Nov 22-30 1999

From merope@Radix.Net Mon Nov 22 16:56:25 1999

Date: Mon, 22 Nov 1999 16:56:22 -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.SV4.3.96.991122061921.7969C-100000@saltmine.radix.net>

MIME-Version: 1.0

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

Status: O

X-Status:

Ignorance of the law is no excuse...its Your Daily Board Show!

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

Saturday 20 November 1999:

The NC posts a notice that Motion 99-27, adopting "alternate logos" has

passed [yes, you read that right], with 8 yes votes, 5 no votes, 1

abstention, and one member not voting. [according to my note, that should

be 6 no votes]

Say What?! Corner: Here's the relevant section of the bylaws covering the

passage of motions:

Article VIII, section 2: "Issues shall require a 2/3 majority, of those

board members voting, to pass."

15 board members voted, thus 10 yes votes were needed to pass Motion

99-27. Only 8 Board members voted yes. Even if only 14 members voted

[by the NC's count], 9 yes votes would be neeed to pass the motion. What

is wrong with this picture?

Well, as it turns out, our NC appears to be unfamiliar with this

particular section of the bylaws. But not to worry; Board member Rich

Howland has posted that the "mistake" was caught on Saturday and a public

announcement was supposedly made Sunday night. I can't find anyone who

has actually seen the "public announcement" but I'm sure they'll let us

in on it eventually.

The Warm Glow of Capitalism Corner: Some readers have pointed out an

another example of capitalism lurking in the USGW. You can see it for

yourself at: http://www.tlc-gen.com/richmondco/. This page, which

contains little other than a list of books for sale by its host, manages

not to link to the extensive information available for the county in Linda

Lewis' Archives, mentions USGW once in a secondary page, and fails to

display the USGW logo. Apparently enquiries to the CC and the SC about

this odd state of affairs results in evasive and dismissive replies that

imply that questions about this particular website are not an uncommon

occurence.

"The best things in life are free

But you can tell me 'bout the birds and bees.

Now gimme money, that's what I want."

--The Beatles, "Money" [Radford/Cordy]

This has been your Daily Board Show.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

-------

From merope@Radix.Net Tue Nov 23 14:15:45 1999

Date: Tue, 23 Nov 1999 14:15:40 -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.SV4.3.96.991123061720.20919A-100000@saltmine.radix.net>

MIME-Version: 1.0

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

Status: O

X-Status:

He who laughs last thinks slowest...its Your Daily Board Show!

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

Sunday 21 November 1999:

The NC posts a retraction of his message from yesterday declaring Motion

99-27 passed, saying instead that the motion has failed with 8 yes votes,

6 no votes, 1 abstention, and 1 member not voting. He apologizes for the

error.

Teri Pettit posts a follow up message concerning the alternate logos,

saying "Since there was clearly a sizable body of opinion in favor of a

new logo, we should put the issue before the membership." She suggests a

multiple choice ballot so that most members could find some position they

could support; the choices she suggests are as follows:

A. Keep the current logo choices with no additional variations

B. Keep the current logo design with a variation that adds Hawaii and

Alaska

C. Allow the new proposed logo designs as variations in addition to the

current logo design

D. Replace the current logo with the new design, with a grace period

for transitioning out the old one

She is careful to note that she is not suggesting a bylaws amendment and

that she is not making a formal motion because she wants to work out the

wording beforehand so as to avoid the necessity of formal amendments.

She also suggests that the Board work on setting up a mechanism whereby

issues might be put before the membership. She notes that such a mechanism

"should be easy to participate in, secure, and easy to ignore if you don't

want to be bothered by politics, as some CC's don't." She points out that

since "multiple choice ballots can easily lead to a failure of any choice

to get a majority, and we don't want to put people through multiple

run-off votes, it would make things easier if the ballot involved ranking

your choices."

News From Other Places Corner: Familysearch.com, the website of the Church

of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has added a significant amount of

information to its website, as of Monday Nov 22. The new information

includes 240 million names from Western Europe, Scandinavia, and Mexico

[It appears that the complete IGI is now online]. They've also announced

that early next year they will place the index to the Pedigree Resource

File, which contains family tree information uploaded by users, online.

According to an article in the Salt Lake Tribune, FamilySearch averages

7.5-10 million hits a week, and has had more than 1.5 billion hits since

it went online 6 months ago.

For those of who would like to order census CDs for just about the

cheapest price going, you might want to check out Heritage Quest. They

have CDs containing scanned images availabe for $19.95 for 1790, 1800,

1810, 1820,1830, 1870, and 1900, and intend to have them available for

all census years in a few months. Each CD has a complete NARA microfilm

on it, not just one county [cities or counties that span more than film

will appear on separate CDs]. If you are interested, please visit

http://www.heritagequest.com, and view their information on "Digital

Microfilm". [disclaimer: I'm not a member, stockholder, of relative of

HeritageQuest, just a happy consumer!]

"We're all proud of making little mistakes. It gives us the feeling we

don't make any big ones."

---Andy Rooney

This has been your Daily Board Show.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

-----

From merope@Radix.Net Wed Nov 24 11:11:55 1999

Date: Wed, 24 Nov 1999 11:11:50 -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.SV4.3.96.991124061049.17815C-100000@saltmine.radix.net>

MIME-Version: 1.0

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

Status: O

X-Status:

NOW how much would you pay?...its Your Daily Board Show!

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

Monday 22 November 1999:

There is no Board-L traffic on this date.

New Name, Same Face Corner: The MOGW has recently held an election to

replace its long-time SC, Megan "The Pagan" Zurawicz. The new SC is Larry

Flesher, and the new ASCs are Yvonne James-Henderson and Jerry Holland.

Megan posted her goodbye to the SC list last night. And in over in MIGW,

long-time Archives file manager Denny Zank has just been elected to

replace Joan Brausch as State Coordinator of that project. He ran

unopposed. MIGW was also attempting to pass an amendment to its state

guidelines that prevent any one CC from having more than three counties in

the state; last we heard the vote on that amendment was too close to call.

Sour Grapes Corner: News reached us last night of an interesting

development in the new Migrations project. It seems that someone placed a

javascript in the code for the VAGenWeb migrations page [located at

http://www.rootsweb.com/~vagenweb/migrtion.htm], which is not affiliated

with the Migrations project. This code has the effect of bypassing the

Virginia Migrations page entirely if you try to use your back button to

return to it from the VAGW migrations page; some people reported that they

got stuck in VAGW and could not back out without typing in a new URL. The

VAGenWeb migrations page does not appear to have a host, but we've heard

through the grapevine the rumor that La Linda herself tried to adopt the

VA Migrations page and was turned down because someone else had already

adopted the state. Not to worry, though; the fine folks at the Migrations

project have fixed the problem and this petty little deceit should not

trouble their visitors.

"Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don't have brains

enough to be honest."

---Benjamin Franklin

This has been your Daily Board Show.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

------

From merope@Radix.Net Thu Nov 25 09:00:58 1999

Date: Thu, 25 Nov 1999 09:00:57 -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.SV4.3.96.991125082530.24940A-100000@saltmine.radix.net>

MIME-Version: 1.0

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

Status: O

X-Status:

Gobble 'til you wobble...its Your Daily Board Show!

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

Tuesday 23 November 1999:

There is no Board-L traffic on this date.

New Zoo Review Corner: Root$web has announced new features for its

pay-only Personalized Mailing Lists. Now the PML will work "with ANY of

RootsWeb's almost 140,000 message boards AND with the RootsWeb Surname

List". It is still available only to RW's paying customers.

"We kept a daye of thanksgivinge in all the plantations."

---Governor John Winthrop, Massachusetts Bay Colony, July 8, 1630, on

the occasion of the Colony's first Thanksgiving

This has been your Daily Board Show.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

---------

From merope@Radix.Net Fri Nov 26 07:32:40 1999

Date: Fri, 26 Nov 1999 07:32:39 -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.SV4.3.96.991126071609.20020C-100000@saltmine.radix.net>

MIME-Version: 1.0

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

Status: O

X-Status:

58 million dead turkeys later...its Your Daily Board Show!

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

Wednesday 24 November 1999:

There is no Board-L traffic on this date.

"It is in the extremes that our philosophies are tested, and those of us

who are serious do not set aside our ethics merely because in some cases

they have become inconvenient or distasteful.

---Piers Anthony

This has been your Daily Board Show.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

------------

From merope@Radix.Net Sat Nov 27 07:31:35 1999

Date: Sat, 27 Nov 1999 07:31:34 -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.SV4.3.96.991127071729.29321A-100000@saltmine.radix.net>

MIME-Version: 1.0

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

Status: O

X-Status:

Gone to the dogs...its Your Daily Board Show!

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

Thursday 25 November 1999:

There is no Board-L traffic on this date [for which we _all_ give

thanks!<g>]

"Forcing the issue is always worth it."

---Jello Biafra

This has been your Daily Board Show.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

-----------

From merope@Radix.Net Sun Nov 28 08:51:03 1999

Date: Sun, 28 Nov 1999 08:51:02 -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.SV4.3.96.991128072937.21828A-100000@saltmine.radix.net>

MIME-Version: 1.0

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

Status: O

X-Status:

I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints...its Your

Daily Board Show!

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

Friday 26 November 1999:

Zoe Zsedeny makes the following motion: "I make a motion that Megan be

accorded full membership priveleges on the State Coordinator List for as

long as she desires to remain there." In support of this motion he cites

Megan's "unselfish actions allow us today to even consider such a motion."

He "shudders to think" of the "fate of this project had other hands been

at the helm", and notes "Megan was under no compulsion nor pressure to

turn this from a more or less autocratic to a democratic organization

other than her desire to do the right thing. Her comments and experience

are of real value to us so that the favorable passage of this motion

benefits us and honors her." [Why not just canonize her?]

Betsy Mills seconds the motion.

Holly Fee-Timm sweetens the pot by adding "I'd like to broaden that just a

tad... I think it appropriate that any and all past NC's be accorded that

privilege." [Although, I _do_ look forward to seeing them invite Jeff

Murphy back to the SC list.]

Ginger Hayes asks if it might not be appropriate to ask the SCs if they

would like all the old NCs to be subbed to the list [most are already,

anyways], since it is their required list.

Tim Stowell notes that although the gesture is nice, "it would be helpful

to know if any of the past NCs want to be on the SC list."

Can You Say Oligarchy Corner? Let's focus for a moment on the many

wondrous things St. Megan the Good has done for the project. 1) She

and her board maneuvered in secret to remove a State Coordinator from her

position, apparently based on the complaint of one person, and inserted a

more "Root$web friendly" SC in her place; 2) She presided over the Dill

fiasco and apparently fully supported the smear campaign conducted against

them, despite the fact that Lucy was a personal friend of hers and

vacationed with her; her actions during this time are at least partially

responsible for the current fractured nature of the project and the deep

animosity and mistrust the factions hold for each other; 3) She allowed

and apparently fully supported [since she signed it] the incorrect and

misleading "Announcement" published project-wide on April 4, 1998

concerning USGenweb, Inc., in which the ownership of usgenweb.org and

usgenweb.net are misrepresented, and in which the smear campaign against

the Dills apparently became USGW policy; 4) She also presided over the

whole-sale handing over of the project to Root$web; perhaps by

coincidence, she now has a paying job there; 5) She had the records of her

hand-picked board destroyed when people began to ask her questions about

the Board's deliberations over the Dill episode and other incidents; 6)

She was a member of the Black Helicopters, a small secret group that ran

the project nearly from the end of Jeff Murphy's tenure as NC to around

the time of the USGenWeb, Inc. epidose; she herself was chosen as NC by

this small and insular group in a secret meeting, and last but not least,

7) she left us the "democratically" elected NC and Advisory Board.

Following her sterling example, this Board continues to meet in secret and

maintains an unarchived list for this purpose. Although Megan did manage

to lay a thin veneer of "democracy" over business-as-usual, she did

relatively little to change the culture of hidden control and

group-oriented power politics, leaving a crippled and bitter USGW for her

_numerous_ successors [we've had more NCs since she left office a year ago

than we had in the two preceeding years.]

And now some Board members want to honor her "democratic" accomplishments

by autocratically telling the State Coordinators who may and who may not

subscribe to their list. It is indeed a fitting tribute.

"Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms [of government]

those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations,

perverted it into tyranny."

---Thomas Jefferson, 1778

This has been your Daily Board Show.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

-------

From merope@Radix.Net Mon Nov 29 11:04:20 1999

Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1999 11:04:19 -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.SV4.3.96.991129064823.9579A-100000@saltmine.radix.net>

MIME-Version: 1.0

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

Status: O

X-Status:

Drop the chalupa...its Your Daily Board Show!

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

Saturday 27 November 1999:

There is no Board-L traffic on this date.

Working For the Clampdown Corner: National Coordinator Tim Stowell has

reminded the State Coordinators that bylaws do exist and its their

responsibility to enforce them [interesting coming from a SC who doesn't

enforce them himself, but there you go]. In a message to the SCs

yesterday, Tim cites relevant sections of the bylaws and says "Please

remind your CCs that the National logo or the alternative logo of the

soaring eagle is not an option but that it must be included prominently on

the initial page of their site....Also please remind them that no

commercial activity should take place on the initial page as described

above in Section 2 and that their sites need to conform to the other

provisions described above." He lets the SCs know that his reminder comes

"after numerous complaints from visitors and other CCs regarding sites

across the Project."

What Lineages Project? Corner: Also on the State Coordinator list, SC

emeritus Megan "Not Gone Yet" Zurawicz is trying desperately to find a new

coordinator for the Lineages Project, one of the least well-known of the

Special Projects. According to St. Megan, "We're about to lose a project

here thru lack of staff if anybody cares...." It is her suggestion that if

the general consensus is that its not worth the trouble, "then let's shut

it down gracefully and not leave Sam hanging out there." The current

coordinatory of Lineages, Sam Sneed, has not accepted new entries for nine

months and has been advertising for someone willing to do a "non-hostile

takeover" [whatever that means] of the project and reactivate the pages.

So far, he's had no takers.

The Results Are In Corner: Dick Eastman has announced the results of his

annual "Best Genealogy Website" vote, and the results this year are

interesting. Root$web still didn't win, but they did make second place

[which, according to one of my more competitive friends, is just the first

loser <g>], and two-time former winner Cyndi's List dropped to fifth place

after newcomers The Genealogy Registry and Surname Exchange and

FamilySearch.org [the LDS' new website]. Number one was the Hessen Web

site at: http://users.rootsweb.com/~deuhes/Hessen/index.htm. As Dick

Eastman pointed out, the top four vote-getters this year are all sites

that offer lots of free data to the visitor. Congrats to all the winners!

Today's quote is from a reader:

"I am grateful for all my problems. After each one was overcome, I became

stronger and more able to meet those that were still to come. I grew in

all my difficulties."

---J.C. Penney

This has been your Daily Board Show.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

-------