I think I will be offended on behalf of ALHN and AHGP members. I was there before I was CC at GAGen. I have been referring people to a private page Genrecords - Genealogy Records Online http://www.genrecords.org/ and I will be glad to stop doing that. Donna Parrish Forsyth County Georgia History and Records http://www.rootsweb.com/~gaforsyt/ associated with ALHN and AHGP In a message dated 6/5/05 9:58:40 PM Eastern Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: << Subj: RE: [GAGEN] BIZ SC election Date: 6/5/05 9:58:40 PM Eastern Daylight Time From: [email protected] (Debra Crosby) Reply-to: [email protected] To: [email protected] Keith, with me I think you may have hit the nail on the head. For years it's been "ok we are a national project but you states do what you want to do". I for one am ready to see this organization be more professional. Every state you go to in the project does everything diffently but all claim to be part of one project. Ok that may have worked in this online unprofessional genealogy world for the past five years but where do we want to be for the future. I want to look professional, part of one major project, not a stand alone state project competing with AGHP and every other pop up organization which cares to go online because they are ticked off with the USGenWeb and decide to start their own sites. And that is happening more than I care to think about. I want to be a one stop shop for researchers giving them everything they need for their county so that they don't have to look for other projects who are doing it better. I want us to become professional, ok we are volunteer yes, but volunteer does not mean that we have to be unprofessional and I can only refer you to the red cross organization to point out that they would never put up with volunteers who did not meet their standards. I'm tired of hearing we are volunteers so we can't expect anything, that is bull*hit, if we can't meet the standards then we have no business volunteering. Believe it or not this project has grown larger than just john donated his 10 hours of transcribing so he deserves to sit on a SC position for 10 years with no question. There are 1000's of volunteers now and each and everyone having expectations that their work/time is included in the big picture. It is up to us to grow into one major project so that every single individual is appreciated and no longer ignored. We can do that only by becoming one single unit, one goal and working towards that goal, even if it means getting rid of the volunteer who holds a position to keep their name on a board but never does a thing toward furthering research. The time is coming that we decide are we one unit/one organization? or are we 50 units with however many counties each unit may have, all individuals doing our own thing in one area, while others do it differently. How many of us have worked up our own county pages, only to go researching in another county and think "oh my god, are they really part of this project"? We are growing at an enormous rate right now, you tell me, do you want to be a member of one group or one member in a group of 50? We as a project have to get our act together, if we continue doing things different in each state, we are going to continue to lose respectability that is a guarantee. I am in agreement for making the USGenWeb stronger and not so much worried about guaranteeing the rights of the GAGenWeb SC, I'll probably get blasted for this but it is my opinion. I want to be part of the USGenWeb and not so much worried about seeing that the GAGenWeb remains separate from that project. Debra Crosby >>