On Sat, 22 May 1999, merope wrote:
On Sat, 22 May 1999, Ron & Kathy wrote:
> I can,
>
> What the Board has done is allowed one of it's members who is also a member
> of the Archives Project, (A file manager I believe), to introduce a
> resolution against another Project, which will in effect cause the Census
> Project to come under the direct control of Linda Lewis and the Archives
> Project which is what they have wanted from the very beginning. Not only
> should this be illegal in USGW, it is certainly a conflict of interest. How
> can a member of the archives project claim he is unbiased? He is working
> for Linda Lewis and now she can't speak for herself on the Board, because
> she was removed, so she speaks through him.
Technically, this is how representative democracy works. I can't speak on
the Board either, so I have representatives to do that for me. By
definition, Board members are participants in the projects/regions they
represent. How else would you have it? It is not illegal by any means
for a Board representative to propose motions affecting the project as a
whole, which the Census projects issue certainly does.
Also, technically, the Census project has been part of the Archives
Project "from the very beginning". It was not until the coordinator of
Census II decided to archive data outside the Archives directory structure
and effectively declared Census II to be independent of Census I that the
USGW Project has had two directly competing census projects.
>
> This has never been what is good or right for the USGW project, but who
> ultimately controls the most popular, largest and fastest growing Special
> Project in the USGW. However they are in no way speaking for or even asking
> the people who make up the USGW Census Project if this is something they
> want. They are just saying that this is the way it will be not considering
> that the staff and volunteers are not going to go quietly.
And what will the staff and volunteers of Census II do should this motion
pass the full Board? Will you respect the authority of the Board in this
matter?
A major concern I have with this motion is that it does not address the
very large number of Census II file managers that would be affected by
it, should it pass. Since the files they manage will be moved to other
directories for which they will not have passwords, they will be
effectively prevented from performing their duties as Census Project file
managers. I don't know if they be willing to rejoin Census I or if they
would be welcomed there, or if there will be spaces available for them.
The file managers in both Census I and Census II are hard working and
dedicated people who do not deserve to be caught up in this power
struggle. I would strongly urge the Board to carefully consider how this
will effect possibly hundreds of project volunteers and to amend the
motion accordingly in order to assure that they are treated fairly in all
respects. Otherwise, this motion appears to be firing them, merely for
their participation in a non-Archives sanctioned Census project.
>
> This could, without a doubt, be the single worse idea the Board has had and
> WILL have repercussions. If you agree, with the rest of us, please write
> your Board members and let your disagreement be known.
No, the single worst idea the Board had was the so-called "Standards and
Ethics" policy they attempted to pass last January. The second worst idea
was the attempt to illegally rename the Archives Project and force the
other Special Projects to split off from the Archives against their will
[a motion proposed without their input, I might add; sound familiar?].
Although having two Census projects is both unwieldy and confusing,
allowing the status quo to continue would not be the worst solution to the
issue. Unless the Board can come up with an amendment to the motion that
will explicitly protect the Census II file managers, then perhaps it is
the best solution.
-Teresa
merope(a)radix.net
> >
Ron >
dmorgan(a)efn.org David W. Morgan Honolulu Hawaii
Archives Manager --- OKGenWeb & NMGenWeb Projects
Tombstone Project -- OKGenWeb & NCGenweb Projects
http://www.rootsweb.com/~okbeckha/coordinate.html