Or perhaps, a separate MNGenWeb State site that has a function of only helping/advising
Minnesota coordinators. Then, the current MNGenWeb site, remain as a site for others.
From: Timothy Stowell via
Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2015 10:42 PM
To: mngen(a)rootsweb.com
Subject: Re: [MNGEN] USGenWeb Requirements
Thanks Mike for your elaboration.
Seems such an addition could range from help with acquiring data,
formatting data and/or sites and posting data to suggestions for various
elements to assist the coordinators give visitors other tools in their
research efforts.
Tim
On Fri, Mar 20, 2015 at 1:33 AM, Mike (Dino) Peterson <geanie(a)cox.net>
wrote:
Tim,
speaking strictly in basics and generalities, the current state web site
is designed to help the researcher. I’m suggesting the purpose of the site
become two-fold; 1) help researchers, 2) help Minnesota coordinators..
Mike
*From:* Timothy Stowell via <mngen(a)rootsweb.com>
*Sent:* Thursday, March 19, 2015 7:14 PM
*To:* mngen(a)rootsweb.com
*Subject:* Re: [MNGEN] USGenWeb Requirements
Mike,
Would you elaborate what you mean by 'separate from the PR to researchers'?
Thanks,
Tim
On Thu, Mar 19, 2015 at 9:37 PM, Mike Peterson via <mngen(a)rootsweb.com>
wrote:
> Good note Karen !
> I think the state web site should have a ‘coordinator’ section similar
how
> USGenWeb and some other states do it. Separate from the PR to
researchers.
> Also, I think our state site should have a guidelines page for us –
> similar to USGenWeb -
http://usgenweb.org/volunteers/guidelines.shtml .
> Sincerely,
> Mike
> Clay Co
>
> From: Karen De Groote via
> Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2015 5:55 PM
> To: List MNGenWeb
> Subject: [MNGEN] USGenWeb Requirements
>
> Greetings CCs,
> Below is a very important email that we all need to read so that we
> are on the same page. If you have any questions or comments, please
> feel free to write one of the leadership team or post on the list for
> general discussion.
>
> We need to get our sites up to snuff and this email will serve as a
> simple explanation of what we should do. Now that we have gotten
> MNGenWeb up and running again, we need to take it to the next level.
> Sometime in the next 10 days you need to take a look at your
> county(ies) to make sure all is in order. As a valued member of the
> USGenWeb project we need to get polished up now that we are once again
> standing on firm ground.
>
> At the end of the explanations is a short list of all the
> requirements. You can use that as a check list in making sure your
> sites comply with USGenWeb requirements and read the detailed
> information for clarification.
>
> Additionally, Tim, Shirley and I, as your leadership team, have
> divided up the counties among the three of us, in order to make it
> easier to visit all counties. The division is as follows using an
> alphabetized list of couties and making sure we do not have a county
> personally in our respective divisions:
>
> Tim: counties A-H
> Karen: counties I-O
> Shirley: counties P-Y
>
> What this also means is that you have a specific leadership person who
> will bring to the team any questions and concerns that you may have,
> whenever you need them.
>
>
> The leadership team will begin reviewing their counties at the end of
> this 10 day period for the basic requirements and you will be getting
> an email of congratulations or whoops we have something yet to do.
>
> USGenWeb CC requirements can be found at:
>
http://www.usgenweb.org/volunteers/guidelines.shtml
>
> Point by point explanation of requirements:
>
> 1. The first requirement is a name and email on your index page. It
> is very important that visitors know who they can contact about YOUR
> county. It is perfectly acceptable to have first name only but there
> must be a name. It is also perfectly fine to have a text or picture
> link of the email rather than a hyperlink if you want to cut down on
> spam. Another good idea is a hyperlink to a contact page. (See
> Nicollet County for this example:
>
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mnnicoll/) Many people will use
> this method so they merely have to change one page, not page after
> page on a site. It is up to you and how you want your email to appear
> but we do
> need a name and an email contact of some sort on the index page..
> This name and email should be easily found, not hidden at the bottom
> of page or hidden in a similar color. This is especially difficult
> for our color blind visitors.
>
> 2. The next requirement is responding to emails from researchers in a
> reasonable time period. If someone writes to you from your county
> page, some response should go out within a reasonable time frame. In
> this day and age it shouldn't take more than a few days to get back
> with people. This response can simply state that you do not have the
> information they seek or you need more time to dig up their answer, if
> you are so inclined. If you go on vacation or away from your email
> for quite some time, let your leadership team know you will be out of
> communication for X amount of time. Visitors complain to the SC if
> they don't get responses.
>
> 3. Item 3 will come under separate cover: Copyright
>
> 4. Solicitation of funds is inappropriate except as allowed in the
> bylaws, Section IX. To paraphrase this requirement, no memberships,
> contributions or materials for sale are allowed on the index page.
> The USGenWeb project has a commitment to free genealogy for
> researchers and it would not do to have monetary demands on the index
> page of your county. It does not, however, prevent links to purchase
> genealogical materials or hire a paid researcher on pages other than
> the index page and dedicated to these services.
>
> 5. All index pages require the prominent display of the USGenWeb
> logo. We have 4 acceptable logos we can use. These were voted in to
> official use some dozen or so years ago. The logos page is at:
>
http://www.usgenweb.org/volunteers/logos.shtml Prominent display
> means you don't have to go looking for them, they are showing when you
> open the page. Your county site should immediately indicate that you
> are a member of the USGenWeb project, with the proper and prominent
> placement of one of these official logos. You must also link the logo
> itself or provide a text link immediately under the logo to the
> USGenWeb home page:
http://www.usgenweb.org
>
> 6. As a CC you are required to be subscribed to this mailing list.
> Obviously if you receive this message you are good to go. Some have
> complained of the great amount of email on this list in the past. In
> order to cut down on the amount of emails during a discussion, you can
> subscribe to this list in digest mode which will send one email a day
> with the pertinent discussions.
>
> 7. All counties must offer some type of query system. The easiest
> method is to provide a link to the Rootsweb/Ancestry query board for
> your county but you can use your own county based query system. A
> countyabased system provides a query system that is on your country
> site where you post all queries you receive manually. If that is
> what you like to do, you are welcome to do it in this manner.
>
> 8. All county sites must provide a link to the state site. We voted
> on an official logo for this project and if you use a MNGenWeb logo,
> it MUST be the official logo for this project. If you use a logo you
> must either link the logo to the state project page at,
>
http://rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mngenweb/, or provide a text link
> immediately under the logo. Here is the page with our official logo
> and the acceptable banner that can be used on other pages that are NOT
> the index page:
http://rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mngenweb/logo.htm.
> This is an area that we have problems with in this project. Some are
> using the old logo and some are using the the new BANNER on the index
> page for a logo rather than the official logo. It only takes a few
> minutes reformat your index page to utilize the official MNGenWeb
> logo. You are welcome to ADD a banner somewhere on your index page
> for decoration but it cannot take the place of the official logo.
>
> 9. The official name of our project is MNGenWeb, exactly like that.
> Capital M, N, G, lowercase e, n, capital W, lowercase e,b. Any other
> title is unacceptable. Minnesota spelled out is not acceptable.
> Counties should be called Subject County, MNGenWeb or even Subject
> County Genealogy, a MNGenWeb county. MNGenWeb has to be in your title
> for identification purposes. Anoka County is one example of proper
> branding:
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mnanoka/intro.htm
>
> It should take a person no more than 15-30 minutes to correct any
> deficiencies in their index page. To recap the the list of required
> items:
>
> 1. Name and email (or contact link) on index page
> 2. Respond to emails from researchers in timely manner.
> 3. Current copyright
> 4. Solicitation of funds handled properly
> 5. USGenWeb logo and link
> 6. Subscribed to email list
> 7. Query system offered
> 8. Link to state site, official logo if using logo
> 9. Official name in MNGenWeb
>
> There are a number of recommended and strongly recommended items on
> the National rules page that you may wish to add to your sites. They
> are not a requirement at this time but if you choose to use these
> elements, please make sure they are correct. For example Pico Search
> is no longer in business so if you have them on your page, they need
> to be replaced by a working search engine.
>
> Thank you so much, one and all!
>
> Karen De Groote
> ASC
> Tim Stowell
> SC
> Shirley Cullum
> SC
>
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