Sep 1-5 1999

From merope@Radix.Net Wed Sep 1 14:27:03 1999

Date: Wed, 1 Sep 1999 14:27:01 -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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Same old same old...its Your Daily Board Show!

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

Monday 30 August 1999:

The NC declares Motion 99-22 passed with 13 aye, 0 nays, and 2 not voting.

Tomorrow's News Today: The NC posts a farewell message to the departing

Board members; a Board members respond with a parable about ethics.

From Bad To Worse Corner: We have a new Board today. Given that several

of the new members have been caught in serious ethical lapses even before

taking office, that's probably all that needs to be said. [We hear the

victory party on Root$web's IRC went well into the night last night].

A Lovely Parting Gift Corner: The DBS news staff has put together a

synopsis of the "year in the life" of the recently departed Board,

summarizing their activities in chronological order. You can see it at:

http://www.radix.net/~merope/history/brdhist.htm

Back In The Money Corner: Its the start of a new month and the commercial

ads are back on Root$web. There's a new one for Real, the company that

makes RealAudio, RealVideo, etc.

"That people do not learn very much from history is the most important of

all the lessons history has to teach."

---Aldous Huxley

This has been your Daily Board Show.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

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From merope@Radix.Net Wed Sep 1 21:48:58 1999

Date: Wed, 1 Sep 1999 21:48:55 -0400 (EDT)

From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>

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

To: usgw_all@listbot.com

Subject: News Flash!

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Wednesday 1 September 1999:

Several CCs are resigning in Michigan over the insistence of one County

Coordinator that she be allowed to post requests for donations

on her USGenWeb county page. A sample resignation letter reads in part:

"For several months there has been so much discord in the MIGenWeb, I have

finally concluded that the favoritism, ethics of some county coordinators,

and a SC whose leadership I sincerely question, is not going to change.

The final blow came when a fellow cc, asking for monetary donations be

sent to her for copies etc., which in my opinion violates USGW

policies...and my own ethics. I feel it cheapens the project and makes

everyone look bad."

Word is that five counties have been pulled so far and and as many as ten

are expected to be pulled in upcoming days. The resignations are taking

place very publicly [some on both CC-L and USGENWEB-ALL] and all are

citing the inappropriate funding request and the perception that

preferential treatment has been given to its poster by the MI SC.

Earlier today, the MI SC took the quesion of allowing CCs to post "funding

requests" as long as they were for the acquisition of records to post

online to the SC list for advice. Reaction among the SCs has been

varied; some tentatively support it and others don't think its such a

great idea. The old Board was discussing this issue on their secret list

last week; it now looks like the new Board has its first crisis.

More news as it develops!

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

From merope@Radix.Net Thu Sep 2 15:43:54 1999

Date: Thu, 2 Sep 1999 15:43:53 -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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How low can we go?...its Your Daily Board Show!

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

Tuesday 31 August 1999:

There is apparently no Board-L activity on this date.

[I say apparently because I have received under separate cover two emails

to Board-L posted on 31 August which are summarized below. Is RW having

trouble with its archives again?]

Board-L posts received "through the grapevine":

Tim Stowell, returning National Coordinator, posts the following message

to the 1998,1999 Advisory Board, "On behalf of the USGenWeb Project

members, I would like to thank you all for your service on the Advisory

Board during this term." To the departing members, he has this to say, "even

though all our times together were not always pleasant, for all the

battles fought, for all the battles lost or won - we still thank you for

taking some of your time away from other activities to devote to the

betterment of this Project." He wishes them well in all their future

endeavors "within and without the Project."

Departing SC rep and Board Secretary Bill Oliver responds, "This is my

stop also. Met some grand people here. My day started with a story which

apparently has been floating around various lists lately. Just to say I'm

goin' fishin'! Have fun everyone!" [He also posts a story about ethical

dilemmas, which no doubt will go right past the Board members who should

pay it the most attention.]

Fun with URLs Corner: Visiting some USGW sites today we find:

http://www.rootsweb.com/~argenweb/

This is Arkansas' state page. It is managed by State Coordinator Betsy

Mills, who also sits on the Advisory Board. It is prominently displaying

a banner advertisement for a commercial company [currently Gateway

computers], with a link to her employer, which is Root$web. I thought

displaying banner advertisements on our pages was a no no. Using our

pages to flack for dollars for our private employers is definitely a no

no.

Next visit http://www.rootsweb.com/~cogenweb/

This is the former home of the COGenWeb which has recently moved to

another server. In its place, using the cogenweb directory, is a non

USGenweb CO genealogy page, which notes multiple times it is not

affiliated with COGenweb or USGenWeb. If you can find the link to the COGW

[it is waaay at the bottom] the link brings up a frame in which Rootsweb's

name is prominently displayed over the correct COGenWeb state page. Why is

a non-USGW page being allowed to use one of the xxgenweb directories?

Next on our tour is http://www.rootsweb.com/~ohgenweb/

This is the former home of the OHGenWeb. Instead of merely putting up a

redirect, like they have for other states that don't have pages on

Root$web [see for example http://www.rootsweb.com/~utgenweb/] they have

instead given the page to someone who has put up a clickable county map,

thus encouraging the bypass of the state page entirely.

Speaking of Ethical Dilemmas Corner: The controversy over the Michigan CC

who is asking for donations from visitors to her county pages has erupted

on the SC list. MI SC Joan Brausch posted two lengthy explanations from

the CC to the list, noting that she has some CCs who are very upset by

this and asking for input from her colleagues. She goes to great pains to

note that the CC in question has been great through the all controversy

and is not using the money to personally benefit.

The SCs' responses are varied [all posts from STATE-COORD-L]:

"As the by-laws read, I agree....it does not say there can be no

soliciting for expenses. I really can't see anything wrong with the way

you are doing it. Very testefully [sic] worded, and does not jump out at

anyone"! [Terry Davis; the ellipses are hers]

"I personally find nothing wrong with what Jen is doing, and think she and

her team have done an absolutely amazing job with Kent County. But I can

see how, given the ambiguity of the relevant By-Law, her Funding FAQ could

easily be construed as one of them thar "blue apples."" [Terri Pettit, AB

member]

"Well, the real question is this; are the State Coordinators prepared to

see "Fundraising FAQs" like Jen Godwin's appearing on multitudes of USGW

county pages? If you approve it for one, you approve it for everyone, and

who wants to have to police just how 2200 plus CCs are using their

solicited funds?" [Fred Smoot]

"My understanding of the no-solicitation loophole was that it was intended

to permit suggestions of donations to existing organizations---whether it

be RootsWeb, the local county gensoc, or whatever. It was not intended as

a loophole to permit the cc to ask for cash to cross their own palm for

whatever reason. (I didn't write the dang things, I know they're badly

written....<g>) [Megan Zurawicz]

"Guess I have to retract my previous opinion....NO...I don't think this is

a good thing for 'donations' to be asked for, for any reason. Just would

open one heck of a can of worms!" [Terry Davis; ellipsese are hers]

"Speaking as WIGenWeb SC I don't think researchers like us asking for

money....As for her asking for funding, this is her hobby. True it is a

hobby that helps others, but it is a hobby. Would any of us ask for

funding for any other hobbies we may have?...We each do what we can. I

personally do not think we should be asking for donations on our pages."

[Vicki Wilson]

"While I appreciate Jen's enthusiasm, I don't believe it is OK to ask for

or receive donations of money of any kind for the Project's pages.

Donations of time, labor, and love are very welcome, though." [Jan

Phillips]

Three Michigan CCs have already resigned in protest, citing their own

concerns about soliciting funds for the CCS on USGW web pages and their

perception of preferential treatment of the Kent county CC by the State

Coordinator. More counties are expected to remove from MIGW in upcoming

days. It is rumored that the Kent county CC has offered to remove her

"Funding FAQ" if it will quell the controversy.

There are couple of interesting things in this issue. One is that both

people who support the CC's attempt to solicit funds on her web page and

those who are opposed cite the same passage in the bylaws in support of

their position. In this case the bylaws apparently "clearly" support both

positions, which probably doesn't surprise anyone. Some SCs are claiming

that since the CC removed the money beg from the front page to a secondary

page she is now in compliance with the bylaws. Others point out that if

"home page" is narrowly defined as "front page", this opens up the

possibility that CCs can do anything they want with their secondary pages.

It is also interesting that a similar situation occurred last year when a

CC put a donations request on his USGW page, soliciting funds to help him

maintain his web page. The arguments made in favor of these solicitations

by each CC are very similar; both stressed that the funds were not for

personal gain but would allow them to improve and expand their

contributions to the Project and were for the "good of the project". Yet

the response was apparently very different. From what I have been told,

the CC involved in last year's dispute was threatened with delinking over

his donations request and its highly likely that the provision in the

bylaws that forbids requests for personal funds on USGW web pages exists

because of last year's controversy. Are the resigning MI CCs right? Is

their colleague being favored with a generous interpretation of the bylaws

because she is a "good" CC who puts data in the Archives and supports RW

and because she's friends with the right people? Or is this truly a

different situation?

New ad slogan seen on Root$web: "How Low Can We Go?" [no comment.]

"There are four types of men in the world: lovers, opportunists,

lookers-on, and imbeciles. The happiest are the imbeciles."

---unknown [found on Tim Stowell's web page]

This has been your Daily Board Show.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

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From merope@Radix.Net Fri Sep 3 19:19:43 1999

Date: Fri, 3 Sep 1999 19:19:42 -0400 (EDT)

From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>

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

To: usgw_all@listbot.com

Subject: Daily Board Show Special Edition

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Root$web's archives are apparently fried again, so there's no report yet

available on whatever conniving the Board is up to. Probably electing

a new Board secretary or writing a loyalty oath or something. So we'll

recap and update some recent news. But first,

THIS JUST IN:

We've been informed that TNGenNet, Inc.'s Executive Board is in the midst

of a vote to move both the TNGen and TNChat Lists off Rootsweb in order

to permit all TNGenWeb County Coordinators to participate in List

Discussions, Votes and other Activities. Although the voting is not yet

concluded, the word is it's a done deal, relieving State Coordinator Fred

Smoot of the need to cast the tie-breaking vote.

Bridgett Smith, former TNGenWeb SC and now a RootsWeb Paid Staffer

attempted to broker a deal designed to preserve the RootsWeb status quo,

suggesting that the official TNGenWeb List remain at Rootsweb, but that

TNChat could move off of RW's server. Bridget admitted that being banned

from Rootsweb.com, Inc.'s facilities no longer requires policy or

guideline violations of any kind since those banned may have done nothing

other than request the return of their list postings due to commercial

usage. Bridgett stated on the TNGen List that, "...one of the results of

pulling any messages out of the mailing list archives off of RootsWeb

is the inability to post to any mailing lists and/or GenConnect Boards

once you have stated emphatically that this is what you want..."

Unfortunately for Bridgett, she hadn't done her homework and the affected

CC was not banned for either policy violations _or_ posting removals, but out

of pique (See http://www.combs-families.org/~combs/). From what we are

told, Bridgett is also the person who refused to sub the CC in question to

the state lists [even though seh was not yet banned] and also refused to

submit her name as a qualified voter in the recent election.

OLD NEWS BUT GOOD NEWS:

Gold Rush: Yesterday, after the DBS story about the non-USGW pages that's

been put on the ~cogneweb directory at Root$web, I received a message from

an anonymous friend, who says:

"The Colorado USGenWeb state pages were removed from the Rootsweb server

about a month ago. There was a separate site set up on those pages,

called COKids. The host of COKids was out of town, when the state pages

were moved, and the COKids pages were not moved at the same time. This

was because the State Coordinator of COGenWeb felt those pages did not

belong to the State Coordinator. The host of COKids asked Brian Leverich

if she could continue using that account for her COKids site. Brian

refused it, so her site had to have a new account created for it. Now, I

find that a new, disgruntled over the move, County Coordinator has been

granted use of that COGenWeb site (still so named) for a brand new

Colorado State page...The 'new' COGenWeb site is set up much the same as

the old COGenWeb site was, therefore, if someone stumbles onto it, they

will automatically use that site, instead of searching for the real

USGenWeb/COGenWeb site!"

According to the USGenWeb Project bylaws, The name, "The USGenWeb

Project," and "The XXGenWeb Project" (where XX is the two-letter postal

code abbreviation for each state) are service marks and reserved

exclusively for The USGenWeb Project and any websites representing The

USGenWeb Project." [Article I] The site that now exists states in several

places that it is not affiliated with the USGneWeb or with COGenWeb, yet

it is allowed to exist under the directory structure that implies that it

is. And the page serves no real purpose, besides being a way to bypass

the real COGW state page and advertise for Root$web. In fact, if you can

find the only link to the actual COGW state page, you will find that it

loads the CoGW page into a frame that prominently displays Root$web's name

over ever page you visit thereafter.

Now why is RW giving directories that were created for USGenWeb use, that

use the xxgenweb format clearly protected by our bylaws, away to

non-project sites? Will they do this for anyone that wants to start an

"XX Genealogy at Root$web" page? Other states that are not on RW have a

simple one-line redirect, but not this one. And not OH either, another

page that recently removed from Rootsweb. Is the Board protesting this

coopting of the project's identity by a "disgruntled" person? If not, why

not?

The Michigan Two-Step: We hear through the grapevine that the "Funding

FaQ" that has been prominently displayed on a MIGW page has finally been

removed. However, in an effort to stem the tide of controversy revolving

around this issue and to keep any more of the state's dirty linen from

beign aired in public, the state coordinator has moved the MIGEN mailing

list off of Rootsweb and onto OneList, where access to the list archives

can be controlled. We've also heard that more CCs are resigning from

MIGEN and placing their counties up for adoption and more may follow

shortly.

There you have it, a Daily Board Show Special Report!

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

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