Forwarded with Mike's permission. Some may be interested some may not. You can send
your comments or suggestions to Mike at mike(a)saintclair.org
Ed
-------------- Forwarded Message: --------------
From: "Mike St. Clair/ST" <mike(a)saintclair.org>
To: usgenweb-discuss(a)rootsweb.com, usgenweb-sw(a)rootsweb.com,
usgenweb-ne(a)rootsweb.com, usgenweb-nw(a)rootsweb.com, usgenweb-se(a)rootsweb.com
Cc: usgw_web(a)rootsweb.com
Subject: [USGW-SE] FYI: Draft of National Website Maintenance & Webmaster
Qualifications & Duties
Date: Mon, 20 Oct 2008 04:36:01 +0000
For the benefit of any USGENWEB members who are members of the Discuss list, or any of the
regional USGENWEB lists, I am posting a copy of a draft of the document the Webmaster
Study Group is preparing for discussion and action by the Advisory Board. Note that not
every Study Group member agrees with 100% of what is here. We are practicing the fine art
of compromise, and we plan to discuss and revise this document a little more before we
turn in our final version of it on this coming Thursday. If you have any further input
you would like us to consider, I encourage you to respond with those comments quickly as
we have a tight schedule. I can't guarantee that any comments you provide will be
incorporated in our final product, but I will promise they will be read and considered. If
you don't want your response to be passed on to the
full Study Group, please state that in your message itself. Otherwise I will assume you
will allow it to be so forwarded.
By the way, statements like "this is over kill" or "this is a piece of
junk" or "why did we waste this time" won't be very useful and will
likely not have any impact on what is finally produced. Suggestions for SPECIFIC changes
and stating the SPECIFIC reasons you believe those changes will improve the document will
be much more useful and will be read with interest.
This is being sent to Discuss and the regional lists by permission, and a copy is being
sent to the study group's mailing list to document that it went to the other lists.
Once the Study Group's final product is turned in, the full Advisory
Board will decide if it is to be approved in it's current form, or if
modifications will take place before approving a final document.
Mike St. Clair
Chair, Webmaster Study Group
DRAFT PROPOSAL - NATIONAL WEBSITE MAINTENANCE & WEBMASTER QUALIFICATIONS &
DUTIES
Section 1: The USGenWeb Advisory Board (AB) will appoint the webmaster andan assistant
webmaster from the Project membership to maintain the USGenWebNational website. In
addition, one AB member will be appointed to work withand act as a liaison between the AB
and the webmaster and assistant, toensure the National site is in compliance with the
Project by-laws and thatthe duties outlined in this document are fulfilled. The National
Coordinator(NC) will also work with the webmaster and assistant to ensure that
theirresponsibility for day to day operational management of the project site
isfulfilled.
Section 2: Selection of the Webmaster - The USGenWeb Advisory Board (AB)will, at the
beginning of each term, issue a call for interested individualsto serve as the webmaster
of the National site. From this same call anassistant webmaster will also be selected.
The AB shall determine if thosecurrently in place shall continue, or if one or more of the
new respondeesshall be selected, if the current service has not exceeded 4 years. In
thatcase, a new respondee shall be selected.
The qualifications for both positions are:
(a) The individual must have been a member in good standing of theUSGenWeb Project for
a minimum of 6 months.
(b) The individual must have a strong demonstrated knowledge of
HTML, CSS (cascading style sheets), SSI (server side includes), and FTPsoftware.
(c) The individual must be able to devote a total of at least 24
hours per month to their duties as webmaster, spread out across the month.
(d) The individual must respond to requests for updates in a timely
manner. This is defined by responding to the request within 48 hours andcompleting the
requested update within 72 hours.
(e) Additional knowledge and/or skills such as php, databases and
search engine optimization may be desirable but are not required.
Section 3: Duties & Responsibilities of the Webmaster and AssistantWebmaster:
(a) Makes website changes requested by the advisory board or the
National Coordinator. Changes may include, but are not limited to addingadditional or
updated links, updating the identity of committee membersand/or state SCs or ASCs and and
formatting and posting of committeeminutes.
(b) Finding and correcting broken or erroneous links by running a
link checker monthly.
(c) Reviewing server logs for errors and taking any needed
corrective action.
(d) Keeping a log of all changes made to or other actions taken in
regards to the National site. This log must be available for review by theAB members at
all times.
(e) Watching, reporting on and taking steps to improve the
performance of the National site's performance.
(f) Receiving reports on website problems from site visitors,
pro-actively detecting problems that arise whenever practical and reportingthe problems
to the web host provider, either directly or through thedesignated process in place at the
time, and work with their supportorganization to correct the problems.
(g) Providing quarterly reports to the AB regarding the site and
actions taken and changes made by the webmaster and/or assistant.
(h) Notify the assistant/assistant webmaster, AB representative and
NC if they will be unavailable for periods of more than 48 hours so thatothers can cover
the duties and complete any necessary updates.
Section 4: Responsibility of the NC:
(a) Provide the codes/passwords to the webmaster, assistant
webmaster and the AB representative so the stated responsibilities can becarried out.
(b) At least weekly run and save site error logs and make them
available to the webmaster and assistant to that their duties can be carriedout.
(c) Report problems to the web hosting service and works with theirsupport
organization to correct them.
Section 5: General Requirements:
(a) The website must be designed such that it is portable between
web hosting services in the event that a move is necessary or desirable.
(b) The ability to hand code a site in HTML format is not necessary.Pages may be
created using website designing software, but the software mustnot be specific to the web
host, causing the transfer of the site to beimpossible, nor should the software insert
scripts that are not portablebetween web design applications.
(c) The webmaster and/or assistant webmaster may be replaced for
failure to comply with Sections 2 and 3, above.
(d) The webmaster and assistant webmaster will not be granted ftp
access to any other portions of the National site, such as the websites ofthe grievance
and election committees, for which they are not responsible.
(e)The financial information of the account holder/owner must be
protected at all times.
-------------------------------
To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to
USGENWEB-SE-request(a)rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes
in the subject and the body of the message