---"Ms. Piglet" <pigolit(a)ix.netcom.com> wrote:
(the text of this announcement, as well as the list
of board members,
can be found at
http://www.usgenweb.org/official/announce.html
)
************************************************************************
>From The USGenWeb Project Advisory Board.....
An Announcement Outlining Recent Events Regarding The
USGenWeb Project - April 6, 1998
The purpose of this announcement is to assure the
volunteers of The
USGenWeb Project and the
Internet genealogical community that The USGenWeb
Project is committed
to continuance as a
*Not-For-Profit* organization. Recent events have
made this announcement
necessary.
History of the Project:
The USGenWeb Project was established in June 1996
with the goal
providing Internet-based *FREE*
access to genealogical resources on the web. Since
then, the Project has
grown to include about
3,050 of the 3,137 counties in the United States.
The associated
Archives Project, as of April 1, has
over 588 megs of data in text format for FREE
downloading. That doesn't
include images of actual
documents. Other major projects include: The
Census-Online Project, The
Tombstone Project, and
The Military Records Project. It is estimated that
over 1,641 volunteers
are involved in the various
aspects of The USGenWeb Project.
Until recently (March 22, 1998), The USGenWeb
Project's main webpages
were mirrored at three
sites:
www.usgenweb.com on the USRoots server,
www.usgenweb.org and
www.usgenweb.net on
the RootsWeb server.
Unfortunately, due to actions taken by three
volunteers, the webpages
located at the
www.usgenweb.com domain name have been
discontinued. Volunteers for The
USGenWeb Project
should use either
usgenweb.org or
usgenweb.net as
links in their
websites and make any changes
as soon as possible.
A brief history of the events leading to this
situation are outlined
below for those who may be
interested:
USGenWeb Inc. Formed Without Board Knowledge:
On January 1, 1998, Jerry and Lucy Dill and Pat
Smith incorporated
(unknown to anyone on The
USGenWeb Project Advisory Board) themselves as a
*FOR PROFIT*
corporation called USGenWeb,
Inc. When this was discovered by the Advisory Board
on March 16, 1998,
it came as a great shock
since one of the main webpages (
www.usgenweb.com)
was located on a
domain maintained by one
of the incorporators. The immediate concern was
that volunteers and
users of the website might get
the wrong impression that The USGenWeb Project had
become a for-profit
organization, which is
NOT true.
USGenWeb Inc. Claims Ownership of The USGenWeb
Project:
The Advisory Board held email conversations with
Mr. Dill, and during
those conversations, it
became clear that while he
apologized for his actions and gave assurances that
he meant no ill, he
was unwilling to agree that
the
usgenweb.com designation was anything less than
his property (or
more specifically, the
*property* of his corporation, USGenWeb, Inc.).
On the other hand, the individuals who had
registered
usgenweb.org and
usgenweb.net both publicly
stated that those designations *DO* belong to The
USGenWeb Project, and
that they act only in a
custodial capacity for the benefit of The USGenWeb
Project and its
users.
During the course of the same email conversations,
Mr. Dill offered to
sell USGenWeb, Inc. to the
Advisory Board for $750 (the incorporation fee).
However, he stated that
the Advisory Board would
have to be reorganized on his terms. The current
Advisory Board flatly
refused to accept this demand
and the offer of USGenWeb, Inc. The reasoning of
Board was that it
didn't matter who owned
USGenWeb, Inc. It's a "for-profit" Subchapter S
Corporation and no
matter the reason for
its incorporation, as long as it was associated
with The USGenWeb
Project, it would imply that the
Project was also "for-profit."
USGenWeb Inc. Claims Ownership of The USGenWeb
Project Pages:
At this point, the Board decided to remove The
USGenWeb Project website
from the
usgenweb.com
domain. Project members with authorized password
access to the server
did so on March 21, 1998.
The Board also requested that all Project
volunteers change any links on
which are hosted by
Rootsweb. To the best
of our knowledge, this request has been accepted by
volunteers with at
the most, minimal discontent.
Unfortunately, after these changes were made (i.e.,
removing the
national website), Jerry Dill of
USGenWeb, Inc. then
stated that the corporation owned The USGenWeb
Project pages, that the
pages were removed
illegally, and that they had been mirrored at
usgenweb.net and
usgenweb.org on the RootsWeb
server only with permission. This was outrageous
and totally
unacceptable news to the Advisory
Board. It would be tantamount to a parking garage
claiming ownership of
your car if you parked it in
their facility.
Confusion Caused by Format of
usgenweb.com Site:
Since then, the
usgenweb.com site has made several
changes to webpages
there, the most recent
being a webpage displaying The USGenWeb Project map
with links to the
states and a page related
to The On-line Census Project. The Advisory Board
has requested *in
writing* that those pages be
removed. The Board feels that the posting of those
pages on that domain
name continues to be a
source of confusion to the genealogical community,
implying that there
is some connection between
USGenWeb, Inc. and The USGenWeb Project. We want to
do everything
possible to assure that the
level of confusion is reduced. This announcement is
part of that effort.
Recent Actions of The USGenWeb Advisory Board:
1. The formation of two committees: Elections
Committee and
By-Laws/Website Standards
Committee. While informal discussion of this has
been ongoing, these
have only just been formed
(the names aren't even official yet), but plans are
to include
additional non-board volunteers as
members to be involved with the processes of both.
2. Other issues seem to constantly sidetrack any
progress the Board is
making in getting anything
done. We are continually called upon to try to *put
out fires* created
by inflammatory messages to
several of the lists. For the record, decisions
announced by the
national coordinator are made only
after consulting the Board.
3. Investigation of "Unincorporated Nonprofit
Association" status. We
are trying to learn whether every
state has such an act. "Nonprofit Association"
means an unincorporated
organization, other than one
created by a trust, consisting of three or more
members joined by mutual
consent for a common,
nonprofit purpose.
Recommendations for Volunteer Pages:
The USGenWeb Project Advisory Board would like to
encourage all
volunteers to place the following
on their websites:
Copyright 1998 by (your
name)
And, be sure to change to 1999 next January 1st.
(If you'd like to use the copyright symbol on your
page, the html is
� )
Special Thanks:
Last, but certainly not least, we want to thank all
the volunteers for
their patience and support at this
trying time. It's you and your work who make us
proud to represent The
USGenWeb Project.
- The USGenWeb Project Advisory
Board
--
Megan Zurawicz, National Coordinator USGenWeb
PLEASE NOTE NEW ADDRESS: pigolit(a)ix.netcom.com
not at worldnet after May 1, 1998
_________________________________________________________
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