Dec 13-19 1999

From merope@Radix.Net Tue Dec 14 06:11:14 1999

Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1999 06:11:13 -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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[this is yesterday's edition, which was detained due to unavoidable

circumstances. Ed]

In one ear and out the other...its Your Daily Board Show!

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

Saturday 11 December 1999:

Ed Book posts his resignation as Board secretary, saying, "Because of

personal and family health problems, I haven't been able to be online at

all for several weeks and I will probably not be able to spend much time

online for at least the next month. As a result, I think it would be in

the USGenWeb Project's best interest for me to resign as Secretary." He

apologizes for being unable to give the job the attention it deserved.

Tim Stowell lets the group know he'll be forwarding his nomination for

secretary as soon as he discusses the position with him.

Tim Stowell notifies the group that he is nominating Ken Short for the

position of Board Secretary and that Ken has agreed to serve.

Tomorrow's News Today: A motion to accept Ken Short as Board Secretary is

made and seconded, and the NC opens the floor for discussion on the

nomination; the NC calls for a vote on Motions 99-29 [USGENWEB-ALL list]

and 99-30 [regional lists]; thus far 8 Board members have voted "aye" and

2 have voted "nay" on Motion 99-29 and 11 have voted "aye" on Motion

99-30.

Making Amends Corner: Both of these motions appear on their way to

comfortable victory; it will be nice to see the Board undo its clandestine

work from last year and return the USGENWEB-ALL list to its place on the

USGW project pages. The regional lists are already listed elsewhere on the

main pages, but perhaps making them more accessible to new members will

liven them up a bit.

Cooling Our Heels Corner: A recent [5 minutes ago] check indicates that

the administrative contact for usgenweb.net and usgenweb.org is _still_

listed as Root$web employee Nancy Trice. It has now been 9 months since

the Board voted to change the listings to the name of our current NC, Tim

Stowell, and three months since Brian Leverich, owner of Root$web, agreed

to change the listings.

Nifty Things Corner: Something I ran across the other day that might

prove useful to many of us is a free translation service provided by our

confreres over at FrancGenWeb. They have, at last count, volunteers to

transcribe many languages, including: Afrikaans, German, Old German,

English, Esperanto, Creol from Martinique, Arab, Bulgarian, Korean,

Danish, Spanish, Finnnish, Old French (paleography), French, Hebrew,

Icelandish, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Dutch, Norwegian, Occitan, Polish,

Portugese, Romanian, Russian, Swedish, Slovakian, Armenian, and

Yugoslavic. For information on how to use this free service, please

visit: http://francegenweb.org/traduction/index-en.htm [English language

version] or http://www.francegenweb.org/traduction/ [en francais!]

"Ideas are, in truth, forces. Infinite, too, is the power of personality.

A union of the two always makes history."

---Henry James, Jr.

This has been your Daily Board Show.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

----------

From merope@Radix.Net Tue Dec 14 11:45:47 1999

Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1999 11:45:46 -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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Like a red-headed stepchild...its Your Daily Board Show!

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

Sunday 12 December 1999:

Gloria Mayfield makes a motion to accept Ken "Pecos" Short for the

position of Board secretary. Ginger Hayes seconds the motion and also

thanks Ed Book for "his service as Secretary to the Board." [Did he

ever _actually_ do anything?] The NC opens the floor for discussion of the

motion, which he numbers 99-32.

The NC calls for a vote on motion 99-29 [USGENWEB-ALL]. By the end of the

day, 9 members had voted "yes" and 2 had voted "no".

The NC calls for a vote on motion 99-30 [regional mail lists]. By the end

of the day, 11 members had voted "yes". While casting her "yes" vote,

Teri Pettit notes that she thinks the best way to accomplish adding this

information would be "to include a link from

http://www.usgenweb.com/volunteers/mail.html to the excellent page at:

http://www.usgenweb.com/official/regionmail.html", noting that the former

page is easy to find, while the latter is not. According to Teri: "I

haven't seen any links to it from other project pages, and would not even

have known it existed if Teresa had not sent a notice about it to

USGW-CC-L" [don't mention it. <g>].

During the vote period, Jim Powell notes, "Once upon a time it was one

active motion at a time. The floor is a little crowded isn't it?"

Teri Pettit asks "How are we deciding when the discussion period on a

motion is over and voting is to begin?"

Tomorrow's News Today: More voting on Motions 99-29 and 99-30; someone

questions Ken's qualifications as Board Secretary; the vote is called for

Motion 99-31 [DBS list] and the "no" votes are a-rolling in--four so far.

I Got Yer Qualifications Right Here Corner: At least one Board member is

now questioning the NC as to Ken "Pecos" Short's qualifications to be the

new Board Secretary, and in relation to this, a reader writes to remind

us that in many respects, the NC's hands are tied in regard to who he may

nominate for this position. According to Motion 99-25, which established

the qualifications and procedures for selecting a Board secretary, the

nominee is "appointed by a majority vote of a quorum of the Board.

Rejection of a nominee will require the NC to forward another name." So,

regardless of any "objective" qualifications like a working knowledge of

parliamentary procedure [listed specifically in Motion 99-25 as "Roberts

Rules"], the NC _must_ select someone that a majority of the Board will

accept. Note that this is not necessarily a bad thing; obviously the

Board should have a say in any such appointment. However, with such an

ideologically slanted Board, any number of qualified and interested

project members will likely never be considered solely because they can

never pass the Board's litmus test, which our reader suggests includes:

supports Root$web, supports the Archives; does not support the activities

or opinions of _anyone_ considered a 'dissident'; and does not support the

right of Census II to exist independently of the USGW Archives [although

why _any_ of these positions should reflect one's ability to serve as

Board Secretary is not immediately apparent]. If true, this is a rather

sad commentary on the Board, and we hope our reader is mistaken.

New and Improved Corner: Last evening, the United States Genealogy Network

[USGenNet], which has been providing services to online genealogists since

July 1998, announced that "we have grown and vastly expanded our services

into a new and improved non-profit public benefit online server", called

USGenNet, Inc (tm). The new services include something called "safe-site

certification" which provides free services [including web pages,

mailing lists, database services, search engines, etc.] to qualified

online genealogy organizations. Members of the newly expanded Board of

this not-for-profit corporation include many long term members of USGW

and ALHN. It is essentially a dues supported organization, and has expanded

its physical capabilities to support its increased services. They have

also applied for 501(c)3 status with the IRS. The "new" USGenNet is at

the old url: http://www.usgennet.org

"You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having

both at once."

---Robert Heinlein

This has been your Daily Board Show.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

--------

From merope@Radix.Net Tue Dec 14 21:03:29 1999

Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1999 21:03:27 -0500 (EST)

From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>

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

Subject: News Flash

Message-ID: <Pine.SV4.3.96.991214205419.12481A-100000@saltmine.radix.net>

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DBS News Flash!

This Just In...Motion 99-31, to add the DBS list to the "Information for

Volunteers" national page, has more or less been defeated. So far, 9 Board

members have voted "no", 3 [bless 'em] have voted "yes", and one has

abstained. With only 3 Board members still to vote, it is extremely

unlikely that this motion can pass [unless a significant number of the

"no" votes have a change of heart]. So, no listing for the DBS this time

around! C'est la vie.

More tomorrow, including some stirring speeches on behalf of the DBS, by

actual Board members!

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

From merope@Radix.Net Wed Dec 15 08:10:44 1999

Date: Wed, 15 Dec 1999 08:10:43 -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

Message-ID: <Pine.SV4.3.96.991215055903.22824A-100000@saltmine.radix.net>

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Filmed on location...its Your Daily Board Show!

*warning* contains more editorial content than you can shake a stick at.

Read at your own risk!

Monday 13 December 1999:

The NC calls for a vote on Motion 99-31, to add the DBS list to the

"Information for Volunteers" page on the national website. The first vote

on this motion is a "no".

In response to Teri Pettit's question regarding the length of the

discussion period prior to votes, Tim Stowell responds, "The policy has

been for most motions - at least 48 hours. If it is a major motion - it

is for a longer period of time. As the end of the 48 hours may come at a

time when I'm not available - I call for the vote as quick as I can once

the 48 hours has ended." In another message on this topic, Tim notes that

"The policy has been that voting goes on for 48 hours or until everyone

has voted whichever comes first. Exceptions to this would be not waiting

for members to vote who've let us know they are going to be out of touch

for x period of time or in the case of an emergency motion."

In regards to Ken "Pecos" Short's nomination for the position of Board

Secretary, Shari Handley asks, "Can you give some information as to Ken's

qualifications?...[I] am curious about whether he has knowledge of

Parliamentary Procedure and Robert's Rules, and/or any previous experience

that make him suited for the position."

Tomorrow's News Today: Motions 99-29 [USGENWEB-ALL list] and 99-30

[regional lists] are declared passed; Motion 99-31 [DBS list] is

defeated; a plea is made for a longer discussion period before a vote

is called; the Board gets to hear Ken Short's qualificiations to be Board

Secretary and the vote is called on the motion nominating him as BS.

Better Luck Next Time Corner: With 3 "yes" votes, 9 "no" votes, and one

abstention, Motion 99-31 looks headed for defeat [expect it to be called

today]. However, during the course of voting a some fine speeches on

behalf of the DBS were made by two of the three [brave] Board members who

voted to include it along with the other lists. They are repeated here in

full, with gratitude:

"If we are going to include other privately owned lists on the Volunteer's

Info page then this one should also be included. Being selective as to

what is or is not listed there is censorship in its simplest form. We

should list all these lists, or none of them. The membership of the

USGenWeb Project is an intelligent and dedicated group and we owe it to

them to present all available options and let them choose for themselves

what to read and what to believe." [Ginger Cisewski]

"If anyone here isn't subscribed to USGW_ALL@listbot (aka The Daily Board

Show), I highly recommend it. The quotations at the end alone are worth

it. While I've disagreed with the editor both publicly and privately about

her interpretation of the USGenWeb Archives status and other issues, she

does a very admirable job of summarizing BOARD-L and STATE-COORD-L traffic

for CC's who don't have the time to search the archives of those lists

themselves (or who fall asleep reading some of the longer posts, which I'm

frequently guilty of generating :-). She also generally takes care to

separate the editorializing from the reporting, and I concur with Virginia

that USGenWeb project members are intelligent enough to think for

themselves and be able to handle reading opinions that may differ from

their own, without swallowing them indiscriminately or going ballistic."

[Teri Pettit]

Vacancy Corner: Jan Phillips, retiring SC for the ORGenWeb, is having

trouble finding someone among her CCs willing to stand for the election to

replace her, and is "advertising" for candidates on the SC list. She

currently has one nominee, but as she notes, "An election with only one

candidate is pretty lop-sided." I am sure she will consider any qualified

individual as a candidate; if interested you can contact her via the

ORGenWeb state page at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~orgenweb/

All In the Family Corner: Freddie Spradlin, who took over the VAGenWeb SC

position from Linda Lewis some months ago, is now the new coordinator for

the Lineages Project.

"But I have noticed this about ambitious men, or men in power -- they fear

even the slightest and least likely threat to it."

---Mary Stewart

This has been your Daily Board Show.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

-----------

From merope@Radix.Net Thu Dec 16 11:49:21 1999

Date: Thu, 16 Dec 1999 11:49:19 -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

Message-ID: <Pine.SV4.3.96.991216060633.2793A-100000@saltmine.radix.net>

MIME-Version: 1.0

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Live at Budokan...its Your Daily Board Show!

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

Tuesday 14 December 1999:

Voting on Motion 99-31 [DBS list] proceeds; there are thus far 3 "yes"

votes, 9 "no" votes, and one abstention.

Responding to Tim's discussion of the 48 hour discussion period, Teri

Pettit asks "Can we discuss whether this length of a discussion period is

optimal?" She notes that due to an [impressively] busy schedule, she is

often not able to put together her thoughts on a motion in that length of

time, and considers that other Board members may have the same problem.

She notes, "often reading someone else's comments will spark further

thought, perhaps triggering the desire to make a response or publicly

alter one's previous statement. 48 hours doesn't allow for much give and

take when the time between one board member's sending a message and the

others receiving it may be more than 24 hours." Teri suggests that Tim

ask if the group is done with its discussion prior to calling for a vote,

"and if anyone answers that they want discussion to continue, deferring

the vote until up to a week from when the motion was introduced. This

would still allow for a quick turnaround on motions that are cut-and-dried

enough that discussion is largely unneeded, or for which the discussion of

the issue preceded the formal motion".

The NC declares Motion 99-29 [to restore USGenWeb-ALL-L to Volunteer's

Info page] passed with the following vote totals - yes - 9; no - 3; not

voting 4. [The DBS count on this motion is 10 "yes" votes, 3 "no" votes

and 3 not voting.]

The NC declares Motion 99-30 [to add regional email lists to Volunteer's

Info page] passed with the following vote totals - yes - 13; no - 0; not

voting 3.

Tomorrow's News Today: Voting begins on the motion to appoint Ken Short

as Board Secretary; 8 board members have voted yes so far and this motion

looks like its headed for victory; the motion to add the USGW-CC-L list to

the "information to volunteers" page is seconded.

Getting Serious Corner: Root$web is apparently desperate for a "new look"

and is offering the winner of a newly announced design contest $1000 [yes,

that's three zeros] to redesign the home page at http://www.rootsweb.com.

According to an announcement in today's New Zoo Review, participants can

make two assumptions when they consider their designs: "First, RootsWeb

will have a site-wide search engine. Second, the RootsWeb home page need

contain only a single link to the non-genealogy RootsWeb communities." [A

site-wide search engine, imagine that. Took 'em long enough.] The lucky

winner will not only get the cash but the "fame and glory...of having

designed the home page for the world's largest traffic genealogy Web

site." [after Ancestry, Broderbund, and FamilySearch.org, that is.]

If you are interested, submit the URL(s) of your design to

contest@rootsweb.com by 31 January 2000. The winner will be announced

by 15 Feb 2000.

Over Our Heads Corner: Also in the New Zoo Review this week, Root$web is

advertising for volunteers to manages the tens of thousands of county and

surname lists and boards they created in the early part of the summer and

which have presumably been running on autopilot all this time.

That Sinking Feeling Corner: There've been scattered reports in the last

few days of a virus being spread over Root$web lists that has caused no

little consternation in RW listmembers. According to Tim "Not Our Fault"

Pierce, the virus is not being sent out through RW lists, but only looks

like it is. Tim says the virus works like this:

"* The virus sends a copy of itself to everyone in the computer's address

book;

* It forges its own return address to look like it was sent by someone

*else* in the address book;

* and it uses the Subject line from a message that was recently sent from

that machine."

Tim says he'll work on seeing if there's anything they can do about this,

and in the meantime asks the listowners, "please assure any concerned

subscribers that subscribing to a RootsWeb list is not dangerous." [at

least not for this particular reason. *wink*]

"Without general elections, without unrestricted freedom of press and

assembly, without a free struggle of opinion, life dies out in every

public institution, becomes a mere semblance of life, in which only the

bureaucracy remains as the active element."

---Rosa Luxemburg

This has been your Daily Board Show.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

-----------

From merope@Radix.Net Thu Dec 16 16:48:46 1999

Date: Thu, 16 Dec 1999 16:48:45 -0500 (EST)

From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>

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

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

Subject: News Flash!

Message-ID: <Pine.SV4.3.96.991216164048.22990C-100000@saltmine.radix.net>

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Daily Board Show News Flash!

This Just In...The Board is entertaining a motion to open BOARD-L to all

project members for read-only subscription. [Its about damn time!]. The

motion has been made and seconded and appears to be meeting with some

approval among the Board members.

About this time last year, it was suggested that the Board open its

mailing list to project members, since the the Root$web archives are so

cumbersome, but the idea was rejected out of hand at the time. The Board

preferred to write its own "Daily Board Report", an idea that never proved

feasible, although various Board members tried several times.

The suggestion to open the Board list to project members comes from

project member John Schunk, who writes,

"I don't know how many others might feel the same way as I do, but I:

1) like to be informed about USGW Board business,

2) find searching the BOARD-L Archives to be cumbersome (i.e., a real

pain),

3) find the Daily Board Show insufferable."

The DBS staff are utterly gratified that our long-ago suggestion to open

the Board list may finally be implemented [guess it had to come from the

right person], and we urge the passage of this motion.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

From merope@Radix.Net Fri Dec 17 15:16:10 1999

Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1999 15:16:09 -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

Message-ID: <Pine.SV4.3.96.991217061405.9721A-100000@saltmine.radix.net>

MIME-Version: 1.0

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Walking in a winter wonderland...its Your Daily Board Show!

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

Wednesday 15 December 1999:

Tim Stowell responds to Shari Handley's request for information on the

qualification of Ken Short for the Board Secretary position. He says that

he asked "Pecos" about it in an IRC chat and this is is his reply:

"<Pecos> I served one year as JR Vice of my local VFW, One year as Senior

Vice and 18 months as Commander, we use a similar book called the Meters,

but is is basically the same as Roberts Rules of Order

I know how to conduct a meeting and keep order and although I am not an

expert, I do know where to find the answers if a question arises. and

those 3 1/2 years were consective, no breaks. and I have a Roberts Rules

of order book here to look things up if need be. Prior to becoming Jr Vice

I spent 3 years in lesser offices."

Shari thanks Tim for providing this information.

Tim calls for a vote on Motion 99-32, to appoint Ken Short as Board

Secretary. By the end of the day, 10 Board members had voted "aye".

Tomorrow's News Today: Teri Pettit's motion to add USGW-CC-L to the

"information for volunteers" page is seconded and the floor is opened for

discussion; a motion to open the Board-L list to the project membership

for read-only subscription is made and seconded; there are two abstentions

on the vote for Motion 99-32; Tim asks for a second on the motion to add

the DISCUSS-L list to the "information for volunteers" page; Tim declares

Motion 99-32 passed with 10 "yes" votes, and 2 abstentions [the DBS counts

11 "yes" votes]

Archives Uber Alles Corner: We've received an interesting message from a

concerned reader who received it over her state list yesterday. The

message is from her SC and according to him this will be implemented in

all the states. After a timely seasonal greeting, the SC says,

"I am now accepting applications for the position of County GenWeb Archive

Coordinator in each of our XX counties. The County Archive Coordinator

will be responsible for the collection, receipt, and online display of all

genealogical or historical data collected, received, or displayed by the

USGW project relating to their assigned county. The County Archive

Coordinator will be responsible for ensuring that all laws and the USGW,

USGW Archives, and WGW Archives policies and procedures regarding

copyright, source credit, and online display are scrupulously followed in

all USGW online data relating to their county."

He also notes that the "County GenWeb Archive Coordinator"will be under

the supervision of the various Archives Project coordinators, and will

have no web page responsibilities. He is offering the position first to

the CCs since they are "the ideal person" for the job, but notes that "If

you do not take this position, you are naturally expected to cooperate

with the person who does." If the CC is "not interested or suitable", he

will be offer the position to "volunteers from the general genealogical

community." He will be conducting training for the new coordinators in

early 2000 and expects to have new coordinators on the job by March 1.

This is an interesting message in a number of respects. First, why should

USGW CCs concern themselves with WGW rules and policies? Last time I

checked, the WGW Archives were entirely separate from the USGW Archives,

although they use very similar guidelines, have a similar introductory

"blurb", and are both housed at Root$web. Similarly, the USGW and WGW are

not affiliated and USGW CCs should not be expected to be responsible for

knowing and enforcing WGW policy, particularly in relation to information

submitted to USGW or the the USGW Archives.

Second, the phrase "The County Archive Coordinator will be responsible for

the collection, receipt, and online display of all genealogical or

historical data collected, received, or displayed by the USGW project

relating to their assigned county" specifically refers to information

given to the "USGW project" and _not_ the to Archives, and one implication

is that CCs will be expected to hand over all data submitted to the county

to the Archives. Many CCs, for a variety of reasons, do not participate

in the Archives by choice but have posted many records on their own county

pages; will they be expected to give these records to the Archives, or be

accused of "non-cooperation"? This may just be sloppy wording on the part

of the SC, but still, it does give one pause.

The statement that CCs will be "naturally expected to cooperate" with

whoever takes over the Coordinator position is particularly worrisome.

What is "cooperation", who decides if "cooperation" is not occurring, and

what happens if the CC chooses not to "cooperate" with the Coordinator?

Certainly if the CCs want to take on the Coordinator positions they

should, but why should CCs who aren't interested be forced to "cooperate"

with the Archives? Again, the Archives project is not part of the USGW

Project and is outside the control of the USGW Project. But it does not

sound like choosing not to work with the Archives is an option for CCs,

even if they turn down the file manager position.

According to Linda Lewis, the procedures listed above have already been

implemented in Kentucky, Alabama, Georgia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and

Louisiana, and the recruitment of CCs as Archives file managers has been

ongoing since 1996. While I do remember years ago an announcement that

CCs could manage their own counties for the Archives, I don't recall

anyone being told that if they weren't interested they were still

"expected to cooperate" with the Archives. Nor do I [or anyone else I've

contacted in the states mentioned above] recall anything like the

intensive recruitment effort of the above message, the apparent attempt at

coercion, or the implied threat that noncooperation could be viewed as a

failure to perform one's duties as a CC. Two USGW project members do

recall that CCs in their state were offered the option of taking on the

file manager positions for their counties, but if they did they were

"policed horribly" and if they questioned Archives policy or did not

upload data quickly enough, they were "relieved of their duties."

The DBS staff would appreciate knowing if similar "calls for volunteers"

appear in other states.

"As long as I don't write about the government, religion, politics, and

other institutions, I am free to print anything."

---Pierre de Beaumarchais

This has been your Daily Board Show.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

----------

From merope@Radix.Net Sat Dec 18 22:08:37 1999

Date: Sat, 18 Dec 1999 22:08:36 -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

Message-ID: <Pine.SV4.3.96.991218214346.1740A-100000@saltmine.radix.net>

MIME-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

Status: RO

X-Status:

Long ago, in a galaxy far far away...its Your Daily Board Show!

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

Thursday 16 December 1999:

Joy Fisher moves that the Board "allow open subscription to BOARD-L on a

read-only basis, based on the suggestion of John Schunk." [John wrote to

each Board member individually --by CC-- indicating that he finds the DBS

to be "insufferable" and suggesting the Board open the list for read-only

subscription, noting "If your BOARD-L messages are going to be plastered

on the Internet anyway (typically in as unfavorable a light as possible),

why don't you just make it easy for us to stay informed objectively (and

let us leave the DBS reading to those who enjoy tabloid journalism)?"]

Shari Handley seconds the motion. [man, what a difference a year makes!]

Teri Pettit says she likes John's idea and adds an idea for a supplemental

"digest" type of list, which would contain all Board-L messages but be

"minimally edited to remove such things as inclusions of entire messages

being responded to, ... collate all votes on the same motion together

instead of interspersing them with other mail, and truncate the individual

message headers to just Date, Subject and From."

Ginger Cisewski seconds the motion to add the CC-L list to the

"Information for Volunteers" page on the national website, and Tim opens

the floor for discussion of the motion.

Tim asks for a second on the motion to add the DISCUSS-L list to the

"information for volunteers" page.

Voting continues on Motion 99-32, to appoint Ken Short as the new Board

Secretary. Two members abstain. One of them notes that she is abstaining

because she hasn't "had time to investigate whether or not Ken Short meets

what I consider to be the two most important qualifications for a Board

Secretary - (1) the ability to write concise, clear, accurate summaries of

other people's messages, and (2) a schedule which permits reading and

responding to email at least once per day, preferably more often". She

says she prefers not to cast an uninformed vote.

Tomorrow's News Today: Motion 99-32 is declared passed with 10 "yes"

votes, and 2 abstentions [the actual count is 11 "yes" votes]

"The reader deserves an honest opinion. If he doesn't deserve it, give it

to him anyhow."

John Ciardi

This has been your Daily Board Show.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

------

From merope@Radix.Net Sun Dec 19 09:19:21 1999

Date: Sun, 19 Dec 1999 09:19:20 -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

Message-ID: <Pine.SV4.3.96.991218221504.3246A-100000@saltmine.radix.net>

MIME-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

Status: RO

X-Status:

Deja vu all over again...its Your Daily Board Show!

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

Friday 17 December 1999:

Tim Stowell announces, "Motion 99-32 - the nomination of Ken Short for the

postition of Secretary of the Advisory Board to replace the retiring Ed

Book is declared passed with the following vote totals - yes - 10; no - 0;

abstain - 2; not voting 4. [I've discussed this with Tim and done a

recount, and I _still_ come up with 11 ayes, 2 abstains, and 3 not

voting.]

To List Or Not to List Corner: The discussion on whether or not to include

the USGW-CC-L list along with the other project lists on the "Information

For Volunteers" page at the national website has been carried to the CC-L,

-ALL, and USGENWEB-SE lists by Board member Teri Pettit. Teri says she's

gotten some email that is most definitely not in favor of listing CC-L.

Accoding to her, her correspondents are opposed because, "all the bitter

sniping and bickering that formerly marred USGenWeb-ALL-L ... must have

gone over to "that other list", and "good riddance to it."" She also

notes that "The main objection I've been hearing against giving greater

visibility to USGW-CC-L is that many volunteers feel that the people who

formed that list were (and in some cases still are) inclined to cut down

the motives or the intelligence of those who disagree with them, in

particular portraying anyone who appreciates the contributions of Rootsweb

as gullible fools, docile sheep, or assimilated into the Borg." [We will

note for the record that the recent "Borg" comments that so upset Teri's

correspondents were not made on the CC-L list, but on STATE-COORD-L, and

if I'm not mistaken, the person who made them is a member of both CC-L and

-ALL and has nothing to do with the management of either. It hardly

seems fair to ostracize an entire list for the comments of one person that

were not even made on the list.]

Interestingly enough, traffic on CC-L and -ALL [I don't read

USGENWEB-SE] has been in favor of listing _all_ relevant lists on the web

page. For those of you not on either list, here's some snippets from some

of the posts:

"Is USGenWeb-ALL-L the "official" vehicle for sharing ideas, discussing

issues, or even arguing differences of opinion? If so, then ALL

volunteers of the project should be subscribers, if they so choose. No

one who is a member of USGenWeb should be banned from the list...If

USGenWeb-ALL-L is NOT is the "official" project member list, then ALL

applicable lists should be depicted. It should not need to be a Board

decision, it's a no-brainer. If a list applies to the project, list it.

The board is supposed to represent the group, not decide what the group

can and cannot see." [Carl Kirton, USGENWEB-ALL]

"The information should be available to all CCs. I'm sure those who are

interested enough to subscribe are capable of deciding which list suits

them." [Pat Sabin, USGENWEB-ALL]

"Too many cc's are permanently banned from the ALL list by the server

owner---a banning which was Not endorsed by a directive of The USGenWEb

Project membership. Those banned CC's deserve to have a place that they

can engage in Project business too." [Diane Mason, USGW-CC-L]

"For the USGenWeb Project to totally ignore the existence of a list which

is FOR project volunteers, placing absolutely no information about it on

the "Info for Volunteers" pages is absurd." [Sandy Teylu, USGW-CC-L]

"The CC list has been a pleasure most of the time. I will admit once I

did delete some of the comments before reading them. I also was glad

there was a list where all of us could be together. The banned people

were welcomed here. That is what I was hoping for with the USGEN Web

project- people helping people." [Fran, USGW-CC-L]

The DBS newscube staff would like to note that we fully support the

listing of _all_ project-wide mailing lists, including BOARD-L, should the

Board decide to open it for read-only subscription. We also note that if

someone doesn't second the motion to add the -DISCUSS list, it will be

pulled off the floor for lack of interest.

The Archives Revisited Corner: Since the publication a couple of days ago

of the somewhat disturbing message from an SC who was recruiting county

archivists, I have heard from several county archives file managers. They

note uniformly that they have never felt that they were "policed" by

Archives management, coerced into participation or pressured to acquire

data. A number of writers have been county archivists for several years

now; some others joined up more recently. One does note that the county

archivists are treated rather like second-class citizens [my phrase, not

hers] in that they are not allowed to subscribe to the regular Archives

mailing lists. Most of the writers did say that they found the tone of

the SC's message to be troublesome. One noted "That SC is off the wall";

another noted that a "softer and less formal approach" on the SC's part

might have resulted in less distress and misunderstanding. Most of the

archivists who wrote note that there is a lot of cooperation between CCs

and the archivists when they are not the same person, and that it is

common practice [at least in some states] for submitted files to be

offered to the CCs for posting on their county pages. Also, in the case of

material _not_ donated to the Archives, one archivist noted, "We have

asked if the CCs want to submit things to the Archives but it is nothing

that we push. As long as the information is on line it can be linked and

the public will be able to locate it." [Thanks to all to who wrote!]

Ring In the New Year Corner: We hear on the Q.T. that a couple of

"friends of the DBS" are hard at work on "ringer" submissions for the

Root$web "Get a New Home Page Designed For Cheap" contest. We can't wait

to see 'em!

"The instinct of nearly all societies is to lock up anybody who is truly

free. First, society begins by trying to beat you up. If this fails, they

try to poison you. If this fails too, they finish by loading honors on your

head."

---Jean Cocteau

This has been your Daily Board Show.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

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