Mike,
I believe you covered nearly every base, if not all, that could be in a set
of state guidelines - many which would not even impact a county
coordinator's site or position but rather address the vacuum MNGenWeb was
in after our former SC went missing. It would give the project protection
of what we as a group do when management goes missing, what basic elements
web sites need, how long between elections for SC, how the ASC is selected
and so forth. Such a document would lay a foundation upon which to build.
I had an interesting conversation with a coordinator in another state this
evening which I can only generalize but which reminded me of a conversation
from long ago when someone was complaining in the late 90s about why we
needed national bylaws. I remember stating to said person that as a group
matured, grew, things would change. Look at how technology has changed in
the last 10 years as vehicles such as boards, social media have changed
how we interact versus how the Project started in 1996, with rudimentary
email, everything posted by hand, even coding pages by hand or at the most
copy / pasting code - to software that does much of the work for oneself,
the move away from Yahoo and Rootsweb mailing lists to Facebook, Google
books and the like.
That said, the conversation with this person, reminded me that life is
about change, that what worked last year, may not be the best for the now
or the future. I know this for a fact in other places in USGenWeb or just
life in general.
I do believe, that with consensus we can come to a much better MNGenWeb
this year than we've had in the past decade, providing an agreed upon
foundation, that holds true to the core beliefs of the founder while
extending our own state project to meet the reality of now and the future.
Tim
On Wed, Feb 25, 2015 at 9:06 PM, Mike Peterson via <mngen(a)rootsweb.com>
wrote:
Rules can be abusive and confining but lack of rules creates
problems,
inefficiencies, frustrations, and more. If Rootsweb didn't have rules we
would not get free websites from them. If World Wide Consortium didn't have
rules we would not have standards for websites to work, like colors, fonts,
hyperlinks, etc. If our servers did not have rules our websites would more
easily be hacked and/or destroyed. If our households didn't have rules,
kids
would just grow up the way they want. If USGenWeb did not have rules we
wouldn't be here. USGenWeb has basic rules. One of their rules is that
outside the basic nationwide rules the states would have their own rules.
And, every state has them now except some have nothing written and are at
the whim of the State Coordinator. Sort of like my rule is what the
coordinators will go by. MNGen needs their own basic rules. Things happen
that are of no business to USGenWeb but when things go wrong USGenWeb has
to
step in or just let the state things flop around. We were lucky that we
have
the current National Coordinator who stepped in to start things going
right.
There are National Coordinators in the past who would not do it. Minnesota
was without leadership for over two years until Kermit finally said hey
what's going on. Some and probably most of the coordinators probably didn't
even know it. Some knew and could not have cared less. Some just didn't do
anything or walked away from their county. Rules of the USGenWeb do not
cover everything in the state. They don't have to be extensive. Nor
elaborate. Nor lengthy. But, I believe some basic rules need to be in
place.
We are electing a State Coordinator. How long will that person be the SC?
There is no rule so the SC can stay as long as she/he wishes or just
disappear and we know what that causes. What should an SC be doing? Without
rules exactly what they feel like doing. What if we don't want the SC
anymore? Sorry, without rules the decision lies with the SC. So what are
the
SC's roles, how long is a SC term, how is a new election done, how do we,
the CC's, remove an SC, or, what do we do when an SC or even a CC abandons
their function? Once a rule is established how do we change it? For
example,
right now there is no rule which says we need to display a MNGenWeb logo on
our websites. That's sorry. We don't need a book. But we certainly need a
page or two of bylaws, and maybe a page or two of general rules. At the
beginning of this election, I asked for candidates to explain their
feelings/positions on having state rules. I didn't expect anyone to come
right out and say we don't need them but I was very interested in how they
felt about them and how high on their list of priorities were they. All
four, I think, clearly stated their position and clearly indicated their
enthusiasm or lack of it. And many of you also made it clear your position.
Thanks for sharing. I don't know about the rest of you but it certainly was
good input for my vote. I got carried away and I'm sorry for that.
Sincerely,
Mike
Clay Co
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