Mar 1-5 2000

From merope@Radix.Net Wed Mar 1 08:03:09 2000

Date: Wed, 1 Mar 2000 08:03:08 -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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What a hoot!...its Your Daily Board Show!

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

Tuesday 29 February 2000:

Teri Pettit asks about mailing lists for the Census Project, the Archives

Census Project and the Archives Project and wants to if the volunteers of

the ACP are allowed to subscribe to the list for the Archives. She is

trying to "get a handle on what the hierarchical relationship of The

USGenWeb Archives Census Project is to The USGenWeb Archives Project, if

any. Is it a subproject, or a "separate but equal" parallel project?" She

notes this does not have anything to do with directories, but with

"whether the volunteers of The USGenWeb Archives Census Project are

considered to also be volunteers of the The USGenWeb Archives Project in

the sense of being involved in its activities, subject to its rules,

and/or having input into its decisions."

Joy Fisher notes that the CP has at least three lists, all of which are

closed and unarchived.

Teri responds that she is asking about the _other_ CP which clearly does

not consider itself part of the Archives, as "they have consistently

rejected any fealty to that project." She says it is not clear whether or

not the ACP considers itself to be part of the Archives. She notes that

both census projects consider themselves to be part of the "USGW Project

Archives" but that members of the ACP feel that all files under that

umbrella should be under the same directory structure as the "USGW

Archives Project". Members of the CP, however, "feel that scope of The

USGenWeb Project Archives can encompass files stored in a variety of

directories." She notes "This is a real difference of opinion, and I am

not taking any stance on it. But it is a separate issue than that of

whether the volunteers consider themselves to be members of The USGenWeb

Archives Project or not."

Wednesday 1 March 2000:

Tim Stowell corrects a misattribution he made in a previous post.

Tim responds to a message from interim CP coordinator Ron Eason by

pointing out that the Board must first pass Motion 00-4 and declare Kay's

seat vacant before any action can be taken on a replacement. However, if

the seat is declared vacant then it will be the Board's perogative to

appoint a replacement, and notes "Vacancies have been filled by various

means in the past on a situation by situation basis. I suspect this one

will be filled in a similiar fashion. Bottom line, it is the Board's

decision." [Ron had asked Tim to extend the same courtesy to the CP as

they Board did to the Archives when they elected a replacement

representative.]

Tim asks if there is any other discussion on Motion 00-4 "specifically

rather than all the other side issues?" He says if no further discussion

on the specific topic of the motion ensues, then he will call the vote to

begin at 6 pm Wednesday 1 Mar, to extend for 48 hours or until all votes

are received.

====

Three Card Monte Corner: There's an interesting discussion going on over

the L_O_A_F mailing list on RW concerning the recent announcement about

GenSoc.org, Inc. One of the participants points out an interesting

speculation as to why GenSoc.org, Inc. [which was incorporated on June 23

1999 and whose domain names were registered on June 15 but which has no

web presence as of yesterday and which has never been publically mentioned

after its initial announcement in the RWR]:

"Another possible scenario is all capital assets could be "owned" by the

nonprofit, GenSoc.org, Inc., and leased or loaned to the for-profit,

Rootsweb.com, Inc. This would make sense if Rootsweb was structured as a

"buyout" for a competitor. The primary interest of a

competitor/prospective buyer likely would be Rootsweb's ad revenue and

"users/customer base," since all online genealogy sites are competing for

the same "pool" of ad dollars and "users/customers.... If capital assets

are held by the nonprofit, Rootsweb.com, Inc. could be sold, but capital

assets would be retained by the original owners."

Although as a nonprofit, GenSoc could have begun soliciting donations of

time, money and materials immediately upon incorporation, they have not

done so. They could not have told donors those donations were

tax-deductible until Jan 2000, but that is the only real difference

between GenSoc then and now. In six months they have not even

bothered to establish a presence on the Web, although they registered all

three gensoc.* domains. Although the incorporation of GenSoc was made

with some litle fanfare in the RWR, it has since slipped into obscurity.

There has been no information publicly provided since the RWR announcement

as to GenSoc's purpose, its organization, its assets, its plans, or its

personnel. It is apparently not mentioned anywhere on Root$web's pages,

other than in the RWR archives and a few mailing lists where it has been

discussed by non-RW and non-GenSoc members. No action has apparently

been taken to move the genealogy portions from RW over to GenSoc, as was

originally indicated would be the case, when Brian Leverich said

Root$web "will be becoming two corporations in the near future, one being

the 501(c)(3) for genealogy and the other being a standard corporation for

the communities that don't fit the IRS' qualifications for a 501(c)(3)."

[May 23, 1999]. Nearly _everything_ on Root$web belongs to and is an

asset of the for-profit RootsWeb.com, Inc.

More than one person has noted that Root$web's flurry of activity last May

and June [instituting the new AUP, opening the county and surname cluster

pages, re-structuring their management, incorporating as a for-profit

stock corporation in Delaware] was prelude to "something big". What that

something may be is still speculative, of course, and given RW's

traditional reluctance to share information with its donors, members, and

volunteers, its likely to remain speculative until its a done deal. But

you know, they've been consorting with "angel investors" and lawyers that

specialize in taking companies public. Brian has some 6 million shares of

RootsWeb stock and Karen Isaacson and Robert Tillman each have about 2

million shares. Stock is worthless unless you sell it or trade it, and

the question still remains: buyout or IPO?

===

"One of the great attractions of patriotism -- it fulfills our worst

wishes. In the person of our nation we are able, vicariously, to bully and

cheat. Bully and cheat, what's more, with a feeling that we are profoundly

virtuous."

---Aldous Huxley

This has been your Daily Board Show.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

-----------

From merope@Radix.Net Thu Mar 2 07:05:37 2000

Date: Thu, 2 Mar 2000 07:05:36 -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

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Run, rabbit run...its Your Daily Board Show!

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

Wednesday 1 March 2000--Thursday 2 March 2000:

Joe Zsedeny notes "The Archives Census Project is an integrated part of

the USGenWeb Archives. Census files are uploaded by the file managers

along with any other files placed in the Archives." He says Maggie

[Stewart Zimmerman] took on the "front end" of the ACP because no one else

was willing, just as he "took the Board job, no one else was dumb enough

to want to trade their tranquility for high blood pressure." He points

out that there are 44 Archives file managers who themselves contribute

most of the material uploaded. He notes they do not "oppressed by the

leadership but, rather, participate in decisions and put forward

suggestions which are gnawed on by the other 43 until a consensus is

reached." He notes that Kay would not work under this system and "you can

see the trail she has left behind." He adds "if Motion 00-4 passes I

would think that a verified nominee from the Census Project should be

seated. To do otherwise would be unfair and would worsen a situation

which most of us would like to see resolved."

Rich Howland asks Joe to clarify on his phrase "verified nominee".

Joe responds that he would be satisfied if "our Election Committee"

verified the CP's selection similarly to how his own selectin was verified

[Joe's selection was verified? By the Election Committee?] He says "All I

am concerned with is that the CP volunteers actually make the selection."

Tim Stowell reminds Joe that we don't have have Election Committee and

asks "Which folk fit your definition of the CP volunteers?"

Joe says he previously mentioned the 11 CP file managers and notes that

Ron [Eason] could probably supply them with a complete list. He also

suggests asking Jim Powell to do the verifying.

Tim calls for a vote on Motion 00-4, to declare the CP representative seat

vacant. Five board members have voted "aye" thus far and one has

abstained.

Terri Petit posts a message from Linda Haas Davenport, who says she is the

lists manager for the CC Archives list and she has "no problem with anyone

subscribing who is involved in any of the archive projects. The CP folks

are all welcomed." [As I recall the CC Archives list was created for

those CCs who handle their own counties for the Archives Project; these

folks are not allowed to sub to ARCHIVES-L.]

Shari Handley posts a success story and thank you from a user who was

helped by a CC/SC to reunite a bible with its family.

Barbara Dore [BS for a day?] responds to a question asked of Tim Stowell

several days ago regarding what authority he based his action in declaring

Kay's seat vacant. Barbara notes that "The authority for declaring a

board seat vacant may be found in both the bylaws and parliamentary

procedure. If one disagrees with one authority, then the remedy may be

found in the other." [If Mom says "no", go ask Dad.] She quotes a couple

of sections of the bylaws and posts an url to some extracted sections of

RRoR [http://www.lest-we-forget.com/usgw/pp/pp_656.htm; unfortunately her

text selections do not provide support for Tim's action.]

Barbara points out to the Board [and this author] her interpretation of

the RRoR text presented above. She extracts the statement that reads

"Except as the bylaws may provide otherwise, any regularly elected officer

of a permanent society can be deposed from office for cause--- that is,

misconduct or neglect of duty in office--as follows:" and also quotes

Article VI, Section 8 of the bylaws. [She is still not answering the

original quesion, which regarded the authority under which the NC

unilaterally declared the seat vacant.]

Pam Reid says that "There is no question that Kay Mason has demonstrated

with her prolonged absence that she is unable to complete her term" and

points out that the Census Project has been without representation for

nearly a year. [this is a slight exaggeration. Kay left on personal

business in June of 1999 but was apparently last heard from in August

1999. So its either been nine months or seven.] Pam thinks that Tim's

solution gives the CP a chance to choose its own Board rep and "seems more

than fair". [Fair or not, no one has even bothered to contact the CP to

ask if this is what they want.]

====

New Zoo Review Corner: Root$web has announced a new free service, called

Password Central, which allows a user to request from the service a

listing of all sorts of information, such as the mailing lists you

subscribe to, your webspace passwords, where all you've left "sticky

notes", etc. You can take a look at it at:

http://passwordcentral.rootsweb.com. They've also announced that the

judging of the webpages under their latest "get the work done for free"

contest will be postponed until Mar 31.

There is not a single mention of GenSoc.org, Inc. and its recent acquiring

of tax-exempt status. The RWR does however continue to solicity money on

behalf of the for-profit Root$web.com, Inc.

====

"Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best

suits his convictions, but we must all protest. "

---Martin Luther King, Jr.

This has been your Daily Board Show.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

-----------

From merope@Radix.Net Fri Mar 3 07:42:20 2000

Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2000 07:42:18 -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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Are you a good witch or a bad witch?...its Your Daily Board Show!

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

Thursday 2 March 2000-Friday 3 March 2000:

Voting continues on Motion 00-4, to declare the Census Project

representative seat vacant. Thus far, 10 members have voted "yes", one

has abstained, and four have not voted. [Regardless of what the other

four do, this motion has passed.]

Ginger Cisewski forwards to the Board the results of the recently

concluded Census Project election. The Census Project members have

elected Ron Eason as their Coordinator, and have also selected him as

their preferred candidate for the almost vacant CP board seat.

=====

Out of Sight, Out of Mind Corner: The DBS will be taking a break over the

weekend to help our grandma celebrate her 100th birthday. We'll be back

on Tuesday; hopefully by then the Board will be well into voting to seat

Ron Eason as Kay's replacement. You all have a nice weekend!

====

"The most unpardonable sin in society is independence of thought."

---Emma Goldman

This has been your Daily Board Show.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

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