I would suggest that the Board consider what the current need might be. Currently there isn't much of anything that would reside in the Legacy Website. I'm wondering if the Board is considering an Archive like the USGenWeb or USGenNet - the by-laws don't make provision for that. The term used in the Agenda doesn't even address the Legacy Website(s). There is a coordinator who passed away a number of years ago who was a Board member and hosted a number of counties in North Dakota. Those websites are hosted on USGenNet and USGenNet has already placed a USGenNet Legacy logo on them and we cannot access them. The only other site that I'm aware of is a county in Mississippi - the coordinator passed away and I was granted access to the account and I continue to maintain it in her memory. It is a fairly active county for Mississippi. It wouldn't make sense to just "archive" it away since it is continually being modified. I'm wondering if the cart is getting put before the horse. Should it not be determined how much of a need there is before purchasing domains or webspace? Since the donation of websites was just recently made possible I'd suggest that the Voting Members and Non-Voting members be queried to see if there is any interest out there in donating their websites should something happen to them. The intent when the by-laws were written was that a webmaster could make a donation of their website in anticipation that there may come a day when they would no longer be able to maintain it. It's an option open to all webmasters within the ALHN. Once you know that information then you could proceed with determining the need for a little or lots of webspace for it. Nathan

I'm not trying to argue one way or another - just give info. Having an unlimited plan allows for space and bandwidth as needed, so growing isn't an issue in the future. As far as purchasing domains, you could conceivably have only one domain (the ALHN.ORG that is already in existence). You could have sub-domains ( iowa.alhn.org or ia.alhn.org, for example) at no additional cost. Hosting it in such a way (whatever company you would use - there are many) would allow you to keep the data in one place as well. Currently I think the ALHN sites are hosted all over the map. Just thoughts, again. I'm fine with whatever the ALHN board chooses to do. I don't have a dog in the fight, per se. Kevin On Tue, Dec 3, 2013 at 10:31 AM, Nathan Zipfel <nzipfel@gmail.com> wrote: > I would suggest that the Board consider what the current need might be. > Currently there isn't much of anything that would reside in the Legacy > Website. I'm wondering if the Board is considering an Archive like the > USGenWeb or USGenNet - the by-laws don't make provision for that. The term > used in the Agenda doesn't even address the Legacy Website(s). > > There is a coordinator who passed away a number of years ago who was a > Board member and hosted a number of counties in North Dakota. Those > websites are hosted on USGenNet and USGenNet has already placed a USGenNet > Legacy logo on them and we cannot access them. > > The only other site that I'm aware of is a county in Mississippi - the > coordinator passed away and I was granted access to the account and I > continue to maintain it in her memory. It is a fairly active county for > Mississippi. It wouldn't make sense to just "archive" it away since it is > continually being modified. > > I'm wondering if the cart is getting put before the horse. Should it not > be determined how much of a need there is before purchasing domains or > webspace? Since the donation of websites was just recently made possible > I'd suggest that the Voting Members and Non-Voting members be queried to > see if there is any interest out there in donating their websites should > something happen to them. > > The intent when the by-laws were written was that a webmaster could make a > donation of their website in anticipation that there may come a day when > they would no longer be able to maintain it. It's an option open to all > webmasters within the ALHN. > > Once you know that information then you could proceed with determining the > need for a little or lots of webspace for it. > > Nathan > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > ALHN-GENERAL-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >

Nathan, In our review of the current states linked into alhn we are seeing a few that are not being maintained or have been donated to alhn at some point. Kevin Subra's Minnesota site for instance. Connecticut for another. Fact is that we need someplace to house the data on these abandoned and/or donated sites which is addressed in the bylaws. If we are to prevent loss of data, which was why you and I and the remainder of the board at that time, created this portion of the bylaws, then we must have somewhere to store said data. We can't just leave it floating around 'out there'. So determining the need isn't really an issue, IMO. Building a foundation for the future of alhn is of primary importance for the survival of the organization. Thank you for your comments. Joyce Gaston Reece,President American Local History Network Join us in celebrating our 20th year! www.alhn.org