Date: Tue, 30 May 2000 06:33:43 -0600 To: "Jim Powell, Jr., USGenWeb Southeast/Mid-Atlantic Region CC Representative" <jpowelljr@gru.net>, "Teri Pettit, USGenWeb Southeast/Mid-Atlantic Region CC Representative" <pettit@adobe.com> From: C Hammett <CarHammett@mindspring.com> Subject: Commercial Abuse Grievance #2 Cc: TNGenWeb CC List <TN-All@egroups.com>, USGW-CC-L@USGenNet.Org In accordance with the USGenWeb Project Bylaws, Article XIV, GRIEVANCE PROCEDURES AND APPEALS PROCESS, this email is to request that the USGenWeb Project Advisory Board arrange for an impartial party to mediate the following grievance against USGenWeb Archives Project Coordinator Linda Lewis and National Coordinator Tim Stowell; to wit: 1. The USGenWeb Project is an unincorporated not-for-profit association (USGenWeb Bylaws, Article III, STATUS AS AN ORGANIZATION) 2. The USGenWeb Archives Project (aka USGenWeb Project Archives aka USGenWeb Project Digital Library) is a Special Project of the USGenWeb Project (USGenWeb Bylaws, Article XIII. SPECIAL PROJECTS) 3. The entire un-mirrored contents of the USGenWeb Archives Project reside on the domain, Rootsweb.com, Inc., a commercial web-hosting service for whom advertising banner search engine returns of the Archives' contents are both a major income source and a major public relations/advertising tool. 4. USGenWeb Archives Project Coordinator Linda Lewis is a paid employee and stock option holder of Rootsweb.com, Inc. 5. USGenWeb Archives Project Coordinator Linda Lewis claims to have reached an agreement with Rootsweb.com, Inc. under which the commercial corporation has permanent effective ownership of the USGenWeb Archives Project (see below). 6. Said agreement, if legal, nullifies the nonprofit status of the USGenWeb Project. 7. Said agreement, if legal, nullifies the "permanent use" agreement between submitters and the USGenWeb Project, including all Special, State and Local Projects (Article X Copyright, Section 3). 8. Said agreement, regardless of its legal status, jeopardizes the nonprofit status of the USGenWeb Project, damages the Project's public image and reduces the ability of all USGenWeb Project Coordinators, at every level, to recruit volunteers, particularly submitters. 9. National Coordinator Tim Stowell, having had knowledge of the alleged agreement(s) since at least June 1999, having taken no action in respect thereto, is a party to all charges herein. Should (a) Ms. Lewis and Brian Leverich of Rootsweb.com, Inc. publicly agree to nullify said agreement; and (b) Ms. Lewis publicly agree (1) that no agreements by her, whether past, present or future, are valid without a vote of the general membership, and (2) that the contents of the Archives may be mirrored by any and all state and local projects, this grievance may be considered inactive for as long as these conditions are met. Should Ms. Lewis refuse to take the above actions, it is recommended that (a) Ms. Lewis be immediately declared NOT a member in good standing of the USGenWeb Project by the Advisory Board; (b) Ms. Lewis be instantly and summarily suspended from her position as Archives Coordinator by the USGenWeb Project Advisory Board pending an emergency recall vote of the full membership, to take place on an independent server (rather than the server of her employer, Rootsweb.com, Inc.); (c) all alleged agreements by Ms. Lewis be immediately declared unlawful by the Advisory Board pending a vote by the full membership on an independent server re the right of any member or coordinator of the USGenWeb Project to make national agreements on behalf of the Project; and (d) that the contents of the USGenWeb Archives Project be immediately removed from the commercial server and given over into the custody of the applicable State and/or Local Project Coordinators. Should Mr. Stowell not agree to support said actions and sanctions, it is recommended that the same actions and sanctions be taken against Mr. Stowell. Carole Hammett Warren Co, TNGenWeb CC http://www.tngenweb.org/warren/ X-Sender: carhammett@pop.mindspring.com X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.2.0.58 Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1999 11:47:56 -0600 To: USGW-CC-L@usgennet.org From: C Hammett <carhammett@mindspring.com> Subject: USGW-CC-L: New Archives Agreement? Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Sender: owner-usgw-cc-l@rootsquest.com Precedence: bulk Reply-To: USGW-CC-L@usgennet.org In June of 1999, in the course of trying to figure out the ins and outs of the structure of the Project and the Archives so as to be knowledgeable abt a Project I supported and publicly endorsed, I was told by Linda Lewis, National Coordinator of the Archives, that the Archives had had an "Agreement" with Rootsweb since Jul 1996. I asked that a copy of the Agreement be posted or uploaded, and Linda provided the following (posted to USGenWeb-All on 12 Jun 1999): "The Agreement says: 1. RootsWeb to provide server space for the USGenWeb Archives, and provide public access to the Archives with no fees or charges. 2. RootsWeb will promote the USGenWeb Archives via Rootsweb's Web pages, the RootsWeb Review, and other media as practicable. 3. The USGenWeb Archives agrees to maintain the datasets in a form that is attractive and useful to genealogists, and to provide public access to the Archives with no fees or charges. 4. The USGenWeb Archives agrees to be hosted by RootsWeb and no other server. When I noted that Rootsweb Review had not been established until Jul 1998, Linda replied on 14 Jun 1999: "The reference to the RWR in the agreement points I posted over the weekend was an additional service that Brian offered to the Archives so that more people would be aware of them and consider helping us to get more data online. Thank you, Brian." Linda also noted (accurately) that no Board was in existence in 1996 when she negotiated the Agreement. In response to my question as to whether the above was an abstract, and if so, to please provide a complete copy, Brian Leverich replied: "Carole, Linda *cannot* provide you with a scanned copy of the original document because there is no hardcopy of the agreement. The agreement is a set of principles, which Linda has already published here, that have never existed in any form other than electronic correspondence." Neither Linda nor Brian provided the electronic correspondence, and at the time, my own primary concern was with Item 4 due to the fact that it makes Rootsweb the "effective owner" of the Archives ("hosted by no other server"). I was recently advised, however, that the above "Agreement" is not the same as another which, in response to a request by Ellen Pack, Linda posted to the State-Coord List on 31 Mar 1999: "Basically, the Rootsweb - USGenWeb Archives agreement says (brackets added for clarity): [1] Rootsweb will provide server space for the USGenWeb Archives and provide public access to the Archives with no fees or charges. [2] Rootsweb agrees to promote the USGenWeb Archives via the webpages, RWR, etc. [3] The USGenWeb Archives agrees to maintain datasets in an attractive and useful form to genealogists, and to provide public access to the Archvies with no fees or charges. [4] The USGenWeb Archives is to be hosted by Rootsweb. [5] Neither party will place advertising on the Archives, unless both agree. A Comparison of the two "Agreements" shows the following:: Item 1. No change Mar 31: Rootsweb will provide server space for the USGenWeb Archives and provide public access to the Archives with no fees or charges. Jun 14: RootsWeb to provide server space for the USGenWeb Archives, and provide public access to the Archives with no fees or charges. Item 2. Minor differences in wording Mar 31: Rootsweb agrees to promote the USGenWeb Archives via the webpages, RWR, etc. Jun 14: RootsWeb will promote the USGenWeb Archives via Rootsweb's Web pages, the RootsWeb Review, and other media as practicable. Item 3. Minor differences in wording Mar 31: The USGenWeb Archives agrees to maintain datasets in an attractive and useful form to genealogists, and to provide public access to the Archvies with no fees or charges. June 14: The USGenWeb Archives agrees to maintain the datasets in a form that is attractive and useful to genealogists, and to provide public access to the Archives with no fees or charges. Item 4. Major, Significant Change Mar 31: The USGenWeb Archives is to be hosted by Rootsweb. Jun 14: The USGenWeb Archives agrees to be hosted by RootsWeb and no other server. Item 5. Missing from Jun 14 "agreement" Mar 31: Neither party will place advertising on the Archives, unless both agree. QUESTIONS: 1. Did Linda re-negotiate the "agreement" aka "set of principles" between 31 Mar and 14 Jun of this year? 2. If so, did the Advisory Board authorize it? 3. Has the Advisory Board requested the electronic correspondence between Brian Leverich and Linda Lewis? 4. If not, might I suggest that the Board do so immediately? Also note that when Ms. Lewis first announced on 22 Jul 1996 to Roots-L that the Archives were up and running at ftp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb, she made no mention of any "agreement" or "set of principles" but stated only "A big thank you to Dr. Brian Leverich who offered space at RootsWeb (of Roots-L fame) for this project." So far as I know, no mention was made of any "agreement" until it came up during discussions about the SK Publications Agreement. Sincerely, Carole Hammett, Co-CC, Warren Co, TNGenWeb http://www.dogtrot.com/warren Coordinator, Combs-Coombs &c. Research Group http://www.combs-families.org/~combs/