My name is Sherri Hall and I am a candidate for National Coordinator and
would appreciate your vote. I am CC for two counties in Kentucky, a
co-coordinator of the KY Vital Records Project, and serve as the state
coordinator for KYGenWeb. I am the list mom for 20 mail lists and 6 message
boards, the KY Archives File Manager and the state coordinator of the KY
Obituaries Project. Yes, this all keeps me busy, but I also believe it
gives me a wider perspective of the many aspects of the USGenWeb Project as
a whole. But you know, at the bottom of the stack is always the basic "job"
that we've all signed up for - the county/local site coordinator.
I believe that we need to get back to the basic premise that the USGenWeb
Project was built on - the desire to provide free access to genealogical
research information. I firmly believe that the backbone of the USGenWeb
Project is the individual coordinator. Whether it's a County site, a
Special Project site or an Archives site, these folks are the ones in the
trenches doing the work and we should be focusing our efforts on supporting
them instead of making their jobs more difficult.
I don't believe that any of the positions on the AB (including the position
of NC) should be viewed as "power" positions, but all organizations, whether
volunteer members, a group of salaried members, or a combination thereof,
must have some basic rules (guidelines) to operate. While I know that there
will never be a time that everyone agrees about how the USGenWeb Project
should be run (therefore you can't please everyone all of the time), I will
pledge that I will listen to all sides of an issue presented. I will always
work to make sure that the rules help and support the coordinators, not make
it more difficult to do our jobs as coordinators.
We all got into this because of our love of genealogy. Everyone here is a
volunteer, and an individual. One of the special things about the USGenWeb
Project is the uniqueness of the individual sites, created by the individual
county coordinators. I would doubt seriously that there are many (most
likely any) coordinators that would appreciate being told exactly how their
site has to be set up. Yes, it's necessary to have basic guidelines that
all sites should have to meet, but we don't need to be told exactly where on
the page a logo is to be placed, nor the exact size that it must be (with
the exception that the logos are not to be modified in any way).
If elected, I promise to keep the interests of you, the site/project
coordinators in the forefront.
I will listen to your suggestions and ask your opinions - this is not the
Advisory Board's Project, not the State Coordinator's Project, not the
Archive's Project - all of us are a part of this great Project and everyone
deserves to have their voice heard.
I will always keep an open communication between myself, the AB and the
members of the Project.
All business, except that which requires confidentiality will be conducted
"in public". I also pledge to respect and honor privacy issues.
I will always do my best to preserve the ideals that this Project was
founded on.
I will work to ensure that the rules we have support instead of hinder you,
the coordinators.
These are the promises that I make to you if I'm elected NC. If you have
any questions about my candidacy or personal information, please drop me a
note at mailto:ldrbelties@earthlink.net.
Each of you has the opportunity to help choose the course of the USGenWeb
Project for the next year. Please make the most of the opportunity and make
your voice heard by casting your vote.
Thank you,
Sherri Hall
My candidate page is at
http://www.rootsweb.com/~kypulask/nc_candidate.html
The candidates for office in this election can be found at
http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgwelections/national-2005/candidates-index.html
The logos that are under consideration are at
http://usgenweb.org/logos/index.shtml
The bylaws amendment can be found at
http://www.usgenweb.com/volunteers/notice.shtml