passed with 11 yes votes.

Teri Pettit notes that the Election Study Committee Report did "not

specify whether the Board motion for approval or disapproval should be

phrased such that a "Yes" vote approves the slate, or such that a "Yes"

vote rejects it (thereby requiring 2/3 dissatisfaction to force a return

to the drawing board), and when probed for clarification on this point the

ESC declined to specify and left it to the Board's discretion..." She

suggests that the Board discuss this now and "agree among ourselves which

it should be, and make that a matter of policy," noting that otherwise,

"it depends on the whim of the first person to submit a motion about it."

She notes some obvious advantages and disadvantages to phrasing the

motions one way or another, most notably the ability of a small group of

people to repeatedly reject any slate of volunteers forwarded for one

reason or another and thus unreasonably delay indefinitely the seating of

a standing Election Committee.

===

The Devil In The Details Corner: A reader the other day alerted us to the

fact that GenTech has posted the program for its upcoming GenTech 2001

conference, to be held Feb 2-3, 2001 in Mesquite, TX. While perusing the

brochure we found the following:

"Mark your schedule to include the first-ever RootsWeb and USGenWeb

nationwide group meetings on Saturday at 5:00. Activists, prospective

volunteers and users have the opportunity to network and sound off with

ideas, improvements and plans. Meet the movers and shakers and let

yourself be heard."

[source: http://www.gentech.org/2001brochure/special.htm]

Not recalling any formal announcement that the USGenWeb was holding its

"first-ever nationwide group meeting" at GenTech 2001 or at any other

conference, we queried the Board about this. As it turns out, they didn't

know about it either. Thus far, six Board members have written to say

that they have no prior knowledge of this, they don't know who the "movers

and shakers" attending the session might be, and they are more than a

little perturbed that either 1) GenTech is using USGenWeb's name as a draw

to its conference without the formality of asking its permission first; or

2) some members of USGW [Board members Tim Stowell, Babs Dore and Ken

Short, perhaps?] were notified and/or gave their permission and failed to

notify the rest of their colleagues or the project membership. One of the

Board members who responded notes "it is quite troubling to me that any

group is touting a very "official-sounding" USGenWeb meeting without

official sanction, or even official *notification*."

Given that the meeting is only about a month and a half away and time for

making arrangements to attend is running short, one would reasonably

expect that an announcement of some sort would have been made to the

membership so that we might be able to plan to attend. [For what its

worth, we have heard so many rumors of financial irregularities,

mismanagement, and member unhappiness in regards to GenTech, that we

actually think its more likely that the GT management messed up than that

USGW management did. <g>]

On a slightly different topic, one session planned for the conference will

be presented on Saturday at 11am by Barbara Renick and is entitled "GenWeb

Projects and Webrings." It is described thusly: "Explore the differences

between the U.S. and World GenWeb Projects and the more loosely associated

webrings that are springing up all over the Internet to help

genealogists." Ms. Renick appears to have nothing to do with USGenWeb,

but she did recently co-author a book on internet genealogy with Richard

S. Wilson, who I believe is the SC of CAGenWeb. Richard will be speaking

on genealogy software programs and on digitally restoring old photos at

the conference. There is also a talk called "RootsWeb Revealed", but

unfortunately its not the expose' one might expect. <g>

The conference's website is at: http://www.gentech.org/2001home.htm and

you can get the full brochure,contact info, registration info, etc there.

===

"The humblest citizen of all the land when clad in the armor of a

righteous cause, is stronger than all the hosts of Error."

---William Jennings Bryan

This has been your Daily Board Show.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

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