Fellow Board Members, Having the responsibility to a make judgment as to the validity of the National Coordinator's recent actions concerning the de-linking and re-directing of the Census Project's Link on the national page of USGenWeb Project, I felt that at least two things were most important. (1) Was there valid cause? (&) if there was valid cause....... (2) Did the National Coordinator have the responsibility and authority to do so? It probably would have been far better if he had referred to the causes in the original announcement of his actions and would have given all a better chance of understand his actions from the start. But that in and of itself is no great sin. So, (1) CAUSE: If there were no evidence of any wrong doing it would be simple. OVERTURN the action! What I found while trying to determine is there was cause and the disturbs me greatly. More has been said about the NC's wrongs than the causes of his actions. Those issues will still need to be addressed no matter the outcome of the vote to overturn his actions. Now (2) RESPONSIBILITY and AUTHORITY In the many organizations I've been involved, including everything from Little League Baseball to much more formal business organizations and genealogical societies, the strictness of applying parliamentary procedure has varied greatly. Interpretation of bylaws has been often varied also. Even in our own government there are checks & balances... The President can veto... Congress can override. That is what this is all about.... checks & balances. Our Bylaws speak a lot about the "responsibilities" of both the National Coordinator and each of the board members. ARTICLE VI: DUTIES/QUALIFICATIONS OF ADVISORY BOARD Section 2. The National Coordinator is **responsible for the day-to-day** administration of The USGenWeb Project and serves as the public representative for the project. The National Coordinator shall preside at all meetings of the Advisory Board, serve as an ex officio member of all sub-committees, and maintain the national organizational mail lists (i.e., State Coordinators, Advisory Board, and any appropriate sub-lists). [[ We have nothing to tell us what ALL might be included in "day-to-day" administration so that is left open to interpretation. If he can ONLY do the few things specifically mentioned above then he isn't even responsible for answering email pertaining to the USGWP because that is not mentioned. Should we hold him to task because he is doing something wrong if he answers mail?? If the NC does anything that is not specifically mentioned above, the rest of board has the responsibility to bring it to a vote if necessary.]] Section 3. The responsibilities of the Advisory Board shall include: ** addressing any problem issues as they arise**, aiding the state projects upon request, overseeing elections, advising and mediating, if necessary, any grievances or appeals, and appointing a Webmaster to maintain the national website. [[ Kay Mason moved the CP files, closed the CP mailing lists, removed the archives of those lists and violated Holly's copyright in NOV/DEC 1998. The board that was in place in late 1998/early 1999 was "responsible" for addressing those issues at that time and failed to do so, possibly because Kay herself was a board member! Kay herself started using the title "National Coordinator of the Census Project" when there is NO such title mentioned in the Bylaws and Ron Eason has continued to use that title even after being informed that no such title exists and being asked to voluntarily remove it from the Census Project pages and not to use that title. To this very day those issues have not been dealt with except by Tim in his "cause" for his Executive Order 2000-01. I could go on point by point but I think you can see by Tim's EO... he fulfilled his responsibility and effectively said... "here... now this board WILL HAVE to take responsibility by either overturning my EO or upholding it and even if I'm overturned I have put it in this board's lap." ]] Section 5. The Advisory Board shall also have the **responsibility to remove links from the national website**, as appropriate, to websites which fail to meet the established guidelines/standards for The USGenWeb Project or to websites which display inappropriate content. Coordinators of any websites found to be in non-compliance shall be notified of such and shall be given a period of two (2) weeks in which to bring their website into compliance. The two-week time limit shall be flexible based on justifiable reasons presented by the website coordinator. [[ I feel that Tim had given notice to Ron and he accepted the responsibility to delink] Thank you if you have taken the time to read this far. RootsLady (aka) Barbara Yancey Dore RootsLady@lest-we-forget.com - RootsLady@email.msn.com HomePage: RootsLady's Home, Home On The Web - http://RootsLady.com The OUTHOUSE - Genealogy Humor http://www.lest-we-forget.com/The_Outhouse CC for 8 TX Counties & 1 GA County "In loving memory of all my ancestors and for the benefit of all their descendants."