Oct 1-8 2000

From merope@Radix.Net Sun Oct 1 17:03:35 2000

Date: Sun, 1 Oct 2000 17:03:34 -0400 (EDT)

From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>

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Sunday 1 October 2000:

Shari Handley reminds Tim Stowell that she is still waiting for an answer

to her question regarding "exactly what information was forwarded to

RootsWeb in regards to our domains."

===

"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most

intelligent, but the one most responsive to change."

--Charles Darwin

This has been your Daily Board Show.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

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From merope@Radix.Net Tue Oct 3 13:18:49 2000

Date: Tue, 3 Oct 2000 13:18:48 -0400 (EDT)

From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>

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

Subject: Daily Board Show

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Once more with feeling...its Your Daily Board Show!

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

Tuesday 3 October 2000:

After noting he was out of town all weekend, Tim Stowell informs the Board

that he fowarded the following information regarding the domains to

Root$web: "The changes were: on the Registrant's name for .net (USGenWeb)

from Megan's address, to my address. on the Registrant's name for .org

(USGenWeb) from Rootsweb's address, to my address. Administrative contact

from Nancy Trice as NC to myself as NC. Billing contact - to Holly Timm.

Technical contact - to remain the same - ie Rootsweb since they are

hosting the domain." [hmmm... did our Timmy just transfer the domains to

himself and domicile USGW in Tennessee? None of this information appears

on a whois lookup yet.]

Tim opens the vote on whether to amend Motion 00-29 as suggested by Teri

Pettit nearly a week ago.

Noting that he received only two inquiries and one resume, Tim appoints

Roger Swafford as the new Board Secretary [Ah, the quid pro quo. Looks

like Roger has finally managed to get himself onto the Board.]

Ginger Hayes asks if "this a request for a motion to approve the

appointment?"

Joe Zsedeny moves "that a grievance committee be formed. The committee

shall be composed of at least one CC from each region and one SC selected

by the representative at large. The committee chair shall be chosen from

candidates put forth during the discussion period and an amendment made to

this motion reflecting that choice. The NC will sit on the committee as

provided for in the Bylaws. The committee once seated will number each

grievance, research the background of each and make a recommendation to

the Board for a fair resolution of each complaint within 10 days with ten

day extensions granted at the request of the committee chair. The

committee must keep in mind the limited authority granted the Board in the

Bylaws to resolve grievances." [Is this the best they can come up with?]

Ginger seconds Joe's motion.

===

"The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look

things in the face and know them for what they are."

---Marcus Aurelius

This has been your Daily Board Show.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

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From merope@Radix.Net Wed Oct 4 13:05:30 2000

Date: Wed, 4 Oct 2000 13:05:29 -0400 (EDT)

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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Singing in the rain...its Your Daily Board Show!

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

Wednesday 4 October 2000:

Leaping right into things, newly appointed Board Secretary Roger

Swafford notes that "There is no requirement that an appointee by the

chair be approved. However, an appointment by the chiar is subject to

amendment." He suggests that they may amend the appointment by suggesting

another name; if the amendment receives a second the amendment may proceed

like any other motion.

Tim Stowell notes that his appointment of Roger is not a request for a

motion to approve the appointment, but "an appointment and an announcement

of that fact."

Ginger Hayes notes that "precedent is being thrown out the window again,

in favor of expediency."

Voting on the amendment to Motion 00-29 proceeds. Thus far, two Board

members have voted yes and one has voted no.

In casting her vote, Holly Timm notes that she prefered the simple

[original] version of Motion 00-29, but "in the interest of expediency

will agree to this version."

===

In The News Corner: We hear that the latest version of the Gateway

[computers] magazine contains this blurb about the USGenWeb Project as

part of an article on adoption: "USGenWeb Project www.usgenweb.org This

nonprofit site has extensive links for genealogical research in the U.S.

It includes links to land title records, immigration papers, census data

and other information, such as military listings and how to preserve old

documents and photographs."

Movin' On Up corner: The American History and Genealogy Project has moved

to a new address. They can now be found at: http://www.ahgp.org

They'll Never Learn Corner: MyFamily.com is still trying to find someone

to help them "monetize the RW user base." Our thanks to an alert reader

for pointing this out to us.

http://www.myfamilyinc.com/employment/sales_marketing.htm

===

"Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and

mind will vanish like the evil spirits at the dawn of the day."

This has been your Daily Board Show.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

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From merope@Radix.Net Thu Oct 5 13:52:41 2000

Date: Thu, 5 Oct 2000 13:52:40 -0400 (EDT)

From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>

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

Wednesday 4 October 2000:

Voting proceeds on the amendment to Motion 00-29. Thus far, 7 Board

members have voted yes and 5 have voted no.

Maggie Stewart says she is confused as to why the group is voting on the

amendment. She thinks that "only the person who made the motion and the

person that seconded would have to agree to the changes and then we would

vote on Motion 00-29."

===

End of an Era Corner: We hear that Nancy Cole has recently been elected

as the new TNGenWeb State Coordinator. Congrats to Nancy!

New Zoo Review Corner: The Root$web Review is starting to look more and

more like an Ancestry.com publication with each passing issue. Last week

there was one small line about Ancestry tucked in between other articles;

this week there are two whole articles, one of which advertises Ancestry's

Online Family Tree and Ancestry World Tree, both competitors to RW's

WorldConnect.

Monetizing the RW User Base Corner: Root$web's front page now contains

links to MyFamily.com's online store under "Genealogy Products" and

"Books/CDs/Software/Magazines/Maps". Both links go to Ancestry's online

catalog.

===

"It is the part of a good shepherd to shear his flock, not to skin it."

---Latin Proverb

This has been your Daily Board Show.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

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From merope@Radix.Net Fri Oct 6 13:28:20 2000

Date: Fri, 6 Oct 2000 13:28:19 -0400 (EDT)

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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The fly on the wall...its Your Daily Board Show!

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

Thursday 5 October 2000:

Richard Harrison asks how previous Board Secretaries have been selected.

Friday 6 October 2000:

The amendment to Motion 00-29 is passed with 10 yes votes and 5 no votes.

Tim opens voting on the Motion 00-29A. Thus far one Board member has

voted yes.

Noting that all three previous Board Secretaries have been nominated and

then voted on by the Board, Tim Stowell withdraws his appointment of Roger

Swafford and submits his name as a nominee for the position. He

apologizes for not following protocol.

Tim fires Kevin Fraley as ombudsman "for failure to perform the

duties assigned to him," since he has done nothing with any grievances

forwarded to him in the 4 and 1/2 months since he was appointed. Tim also

says "At the same time and in light of other alternatives, I am abolishing

the ombudsman position." [Oh my, are they about to make poor Kevin the

scapegoat for their failure to do their job?]

Tim gives Joe Zsedeny's motion regarding the formation of a grievance

committee number 00-30 and opens the floor for discussion.

Ken Short moves to amend previous adopted Motion 00-25 [which established

the current method of selecting Board secretaries], as follows:

"That the Board Secretary not be currently serving as a Board member. The

appointee must either be knowledgeable in parliamentary procedure or be

willing to learn proper procedure using Roberts Rules and be well versed

in the Project Bylaws. Duties of the appointee shall be those assigned by

the Chair (NC). The NC shall insure that the secretary be subscribed to

all appropriate mailing lists. As a minimum these lists would be the

USGENWEB-ALL-L, STATE-COORD-L, ARCHIVES-L, the Board-Exec-L and the

Board-L."

Ken notes "Since the duties and responsibilities of the Board Secretary

are defined by the NC, as stated in the original motion, the NC should

have the prerogative of selecting someone he/she feels comfortable with."

While casting his vote on Motion 00-29a, Joe Zsedeny notes "this Board has

no higher responsibility than to insure that the Project name is

protected. This should have been done long ago while previous Boards

shadow boxed other piddling issues but now that we are coming to grips

with it we need to do it right. The motion now on the table is non

threatening, insures the Archives, the Tombstone project and any other

future project the right to be assigned a service mark with "USGenWeb" as

part of the mark. It asks Linda to give up her filing and lose her filing

fee while assuring her the right to use "USGenWeb archives" as a service

mark. Something the Board should keep in mind is that if Linda agrees to

withdraw her filing we can file for "USGenWeb" without further adieu. But

if not we have to have assurance that Linda will ALLOW us to file for our

mark. This is backwards and means Linda is assigning us rights which we

should already own. We should own "USGenWeb" and all derivative marks and

WE should assign usage."

===

Micromanagement Corner: Not content to run USGenWeb into the ground and

barely able to contain his glee that Fred Smoot is no longer the TNGW SC,

Our Vainglorious Leader is busy helping new TNGW SC Nancy Cole to run her

shop. Thus far, Tim has helpfully forwarded her name to the USGW

webmaster [and chastised Pam for not changing the info fast enough],

subbed Nancy to SC-L [and unsubbed Fred] and reminded Nancy that Fred

needs to be removed from the TN-Board list. Nancy has more or less

thanked Tim for his help and politely told him to back off.

Scratching Each Other's Back Corner: The latest Ancestry Update email

contains the following blurb: "Visit RootsWeb.com, the oldest & largest

free genealogy site on the Internet. RootsWeb offers a wide range of

features to help you find your ancestors. Visit www.RootsWeb.com." It

also contains a mention of the "Using Ancestry.com" video, starring

USGenWeb's own Jake Gehring [he's a CC for Summit county in UTGenWeb].

Monetizing The RW User Base Corner: The following is excerpted from an

email sent out by Amy Roberts, Affiliate Marketing Manager for

Ancestry.com:

"Rootsweb.com, a MyFamily.com, Inc. website, is the largest free genealogy

site on the Internet. It contains thousands of websites with great

information and thousands of mailing lists. Also, it has millions and

millions of advertising impressions that go unpaid each month. I would

like to get some feedback from each of you as to your interest in

advertising on Rootsweb - either with the traditional banner or button

advertising, or in some of the many mailing lists that are sent out each

month....Here are some ideas for this proposition: A very low CPM...for

any Ancestry Affiliate which would like to advertise on this

Rootsweb...this advertising, especially the mailing lists, could be very

targeted to the specific individuals that you want to reach. For example,

your website deals solely with the surname 'Bishop' - we could target for

you any mailing list that is about the surname Bishop and in a sense you

would sponsor that mailing list for the month or the number of impressions

that you want to have shown...I would really appreciate any feedback that

you can give me at ancaffiliate@ancestry-inc.com."

===

"To be omnipotent but friendless is to reign"

---Percy Bysse Shelly

This has been your Daily Board Show.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

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From merope@Radix.Net Sat Oct 7 09:00:45 2000

Date: Sat, 7 Oct 2000 09:00:45 -0400 (EDT)

From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>

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Friday 6 October 2000:

Voting on Motion 00-29a proceeds. Thus far, three Board members have

voted yes and two have voted no.

While casting her vote Teri Pettit points that Tim's calling for the vote

without first having a discussion period is a good example of what she

meant when she said that the Board does not need "to stick to the exact

letter of parliamentary procedure." She notes" ....there are good

reasons to want to move this along even though it is not according to

PP...it wasn't very fair for you to allude to my wanting to use

parliamentary procedure "only when it was convenient for those with the

most votes", when it should have been clear from my words that I was

referring to exactly this kind of informality for the sake of avoiding

unecessary delays, which you have been by far the most frequent utilizer

of (if not an explicit advocate.)

Ken Short, apparently speaking for the Trademark Committee, posts the

following [which was, according to him, ignored when he posted it on

Board-Exec]: "After due consideration, we recommend that the AB apply for

the Service Mark "The USGenWeb Project" , as soon as possible. Along

those lines, after reading reams of stuff about TM's, SM's etc, we need to

have Linda Lewis write a letter stating she has no objection to us doing

this. After studying the information available on line in regard to the

legalities involved, the only way there would be a clash would be if Linda

filed an objection to the Project acquiring the SM's." Ken moves "I move

that the Board direct the NC to apply for the Service Mark "The USGenWeb

Project" as soon as possible."

Ginger Hayes asks would be the registrant on such an application and notes

"Ironic twist isn't it. Having to ask Linda for permission to register our

own name when she is the one that only has permission to use it. I guess

it's finally happened.. an individual has taken possession of USGenWeb,

now who's going to protect the Archives from Linda?"

Ellen Pack agrees the project should file for the mark, but says "ask

permission? I don't think so."

Richard Howland asks "where the NC is supposed to get the money for this

filing? What address is to be used? From what I have been reading. We

would only be filing for "USGenWeb"? Maybe we would be better off

applying for "WasUSGenWeb"?" He also asks of Ken "who will be paying for

the SM next year? Who will be paying for next ten years? While I thinking

about it, who will be paying for the domains in future?"

Maggie Stewart suggests combining Ken's motion with the one she withdrew a

few weeks ago. Ken has not objection but points out that "it should be a

service mark, since that is what we offer, a service. Trademark is not

really applicable to us."

Richard Harrison moves "that the Board instruct the National Coordinator

to immediately prepare an application for the Service Mark "The USGenWeb

Project" on behalf of the project, and to file the application with the

U.S. Patent and Trademarks Office (PTO)as soon as funds are available. I

further move that the National Coordinator be instructed to use the name

"The USGenWeb Project" whereever possible in the application and where the

name of an individual is required he be authorized to use his own name or

the name of the current Representative-at-Large, as appropriate. I further

move that the National Coordinator be instructed to request Linda Lewis to

communicate with the U.S. Patent and Trademarks Office stating she has no

objection to our application. I further move that the National

Coordinator be instructed to keep the Board apprised on a day-to-day basis

of the progress in preparing the application and that he be instructed to

immediately consult with the Board in regard to any difficulties and/or

delays in preparing the application. Additionally, once the application is

submitted the National Coordinator shall keep the Board apprised on a

regular basis of the progress of the application and of any additional

communications to or from the U.S. Patent and Trademarks Office. These

actions are taken with the understanding that monies will be collected

privately to cover the costs of the application."

[Yes, we now have three and possibly four motions regarding the trademark

active.]

===

Today's quote was sent in by a reader:

"All that new person would be doing is what B and K tried to do for

years, make RW slightly profitable...RW does need to contribute to the

financial coffers of MyFamily just as Ancestry.com does. If you think

asking for contributions wasn't monetizing your "cousins", I don't know

what would constitute "monetizing"."

---RW employee Vicki Lindsay Thauvin, LISTOWNERS-L, 6 Oct 2000

This has been your Daily Board Show.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

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From merope@Radix.Net Sun Oct 8 10:02:17 2000

Date: Sun, 8 Oct 2000 10:02:16 -0400 (EDT)

From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>

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Saturday 7 October 2000:

Voting on Motion 00-29a proceeds, with 6 yes votes, four no votes, and one

abstention thus far.

Maggie Stewart seconds Ken Short's motion 99-25 in order to allow the NC

to appoint a Board Secretary. Tim Stowell gives it motion number 00-32

and opens the floor for discussion.

Maggie seconds Ken's motion to direct the NC to register a service mark

for "The USGenWeb Project". [These two are quite the tag team these

days.] Tim gives the motion number 00-31 and opens the floor for

discussion.

Shari Handley seconds Richard Harrison's motion also directing the NC to

register a service mark, noting that it "seems much more complete and

clear" to her. Tim gives it motion number 00-33 and opens the floor for

discussion.

Maggie moves to amend Ken's service mark motion to read as follows: "I

move that Mr. Tim Stowell, National Coordinator and Ms. Holly Timm, County

Coordinator Representative At Large apply on behalf of the USGenWeb

Project for a Service Mark. 1. Apply for the Service Mark "The USGenWeb

Project". 2. Create an application for federal Service Mark registration.

This includes: name, citizenship, address and telephone number of the

trademark owner and the owner's entity type. 3. Submit application,

example of use (for applications where you are already using the Service

Mark) and application fee (currently $325) to the United States Patent and

Trademark Office. (PTO) a. The monies for this will need to be

collected and someone appointed by the AB to "handle" the monies.

(Suggestion: Someone with a scanner to post copies of receipts etc. ought

to be selected or else find two persons in close enough proximity to

jointly establish a bank account for the project with dual signatures

required to disburse funds.) 4. Service Mark is published in the PTO's

"Official Gazette" at which time anyone that feels damaged by your

application has 30 days to contest your application. a. Request that Linda

Lewis write a letter stating she has no objection to this application and

submit it with the application and/or directly to the PTO. The Bylaws will

also need a modification. The "control" of the Service Mark, should we be

able to get it needs to pass with each election to the positions of

National Coordinator and County Coordinator Representative at Large.

(Suggestion: Set up a committee to draft the needed changes to the

bylaws.)"

Pam Reid thinks "we should apply for the Service Mark "USGenWeb" rather

than "The USGenWeb Project" for the reasons that others have already

stated so well. Acquiring the rights to "USGenWeb" would hopefully

prevent others from using "USGenWeb" in any part of another application."

Shari Handley agrees with this statement.

Richard Harrison says he would be willing to amend his motion if there is

consensus on Pam's comment.

Joe Zsedeny thinks the Board should apply for a service mark on

"USGenWeb", since it "would serve as the umbrella under which all

subsequent deriviative marks could be assigned."

Pam says "Many of us feel that filing for "The USGenWeb Project" leaves

the door wide open for other people to file for service marks that include

USGenWeb in the name. It appears from what I have read on this issue,

filing for and obtaining the mark "USGenWeb" would close that door...It

just seems that this avenue would give us more protection against improper

use of our name for other projects, sites, etc."

Richard Harrison asks Ken if the Trademark Committee discussed this and

what their feeling was about it.

Ken says the committee did discuss this, and notes "The majority felt we

should go with "The USGenWeb Project", as I reported. However, the

feeling is as long as we get a service mark that will protect and

restrict the use of the term "USGenWeb xxx", it will be ok." He notes

that the committee did send a recommendation to the Board, but it is only

a recommendation and it is now the Board's responsibility to deal with it.

Pam Reid forwards a message from project member John Schunk pertaining to

Motion 00-29a. Some excerpts: "I would like to speak in favor of the

motion...currently before the USGenWeb Advisory Board (Motion 00-29A). I

believe it will best allow USGenWeb to trademark, and thus legally

protect, our name..."USGenWeb" (rather than "The USGenWeb Project") is

what the Board should seek to trademark in the Project's name...The

alternative course of action appears to be to accept the trademarking of

"USGenWeb Archives" by one or more members of the Project in the hopes

that the Advisory Board can still trademark "The USGenWeb Project" in the

name of the Project...this makes "USGenWeb" a non-unique mark, and thus

opens up the possibility for other individuals or groups to trademark any

other combinations of words which include "USGenWeb"...If the Advisory

Board is able to trademark "USGenWeb" in the Project's name as a unique

mark, however, that will give the Project control over

"USGenWeb-anything"...Thus, I encourage the Board to adopt the motion

currently on the floor."

In regards to Motion 00-31 [Board secretary motion] Joe notes that "The NC

should certainly have someone he/she feels comfortable with but so should

the Board. Like most parliamentary bodies the chairman nominates and the

Board confirms." He believes this will keep both parties comfortable with

the results. Ginger Hayes agrees with Joe and Richard Howland also points

out that it would be nice if the constituents that the Board members

represent also "could be comfortable."

===

Today's quote was provided by a reader:

"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit

it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can

exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary

right to dismember or overthrow it."

---Abraham Lincoln

This has been your Daily Board Show.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

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