Well, here's my thoughts
I think there's two questions to be answered here.
1) Do we County Coordinators need by-laws? Why or why not?
2) If we decide we need or want by-laws, what changes should be made to the
draft by-laws to preserve the current USGenWeb philosophy and structure?
The USGenWeb has from it's very beginning had certain very minimal
requirements for a page to be a USGenWeb page. Basically, these initial
requirements were that users must have 'free access' and that USGenWeb pages
must be 'non-commercial,' that is, the primary intent of a USGenWEb site
cannot be to make money. (Other requirements also exist, but I'm sure how
far back they go. See the state page and national page for further info.)
Any time an organization has requirements, however minimal, it may find that
somebody chooses to ignore these for some reason, and the organization may
need to take some kind of action. I suspect that the history of such
actions goes way back to the beginning of the USGenWeb Project.
I'm aware of several recent incidents in which persons involved with the
USGenWeb Project have been removed from it. (Note: I'm not taking a
postion as to whether these actions were appropriate; all I'm saying is that
such actions have occurred.) Recent episodes of which I'm aware (and there
are probably several more) include:
1) the removal of
usgenweb.com as a domain (see the
http://www.usgenweb.org/official/usgenwebinc.html for one side of this
story. I've heard some parts of the other side of this story by private
e-mail, but I don't know if there's a website giving the other side of the
story or not. If anybody knows of a website for the other side of the
story, please post it.)
2) the de-linking of Maureen Reed's Military Project (closely connected with
the above situation)
3) removal of Billie McNamara as Tennessee State Coordinator (see his
mention of this in his post of this morning to this list)
(It seems that Pennsylvania GenWeb is rather calm in comparison to some of
the other parts of USGenWeb.)
The only reason that I mention these incidents is to point out that
currently there are no rules or regulations about situations such as this.
Quite frankly, if a county coordinator doesn't meet his/her state
coordinator's standards whatever those may happen to be, and the state
coordinator decides to replace the county coordinator, the county
coordinator currently has no 'due process', 'right of appeal', etc. All
the
state coordinator has to do is change the county link on his page to the
replacement county coordinator's site, and that's basically the end of the
situation as it now stands. (The situation with state coordinators and
project coordinators is similar; just replace 'state coordinator' with
'national website') Basically, this power to de-link is a potent power, and
has been used, or abused, depending on one's viewpoint.
One of the strongest arguments for by-laws, in my mind, is that properly
worded by-laws would prevent any arbitrary decisions to remove/de-link
people. (Note: the draft by-laws as currently worded do NOT, to me, seem to
achieve this goal. See below for discussion of this issue.)
Another strong argument for by-laws is that properly worded by-laws would
prevent the imposition of any additional requirements from the top down
without the consent of county coordinators. As it currently stands, the
national level or state level can unilaterally decide on additional
requirements and use the power to de-link to force compliance. (Note: the
draft by-laws as currently worded do NOT prevent impostion of additional
requirements from above either.)
As I see it, the USGenWeb Project came into being as a collection of
volunteers who just wanted to help people find their relatives. (That's why
I'm here anyways.) It's structure has traditionally been, and should
continue to be, organized from the bottom up. The Project has functioned
fairly well as a loose association of volunteers without by-laws, but since
county sites are dependent on organizational links from the state site while
the state sites and special projects are dependent on organizational links
from the national website, there will always be a tendency for the the state
level to try to lead the local level, and the national level to try to lead
the state level. This tendency could be controlled by properly crafted by-laws.
Having said that, how should any proposed by-laws be worded to ensure that
the organization of the USGenWeb Project continues to be controlled by the
volunteers?
First, the section discussing the Advisory Board in the draft bylaws should
be changed so that the Advisory Board could only recommend additional
requirements to the volunteers. Any additional recommended requirements
should be proposed to the volunteers, debated by the volunteers, and should
require the approval of *at least* 2/3 of the volunteers before they become
effective. Basically the 'Advisory Board' should advise us; they should not
be an executive board.
Second, the section discussing County Coordinators should be extensively
revised. The section on the responsibilities of County Coordinators should
be minimized and the wording should be changed to match the current basic
requirements (or some variation on them). To prevent any creeping extension
of 'requirements', the by-laws should state that any additional requirements
will only be added if approved by 2/3 of the state County Coordinators for a
state requirement, or by 2/3 of all County Coordinators if a national
requirement. Such requirements should be as clearly worded as possible.
The 'non-commercial' requirement especially needs clarification. The way
it's currently worded in the draft by-laws could be applied very restrictively.
This section on County Coordinators should also be revised to say that
County Coordinators will not be removed without just cause and some form of
due process. (While the following ideas are somewhat disturbing to me, they
are much better than the current situation where County Coordinators could
be removed for arbitrary reasons by one individual without any real
recourse.) Specifically, no County Coordinator should be removed from
his/her position unless there's a very significant problem. Also, no County
Coordinator should be removed without attempts at mediation in an attempt to
resolve the situation to everybody's satisfaction. If this process fails
for some reason, then it seems the best final authority in this situation
would be the other county coordinators in that state, and not someone at the
national level. Since volunteers should only be removed for very
significant problems and only as a last resort, I think this removal should
require the approval of 2/3's of that state's county coordinators.
Essentially this County Coordinator section should basically just state the
minimum requirements, and allow County Coordinators to get on with the
business of helping people find their relatives without any undue
interference from the state or national level. That's, after all, why we're
here.
Similar changes should be made to the sections regarding State Coordinators.
Another change should be made to the section on amending the by-laws. This
should be changed to require a 2/3 majority of all volunteers instead of the
proposed 2/3 majority of the board in the current by-laws. Allowing a small
group of people to make significant changes in any organization's by-laws is
rather risky.
In case anybody is unaware, the draft by-laws are not fixed in stone, and in
fact suggestions for changes are being solicited by the people who drafted
them. If you have suggestions for improving the draft by-laws, you should
probably send them to either George Waller <hbladm1(a)uconnvm.uconn.edu>
(Northeast Region State Coordinator Rep.) or Linda Lewis
<cityslick(a)ix.netcom.com> (USGenWeb Archives Rep./also Blair County, PA CC).
The Northeast Region County Coordinator Rep is Bob Bamford who is currently
moving and off-line. After suggestions have been received and reviewed, the
improved by-laws will be submitted to the volunteers for a vote. If we
don't like them, we vote them down.
These are my opinions, and no one else's. Furthermore, they're open to
change, and I insist that you allow me to change my mind and adopt your
opinion if I like it better. <g>
Ed Book