The INGenWeb Guidelines and Procedures Committee composed of Debby Beheler, Eric Craig and John G. West are proud to announce that the Proposed Guidelines and Procedures for the INGenWeb are completed. Please review these at your earliest convenience and let us know of any problems, in order to resolve them as quickly as possible. The committee has overcome many obstacles and worked diligently and with great vigor to make these guidelines worthy of consideration of the great CC's of the INGenWeb Project. I would like to thank personally Debby, Committee Chairman, Eric and John,Committee Members, for preparing and working on these guidelines. Their sincerity to work together in behalf of the county coordinator's and Indiana is deeply appreciated. In the next few days you will be receiving a ballot to vote yes or no to accept these guidelines and procedures. Feel free to take your time and discuss them. Debby Eric and John will be willing to help you. Your ballot should be in by May 14th to be counted. ============================================================ Proposed INGenWeb Guidelines and Procedures Basic Indiana County Page Requirements 1. Maintaining an INGenWeb County web site requires posting information that is beneficial to genealogical researchers concerning the county. 2. Maintain links to INGeNWeb, USGenWeb pages, and Indiana Counties, Surnames, Queries, Obituaries, and Biographies Online. 3. Display INGenWeb and USGenWeb Logo on your main page. 4. Maintain Query pages for your county. 5. Maintain a reference page (formerly called a Lookup page) to aid visitors to your site in finding genealogical resource materials. 6. Post a reference on your main page to the state coordinator for new county volunteers. 7. Subscribe to the INGenWeb mailing list (brief version). Send email to: (INGEN-L-request@rootsweb.com /no subject "subscribe" in the message area). 8. Aside from these few requirements, the design and content of the pages are up to the CC. Copyright Infringement It is the policy of the INGenWeb Project to obtain permission from the creator of the code, graphics, and backgrounds before using them on our pages. You must have permission from the creator, author or publisher of data that you wish to include on your website, as well. If you find yourself having used someone's code or data without their permission, please either obtain that permission or remove that feature from your pages. Procedure for new county coordinators As new county coordinators adopt INGenWeb county pages and place them on the web, the pages are checked by SC, ASC or other SC appointed volunteer, for the required elements and to be sure your links work. Your evaluator will let you know when your site has been visited. If there are any problems with links or any required elements missing, you will be advised so you may make any changes or corrections. Post a message to the SC or ASC when you are ready for your page to be checked. Procedures - Election of State Coordinator Elections for IN State Coordinator (SC) will be held from August 1 to 7 each year, with nominations being open from July 15 - 30. The term will be for one year beginning on August 15th. The newly elected SC shall select an assistant state coordinator (ASC). However, the current ASC was apppointed prior to the USGenWeb Project bylaws becoming effective; therefore, the newly elected SC shall honor the grandfather clause in the USGenWeb by-laws which allows the current ASC to remain in that office until vacated by that person. If, or when, the current ASC forfeits the position, then the SC shall be allowed to appoint a new ASC to fill the position during what time is left in the SC's tenure. A State Coordinator who resigns (is removed or unable to serve) will be replaced by the ASC immediately until an election is held. The election to commence 30 days following the resignation (removal or other inability to serve), with nominations being made during the 3 weeks following the resignation (removal or other inability to serve). Who is eligible to vote? - One vote is allowed per county, but only one vote per individual. So if you host more than one county, you have one vote. And if there is more than one person maintaining a county, one must be selected by them to be the one eligible to vote. CC's will be eligible to vote in any INGenWeb election after 30 days as CC. Grievance procedures A coordinator who is not meeting minimum requirements (as outlined in "basic requirements" (above) will be contacted by the SC or ASC to ask the CC to remedy the ommission. Two weeks from the time of this contact by the SC/ASC shall be allowed for corrections in order to meet minimum requirements. In the case of non-communication of a CC with the project and/or visitors to the site, the SC or ASC will contact the CC to mediate any problems that may exist, (such as health or family problems) and determine ability to proceed. The SC shall ensure that a monthly roll call is conducted and that all of the County Coordinators have responded. A grievance committee of 5 members will be elected from CCs and by the CCs. Nominations will be open from July 15 - 30, with elections occurring from August 1 to 7 each year in conjunction with the SC election and serving the same term beginning on August 15th. Eligible committee members must have at least six months experience as a CC. The SC will bring before the grievance committee any problem with a CC who the SC feels needs to be removed from the project. A CC may appeal to the grievance committee and is encouraged to do so. The committee will make the final decision on whether the CC is removed. Procedures that may be taken when removing a CC, are appointing a new CC (temporary or permanent) and removing links from the State Pages that point to the removed CC's County Pages. The new CC will create his or her own County Pages as defined above, retaining any posted queries and other data donated by volunteers to the removed CC's site. Permission must be obtained from the removed CC to copy and use any information or data created by the CC contained on the pages residing on the county site. Permission should be obtained to continue using donated material from other volunteers, if possible. Lookup volunteers should be contacted for permission to continue advising of their services. Once permissions are received the pages will be reconstructed by the new CC. The removed CC should be requested to turn over control of any Mail Lists or Automated Query Systems to the new CC or SC. Amendments to Guidelines and Procedures: These Guidelines and Procedures may be amended by petitioning to the SC by at least ten CC's who are eligible to vote. A majority vote of the eligible voters is necessary to amend the Guidelines and Procedures. This will be done using the INGEN-L list as a vehicle. GUIDELINES AND PROCEDURES Committee Debby Beheler, Eric Craig, John West April 26, 1999 ============================================================