| CALL TO ORDER & AGENDA DECEMBER 2006 SESSION |
(December 3, 2006) By the NC Agenda |
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| ELECTION COMMITTEE SLATE |
(December 4, 2006) By the N.C. The EC has submitted it's proposed slate of members for the coming term which is quoted below. Is there a motion for approval or disapproval of the slate of members for the EC? Scott Burow ============================= TO: USGenWeb Advisory Board The EC respectfully submits the following Slate of prospective EC Members for your approval/disapproval, per Election Committee Procedures Section A, Item 2, par. 2: "From the list of volunteers, the EC shall select new or replacement members for the EC. This list of volunteers shall then be submitted to the Advisory Board for approval and confirmation. The Advisory Board shall not be allowed to "pick and choose" any individual committee member. Should the Advisory Board disapprove the slate of members in its entirety, the process shall be repeated." Should the AB approve of the submitted Slate, the EC requests immediate seating of all new EC Members in order to have time to properly train new members, and to elect EC officers for the year 2007. 1. Representative at Large 2. Northeast/North Central 3. Northwest/Plains 4. Southeast/Mid-Atlantic 5. Southwest/South Central 6. Archives/Special Projects Respectfully submitted, |
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| MOTION 06-20: ELECTION COMMITTEE SLATE | (December 4, 2006) Motion
made by Mike Peterson seconded by Bettie Wood (December 5, 2006) By the N.C. (December 10, 2006) By the N.C. (December 12, 2006) By the N.C. |
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| ANNOUNCEMENT: EC CHANGE OF SERVER |
In mid-October, the EC was informed by Larry Stephens that he was no longer comfortable using the Indiana University server to support the voting software used in our national elections due to the large number of required password Emails. A search was initiated to locate an affordable server that would meet our technical and security requirements. After several weeks of exploring coldfusion servers, on November 12, 2006 the EC members voted unanimously to allow Larry to move the software to HostMySite http://hostmysite.com/hosting/builder/, as shared/increased space on an account currently used by Larry and his wife in her business. The EC felt that Larry's experience with the server was invaluable from a technical, security, and reliability standpoint. Use of this server would also eliminate the need to pay a setup fee, as the account is already in service. Forthcoming, for approval by the AB, will be an agreement that will cover ownership of the data, etc. The annual cost was affixed at $96, a competitive figure comparable to or lower than other servers considered. The fee has subsequently been generously covered by an anonymous donor (who has no access to or vested interest in the server.) The usgwelections.org domain that had been gifted to the EC several years ago, but which was used only to house the registration form, will be pointed to the new server. Except for the EC Web Site (http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~usgwelections/) and the EC mail list (Rootsweb), all EC applications, including registration, will fall under theusgwelections.org domain. Software under that domain will be accessible only by Larry, thereby maintaining the appropriate distancing of the EC from the software, passwords, voting, etc., in the same way distancing was accomplished via use of the IU server. With the newly acquired server space and improved technology, it is now possible to create an online member dataset, housed under the usgwelections.org domain, that will replace the outdated and manually maintained Excel files currently used by the EC for maintaining voter and membership lists. A change of this nature was attempted three years ago, but was unsuccessful due to technical difficulties. In addition to alleviating the workload of the EC members, and increased reliability, the general USGenWeb membership will benefit from the dataset by being able to access/view/edit his/her own personal information (password protected, and subject to verification by the EC, per EC Procedures.) A further advantage is that such a dataset can work in tandem with the voting software, and the registration form. Additionally, registration will be considered global within the project, in that members will no longer have to re-register each time participation or email address changes. The dataset will also be programmed to generate a complete membership list when needed for use with the national mail list (which will remain on the IU server.) The EC will no longer be required to manually prepare a list for each mailing. Initial testing of the new registration form and dataset occurred during the week of November 10, 2006. On November 15, the current registration form was disabled, and the EC lists temporarily frozen pending completion of programming changes and debugging. Development and testing is ongoing. While there is not as yet a target date for completion, it is expected that the general membership will be able to access the dataset and their individual records in the early part of 2007. The EC would like to extend to Larry its deep appreciation for the tremendous assistance he has given the EC and the Project. None of this would be possible without his help. Respectfully submitted, (December 29, 2006) By the N.C. Scott Burow 1. Larry & Sherry Stephens (Owner) agrees to lend space on their website to the USGenWeb Election Committee (EC) for the purpose of a ColdFusion driven database application. 2. Owner makes no warranties of fitness for the website location (hosted on HostMySite) nor the ColdFusion programming. 3. Oversight and maintenance of the website, programming, elections and database are the subject of a separate agreement(s) between Owner and EC and are not a part of this agreement. 4. Owner retains title to the programming used on the website, however, if this cooperative effort should terminate Owner will make a reasonable effort to give the EC the program for their continued use while still retaining title to the coding. 5. EC retains ownership of the data and Owner will not use the data for any purpose other than that approved by the EC. 6. The dates of this agreement shall be January 1, 2007 - December 31, 2007 and will be automatically renewed year to year unless notice of termination is given. 7. Either side may terminate this agreement for any reason by giving thirty days notice to the other. Notice will be given to the EC via email to the current chair of the EC. If Owner has not been advised who the current chair is within 15 days of any change of chair, or if Owner does not have a valid email address for the chair, this agreement shall be terminated with no refund due. Notice will be given to Owner at Larry@basketbasics.com. 8. In the event of termination of this agreement, other than as noted above, Owner will return any fees pro rata to EC. 9. Payment of fees will be due to Owner no later than January 10 each year. Payment shall be sent to Owner at *ADDRESS REDACTED FOR PRIVACY*. 10. The annual payment may be adjusted by Owner by giving 30 days notice to EC. Payment is based on host site fees with no margin for profit or overhead. 11. Payment for calendar year 2007 is $96.00. |
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| ANNOUNCEMENT:
COMPLAINT ABOUT THE ARCHIVES |
(December 3, 2006)
By Cyndie Enfinger |
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| NEWSLETTER COMMITTEE: 3RD QUARTER REPORT | (December 13, 2006)
By the N.C. JULY AUGUST SEPTEMBER Respectfully submitted, |
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| BOARD MAIL NOT WORKING | (December 13, 2006) By the
N.C. The Board list is currently not forwarding mail. Messages sent yesterday have not been received for almost 24 hours at this writing although they appear in the archives. The problem is being addressed but has not been resolved. The AB will be moving all formal discussion to AB-Chat (usgenweb-all@rootsweb.com) with copies to Board to make a record for the archives when it is functioning properly. I was also advised yesterday that the archiver for AB-Chat is not working. This too will be addressed as soon as is possible. We apologize for the inconvenience and I'll advise the lists when things have been resolved. (December 17, 2006) By the N.C. The Board will move all formal discussion back to Board list. Please forward to all appropriate project lists.
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| ADJOURNMENT | (January 1, 2007) By the N.C. |
The full text of all BOARD-L messages can be viewed in the threaded list archives for this list, located at http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/index/BOARD/
Donna Allen, Board Secretary
Please remember that minutes are a record of actions proposed and taken at the meeting, NOT all the detail about what was said by members or guests. If you have any questions or comments about the minutes, please write to Donna Allen.
