[These comments are in response to a message from Ron Eason to the Board members individually and to USGW-CC-L. Because I am not subscribed to that list I am using the Board-L forum to respond. Ron's message pertains to my recent Motion 00-14 which I have temporarily withdrawn to allow Richard to move to rescind Motion 00-12.] Ron, my comments on grievances pertain to those of C. Hammett as I have made clear. These are "grievances" which are clearly meant to advance the agenda of those who would destroy what they can't control. This Project was designed to advance online genealogy and not the personal ambitions of a few or to satisfy spiteful ambitions. I support the concept of a digital library. It was a good idea at it's inception and has proven it's worth to literally thousands of researchers since. I support RW because their word has not been broken and the Archives have been given literally unlimited storage space, with faster server upgrades when needed to facilitate searches FREELY to all. But while they do this they have been subjected to a constant barrage of attacks which conveniently ignore the fact that the equipment to do this is costly so that commercialism was the only answer. I support the ByLaws because not to do so leads to chaos and because they represent the will of those who approved them, the volunteers. I respect the authors of the ByLaws more all the time because they made the ByLaws hard to amend, limiting tampering. And yes, the ByLaws still mention a Census Project so I support that also. There are valid complaints about the delinking. Reread my comments on this and my voting record. But I repeat, the best committee to hear this are the volunteers at the polls. you had a great deal of support, Ron, here on the Board until you chose to thumb your nose at us and incorporate. But the for profit inc route was the last straw. Up until that point a solution was possible. If that were not insult enough you chose a server whose owner incorporated the USGW name, literally stole it from us. This offended a great number of people, not just Board members. The thing that really bothers me about all this is that it drags down with it the many transcribers who were left confused and angry. They expected better from all of us when they signed up. Our very reason for being was trampled by all this. Since I have been on the Board a number of personal grievances have been discussed on Exec-L, which, by the way we are sometimes castigated for using for this or any other purpose. Anything discussed there has been subject to leaks by someone who would complain about grievances on one hand and leak our efforts to resolve them on the other. My level of contempt for such people is unspeakable. The Board is given the responsibility in the ByLaws to evaluate and act on grievances if they have merit, whether you like it or not. Grievances, as mentioned in the ByLaws, were not meant to include complaints which if acted upon would destroy parts of the Project. Those actions are reserved for the amendment process. Sitting here this morning answering this denies researchers somewhere perhaps 20 census scans that could have been put online. That to me is a tragedy. Is this what we are really about? If I thought that I would not be here today. Joe -- Zsedeny Genealogy - http://www.rootsweb.com/~jzed/home.htm NDGenWeb Archives - http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/nd/ndfiles.htm Pembina County, ND - http://www.rootsweb.com/~ndpembin/pembina.htm Ramsey County, ND - http://www.rootsweb.com/~ndramsey/ramsey.htm