From merope@Radix.Net Mon Oct 9 13:51:14 2000
Date: Mon, 9 Oct 2000 13:51:13 -0400 (EDT)
From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>
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Having a bad hair day...its Your Daily Board Show!
*warning* contains editorial content. Read at your own risk!
Sunday 8 October 2000:
Joe Zsedeny moves to amend Motion 00-30 to read: "The committee shall be
composed of at least one CC from each region and one SC selected by the
Representative at Large. But in any event an odd number of committee
members shall be appointed so as to prevent tie votes. Richard Harrison
will serve as the committee chairman. The Chairman will select a
co-chairman from among the committee members. 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. Any committee member(s), except the NC, named in a complaint will
be excused from hearing and voting on that complaint and an alternate(s)
will be selected by the chairman or his co-chairman to insure an odd
number of votes. The committee must be mindful of the limited authority
granted the Board in the Bylaws to resolve grievances." Ginger Hayes
seconds this motion.
Ken Short tells them they are going about it wrong and he has several
messages about it from constituents. He publishes something that appears
to be one of these: "This is a gross violation of parliamentary procedures
and bylaws as well. For a very good reason, the bylaws clearly specified
any grievance be sent to a member of the Board and referred to a OUTSIDE
grievance committee. Under NO circumstances should a NC or any one else be
on such committee...The procedure is quite clear - the committee has to be
either 3 or 5, nothing more. And the members have to be DISINTERESTED.
Having a CC from each region will practically destroy the whole
process...In case of the USGW it should be like this: 1. Grievance from a
state/region is sent to a Board member. 2. The Board (UNDER NO
CIRCUMSTANCE should void it except clearly frivolous ones) authorize the
committee immediately and appoint 3 to 5 CC plus a SC from different
regions except that region that is affected to ensure absolute
impartiality. The identity of the members of that grievance committee is
not announced on any list whatsoever to ensure impartiality...3. The
recommendations from that committee should be made without undue
delay...to the Board. 4. Under NO circumstance the Board be allowed to
make any action worse than what the committee recommends...5. That
committee is dissolved immediately."
Monday 9 October 2000:
Tim Stowell announces the final vote county for Motion 00-29a. There were
7 yes votes, 4 no votes, and 1 abstention. The motion fails for not
meeting the 2/3 requirement.
Tim opens discussion on Joe's proposed amendment to Motion 00-30.
Joe says Ken's comments on the Grievance Committee motion are well taken
and he realized they aren't following RRoO to the letter. However, he
notes "circumstances between face to face board meetings and online board
meetings are different...f only occasional grievances were to be heard RRs
could easily be applied. But considering the number of grievances already
stacked up unheard a standing committee can function to sort through and
move the process along...Many grievances can be resolved by individual
Board members if they take the time to answer complaints promptly and
civilly...RRs are a guide and if we slavishly try to follow every dictate
nothing would get done." He says he's not partial to any particular
solution to the problem, but does suggest that "The more we rely on our
volunteers the quieter and more harmonious this Project will become. We
have to reach a point where the "them" is removed from "us and them"."
===
Our Readers Write Corner: Prompted by the recent spectacle of our Board
having three competing motions regarding the USGenWeb service mark
application, an anonymous correspondend writes to ask: "Does no one see
that by asking permission from Linda Lewis and then sending on a copy of
this permission, they are stating that she has the right to the name
USGenWeb and is the rightful owner of the name. Once done no objection
can be put to her ownership. This is the biggest sell out todate, with the
blessing of our NC."
All we can do is point out that a goodly number of our Board members are
apparently less interested in promoting USGenWeb's interests than they are
in protecting Linda Lewis and _her_ interests. They appear to wish to
see her application protected, even if they have to doom USGW's in the
process. Go figure.
Corrections Corner: We are reliably informed that Our Charming Leader did
_not_ unsub his rival Fred Smoot from the SC list as reported here
previously. Fred did that himself, thus depriving Tim of a parting shot.
We hear Timmy is still steaming over it.
===
Today's quote is sent in by a reader:
"This of course from the bozo, who forcibably stopped the South from
leaving when it so desired."
---Tim Stowell [responding to yesterday's quote, which was by Abraham
Lincoln]
This has been your Daily Board Show.
-Teresa Lindquist
merope@radix.net
-------
Daily Board Show, (c) 2000 by Teresa Lindquist, all rights reserved.
From merope@Radix.Net Tue Oct 10 13:36:36 2000
Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2000 13:36:30 -0400 (EDT)
From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>
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Subject: Daily Board Show
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*warning* contains editorial content. Read at your own risk!
Monday 9 October 2000:
Maggie moves to amend Motion 00-30 to read: "I move the AB create a
standing Grievance Committee (GC) as follows: 1) The committee shall
consist of twelve USGenWeb members elected by ballot (Robert's Rules of
Order, page 483 a) from open nominations of candidates by each Advisory
Board member in turn until sufficient candidates have been elected. A
majority shall elect, members shall serve until September 1st or until
their successors are elected. Nominees shall consist of 7 CC's and 5 SC's
with no two committee members affiliated with the same state. 2) The
Advisory Board shall elect a Committee Chairperson by a second ballot
comprised of those elected to committee membership. A majority shall
elect. 3) The National Coordinator as an ex-officio member, has the right,
but not the obligation, to participate in the proceedings of the
committee, and is not counted in the quorum. 4) The committee is
authorized to obtain any information deemed necessary for investigation
and evaluation of grievances, including but not limited to public and
private e-mails, obtaining statements from the parties involved, and other
USGenWeb members, or other persons as related to the investigation or
determination of a recommendation to the Advisory Board. 5) The committee
shall meet on a closed unarchived email list under the same restrictions
of secrecy regarding deliberations as for executive session of the
Advisory Board. 6) The committee deliberations shall adhere to accepted
parliamentary procedures for committees and USGenWeb bylaws. Nine members
shall constitute a quorum for the conduct of committee business. A 2/3
majority of members voting on main motions/recommendations is required for
approval. 7) The Grievance Committee Chair shall submit reports directly
to the NC. The NC shall present the report to the Advisory Board in
Executive Session. Recommendations of the Grievance Committee are not
binding upon the AB for administrative or disciplinary action toward the
person(s) involved. 8) Supplemental instructions may be given to the
committee in accordance accepted parliamentary procedures."
Regarding Ken Short's motion regarding the trademark committee [Motion
00-31], Teri Pettit asks "I thought we were waiting for the report of the
Trademark Committee." [Interesting story about that...there is no "report
of the Trademark Committee. They met for a bit, chatted a bit, voted on a
proposal by the the Chair, and then were dismissed. The proposal they
voted on more or less became Motion 00-31.]
===
Sour Grapes Corner: A correspondent writes to give us a head up on an
interesting article in an upcoming issue of the Genexchange Newsletter [if
its not already out]. One of the features of this newsletter is a column
highlighting the virtues of other online genealogy websites. This weeks'
focus is on Gensite, a feature of Genealogy.org which is hosted by
Root$web. Gensite ranks genealogy sites based on page loads and thus
should serve as a useful listing. However, it appears that not only does
Gensite have a few problems, but that the listed technical support staff
are less than interested in helping to resolve them. The Genexchange
article notes the following problems with the Gesnite system: ""...the
number of recorded button loads on our GenExchange site varied widely from
hour to hour. Sometimes the number of loads the Gensite had recorded were
less than they were only an hour previously...The information found at
Genealogy.org indicates they record the number of button loads, but their
numbers simply did not match the ground truth as evidenced from our own
web logs...In our third week of participation on the GenSite system we've
noted that it undercounts the number of times their button loads on our
site by a factor of many times on a daily basis. Consequently the listing
for the GenExchange is placed much lower in their ranking system than it
otherwise would have been had the correct number of impressions been
recorded by their system." After several attempts to correct the
situation via a technical support person who did not answer questions and
seemed both uninterested and uninformed, the Genexchange rep contacted RW
General Manager Charles Merrin, who did not even bother to respond.
While it is not known whether or not these problems affect other
websites, we find it interesting that the website they do affect is the
one that RW unsuccesfully tried to buy right before the sell-out to
MyFamily.com.
===
"We have a natural right to make use of our pens as of our tongues, at our
peril, risk and hazard."
---Voltaire, "Liberty of the Press"
This has been your Daily Board Show.
-Teresa Lindquist
merope@radix.net
-------
Daily Board Show, (c) 2000 by Teresa Lindquist, all rights reserved.
From merope@Radix.Net Thu Oct 12 12:17:47 2000
Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2000 12:17:46 -0400 (EDT)
From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>
To: Daily Board Show <usgw_all@listbot.com>
Subject: Daily Board Show
Message-ID: <Pine.SV4.3.96.1001012121600.26488C-100000@saltmine.radix.net>
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*warning* contains editorial content. Read at your own risk!
Wednesday 11 October 2000:
Barbara Dore seconds Maggie's amendment to Motion 00-30, noting that it
would "be proper and at the same time fairer to everyone involved." She
also notes that it "allows for a broader base and would not be hampered by
the absence of one or two members being out of touch at any given time."
[Babs has an interesting idea of fairness. This amendment inexplicably
leaves Special Projects members out of consideration for positions on the
proposed grievance committee, and has no provision for actually notifying
the parties to a grievance of their findings.]
Ken Short asks why the Chair [of the proposed grievance committee] has to
elected by the Board; this looks like micromanagement to him.
Thursday 12 October 2000:
Tim Stowell calls for a vote on Motion 00-31 [the motion to amend Motion
00-25 to allow the NC to appoint the Board Secretary]. Thus far, one
member has voted yes and four have voted no.
Tim opens the amendment to Motion 00-30 for discussion.
===
Into the Fray Corner: This week's Root$web Review has this little blurb
about FamilyDiscovery.com:
"Many of our readers have expressed concern, outrage, and frustration at
the FamilyDiscovery.com site. MyFamily.com, including RootsWeb and
Ancestry, is currently investigating these concerns, and will respond as
appropriate under current Fair Use Copyright and Truth in Advertising
laws. In the meantime, users who have their own concerns or conflicts with
this site can file their own complaint directly with the Federal Trade
Commission's (FTC) Bureau of Consumer Protection by visiting
https://www.ftc.gov/ftc/complaint.htm The FTC has the power to
investigate your concerns regarding FamilyDiscovery.com, and to take
appropriate action."
Well, better late than never, I guess, but we do note that they make no
mention of Kindred Konnections, which does more or less the same thing as
FamilyDiscovery.com. But of course, Kindred Konnections pays to advertise
in the New Zoo Review, so its probably OK if they do it.
In Other News Corner: Also in the New Zoo Review this week: RW finally
reports on the addition of Ancestry World Tree search boxes on its
WorldConnect pages.
Catching Up With the News Corner: A correspondent writes to tell us that
recently, a full 16 months after it was first requested and after several
list members were banned for asking, the TOTTY-L archived messages were
removed from Root$web's archives. The original request for removal was
forwarded to former CEO Robert Tillman shortly after RW published its
Acceptable Use Policy in June 1999 and began to deny listowners the right
to decide whether or not their lists were archived. Because the Totty
mailing list group allows no commercial use [and the archived messages
were accompanied by ads], the listowner requested their removal. In usual
fashion RW, instead of making the customer happy, banned her and any of
her listmembers who also requested that their posts be removed [this
eventually became RW policy]. Following the sell-out to MyFamily.com, the
Totty list pursued its case with new head honcho Charles Merrin, who was
apparently instrumental in having the archives finally removed. Totty
family mailing list archives are now available at
http://www.totty-families.org/ [Looks like there may be some hope for
those of you out there who are still trying to get your list archives
removed.]
Free Time Corner: Apparently having some time on her hands since giving up
the counties she adopted just prior to the last election, Archives
syncophant Kelly Courtney-Blizzard has opened a "Census look-ups" mailing
list for every state in the United States. In the welcome message, she
specifically states "NO FLAMING or you will be unsubbed without notice."
[Ironic, isn't it? A clever person would of course sub to all these lists
and use them to advertise the USGenWeb Census Project
<http://www.us-census.org>; an added bonus would be provoking Kelly to
breakh her own no flaming rule, since any mention of the CP seems to send
her into a frenzy.] To subscribe use these addresses, replacing the "XX"
with the state abbreviation of your choice:
XX-CENSUS-LOOKUP-L-request@rootsweb.com,
XX-CENSUS-LOOKUP-D-request@rootsweb.com
===
Today's quote was sent in by a reader:
"By doing just a little every day, I can gradually let the task overwhelm
me."
---Ashleigh Brilliant
This has been your Daily Board Show.
-Teresa Lindquist
merope@radix.net
-------
Daily Board Show, (c) 2000 by Teresa Lindquist, all rights reserved.
From merope@Radix.Net Fri Oct 13 10:18:31 2000
Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2000 10:18:30 -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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Blame it on the mai tais...its Your Daily Board Show!
*warning* contains editorial content. Read at your own risk!
Thursday 12 October 2000:
Barbara Dore says she agrees with most of the proposed amendment to Motion
00-30 but she did have some concerns about it. She suggests that the
motion be divided and the concerns addresses and notes "That is what we
should be doing with all motions..... fine tuning each until it best
represents the interests of the majority of our members while protecting
the rights of the minority."
Voting proceeds on Motion 00-31, with one Board member voting yes and 10
voting no [it appears that the Board does not want Timmy appointing
Secretaries].
Friday 13 October 2000 [lucky day]:
Tim Stowell calls for a vote on Motion 00-32, the first motion to "direct
the NC to apply for the Service Mark "The USGenWeb Project" as soon as
possible."
Rich Howland says he would like answers to his questions before voting on
Motion 00-32. Tim asks him to clarify his questions. Rich reiterates his
questions: "There is also the problem of where the money will come from
next year and the year after? It would be nice for future Boards to know
where the moneys are to be raised both for Service Mark and Domains? Are
we going to have a Treasurer? A bank account? Is the NC suppose to pay
for this out of their pocket? Is a collection to be taken up of AB
Members? I really think there is much to be decided before we just direct
the NC to apply for the Service Mark. I believe that it was also mentioned
that we should just apply for "USGenWeb"? And not "The USGenWeb Project"?"
===
The Kindness of Strangers Corner: From Joe Zsedeny on the status of the
Trademark pledge drive: "Pledges have reached a plateau over the past two
weeks and now hold steady at 58 pledges for a total of $2022. I think a
final motion to file for a Service Mark will emerge from the Board in the
next few weeks. The Board then will have to make funding decisions to pay
for the filing. Thanks to all who have made pledges."
Old Faces, New Friends Corner: We've heard that USGenWeb founder Jeff
Murphy has joined up with the American History and Genealogy Project
[www.ahgp.org] and is managing some of its Kentucky pages.
Secretary to the Stars Corner: Imagine our shock when we opened our inbox
yesterday and found a message from The Man Himself, Charles Merrin,
Executive Producer of Root$web. After we recovered from our swoon, we
perused the letter and found it referred to a recent DBS story on the
misadventures of Gensite [RW "feature"] and the GenExchange [independent
free online genealogy provider that RW tried to "sponsor" just prior to
the sell-out to Ancestry]. If you will recall, Gensite is grossly
undercounting page hits to GenExchange and thus lists it far too low on
its rankings. Anthony Abby, tech guy at GenExchange, tried to resolve
this through a low level RW flunky who more or less ignored him, and then
by contacting Charles Merrin, who did not respond to his emails. After
flattering us shamelessly [he said he reads the DBS and likes it!],
Charles asked us if we would contact Anthony for him. He claimed that he
has been trying to reach Anthony both via email which apparently did not
go through and by telephone [wrong numbers] since early October. He gave
me multiple ways of contacting him and asked as a favor to forward the
info to Anthony, and also noted that if Anthony claimed that no one had
tried to contact him I would "have the facts" for the DBS. We did as he
requested and forwarded the info on to Anthony with a request to keep up
posted.
We are pleased to report that Anthony and Charles have finally had a
chance to talk. Apparently Anthony is sporadically losing email and
Charles was able to forward copies of his replies to Anthony's original
attempts to contact him, so it does not appear that Charles was ignoring
or avoiding Anthony. Charles has admitted that Gensite is broken and
that RW is either going to fix it or trash it [hope its not on the same
repair schedule as the newsgroups automoderator]. Charles also reportedly
talked extensively about other topics. Apparently he shares many folks'
unhappy feelings about the former proprietor of RW and he also revealed
that RW keeps files on people and projects. The Abby/GenExchange file is
apparently quite large and demonstrates considerable animosity toward the
Abbys and GenExchange on the part of RW [or at least its former owners.
Man, I'd love to get a peek at my file <g>]. Charles also apparently
promised to work on resolving the issues between RW and Genexchange,
including lifting the restrictions on people discussing the GenExchange on
RW mailing lists.
The upshot of all this, of course, is that the Genexchange newsletter will
be published without the article about Gensite. Anthony agreed to drop
it in the interests of promoting good will and because Charles agreed to
let him be the first to review whatever replacement system RW devises.
[Yet more negative publicity about RW avoided, and all for the price of a
long distance phone call.] Both parties are reportedly happy with the
outcome and there is hope that the relationship between these two
prominent online genealogy providers will continue to improve. Air
kisses, all around!
Using The News To Make The News Corner: We understand from an anonymous
correspondent on the TOTTY-L list that following our mention of them in
the DBS yesterday, their listowner was notified formally by Charles
Merrin that their list archives have been removed from RW's archives.
===
"When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business
with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business
that remains intact."
---Warren Buffet
This has been your Daily Board Show.
-Teresa Lindquist
merope@radix.net
-------
Daily Board Show, (c) 2000 by Teresa Lindquist, all rights reserved.
From merope@Radix.Net Sat Oct 14 09:12:46 2000
Date: Sat, 14 Oct 2000 09:12:45 -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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*warning* contains editorial content. Read at your own risk!
Friday 13 October 2000:
Maggie Stewart asks Ken Short what alternative suggestions he has for
Motion 00-30.
Ken replies that there is no reason for the Board to involve itself in
choosing the Grievance Committee chairperson and that committee members
should be able to do that themselves. He notes that no Board members will
be on the committee so their choice of chair is irrelevant. He states
"One of the biggest problems we have is the AB trying to micro manage
things. We should not be doing that. Once a committee is picked, they
are given their guidelines and are turned loose to do the job they were
selected for. We should only get involved by answering questions,
clarifying something that might come up and/or replacing someone who for
what ever reason has to resign. Have we gotten so arrogant we think we
have all the answers."
Joe Zsedeny muses that he didn't hear this argument when the Trademark
Committee was being formed [or the Election Study Committee, for that
matter].
Voting continues on Motion 00-31 [Board Secretary]. Thus far, 2 Board
members have voted yes and 10 have voted no.
Saturday 14 October 2000:
Tim Stowell answers Richard Howland's questions regarding Motion 00-32
[first motion regarding the trademark]. Tim says he will pay the initial
filing fee, but would hope to be at least partially reimbursed by other
project members. The Board will decide what address to use on the
application and the application would be only for the term "USGenWeb".
Tim notes that the answers are solely his and also notes that he
has heard "talk on the some of the lists about this and why the membership
at large is not being asked to vote on this." He says he's passing these
answers along "to address the concerns of those who have expressed these
reservations." [Why am I not reassured?]
===
"When we build, let us think that we build for ever."
---John Ruskin
This has been your Daily Board Show.
-Teresa Lindquist
merope@radix.net
-------
Daily Board Show, (c) 2000 by Teresa Lindquist, all rights reserved.