Tim, speaking strictly in basics and generalities, the current state web site is designed to help the researcher. I’m suggesting the purpose of the site become two-fold; 1) help researchers, 2) help Minnesota coordinators.. Mike From: Timothy Stowell via Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2015 7:14 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [MNGEN] USGenWeb Requirements Mike, Would you elaborate what you mean by 'separate from the PR to researchers'? Thanks, Tim On Thu, Mar 19, 2015 at 9:37 PM, Mike Peterson via <[email protected]> wrote: > Good note Karen ! > I think the state web site should have a ‘coordinator’ section similar how > USGenWeb and some other states do it. Separate from the PR to researchers. > Also, I think our state site should have a guidelines page for us – > similar to USGenWeb - http://usgenweb.org/volunteers/guidelines.shtml . > Sincerely, > Mike > Clay Co > > From: Karen De Groote via > Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2015 5:55 PM > To: List MNGenWeb > Subject: [MNGEN] USGenWeb Requirements > > Greetings CCs, > Below is a very important email that we all need to read so that we > are on the same page. If you have any questions or comments, please > feel free to write one of the leadership team or post on the list for > general discussion. > > We need to get our sites up to snuff and this email will serve as a > simple explanation of what we should do. Now that we have gotten > MNGenWeb up and running again, we need to take it to the next level. > Sometime in the next 10 days you need to take a look at your > county(ies) to make sure all is in order. As a valued member of the > USGenWeb project we need to get polished up now that we are once again > standing on firm ground. > > At the end of the explanations is a short list of all the > requirements. You can use that as a check list in making sure your > sites comply with USGenWeb requirements and read the detailed > information for clarification. > > Additionally, Tim, Shirley and I, as your leadership team, have > divided up the counties among the three of us, in order to make it > easier to visit all counties. The division is as follows using an > alphabetized list of couties and making sure we do not have a county > personally in our respective divisions: > > Tim: counties A-H > Karen: counties I-O > Shirley: counties P-Y > > What this also means is that you have a specific leadership person who > will bring to the team any questions and concerns that you may have, > whenever you need them. > > > The leadership team will begin reviewing their counties at the end of > this 10 day period for the basic requirements and you will be getting > an email of congratulations or whoops we have something yet to do. > > USGenWeb CC requirements can be found at: > http://www.usgenweb.org/volunteers/guidelines.shtml > > Point by point explanation of requirements: > > 1. The first requirement is a name and email on your index page. It > is very important that visitors know who they can contact about YOUR > county. It is perfectly acceptable to have first name only but there > must be a name. It is also perfectly fine to have a text or picture > link of the email rather than a hyperlink if you want to cut down on > spam. Another good idea is a hyperlink to a contact page. (See > Nicollet County for this example: > http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mnnicoll/) Many people will use > this method so they merely have to change one page, not page after > page on a site. It is up to you and how you want your email to appear > but we do > need a name and an email contact of some sort on the index page.. > This name and email should be easily found, not hidden at the bottom > of page or hidden in a similar color. This is especially difficult > for our color blind visitors. > > 2. The next requirement is responding to emails from researchers in a > reasonable time period. If someone writes to you from your county > page, some response should go out within a reasonable time frame. In > this day and age it shouldn't take more than a few days to get back > with people. This response can simply state that you do not have the > information they seek or you need more time to dig up their answer, if > you are so inclined. If you go on vacation or away from your email > for quite some time, let your leadership team know you will be out of > communication for X amount of time. Visitors complain to the SC if > they don't get responses. > > 3. Item 3 will come under separate cover: Copyright > > 4. Solicitation of funds is inappropriate except as allowed in the > bylaws, Section IX. To paraphrase this requirement, no memberships, > contributions or materials for sale are allowed on the index page. > The USGenWeb project has a commitment to free genealogy for > researchers and it would not do to have monetary demands on the index > page of your county. It does not, however, prevent links to purchase > genealogical materials or hire a paid researcher on pages other than > the index page and dedicated to these services. > > 5. All index pages require the prominent display of the USGenWeb > logo. We have 4 acceptable logos we can use. These were voted in to > official use some dozen or so years ago. The logos page is at: > http://www.usgenweb.org/volunteers/logos.shtml Prominent display > means you don't have to go looking for them, they are showing when you > open the page. Your county site should immediately indicate that you > are a member of the USGenWeb project, with the proper and prominent > placement of one of these official logos. You must also link the logo > itself or provide a text link immediately under the logo to the > USGenWeb home page: http://www.usgenweb.org > > 6. As a CC you are required to be subscribed to this mailing list. > Obviously if you receive this message you are good to go. Some have > complained of the great amount of email on this list in the past. In > order to cut down on the amount of emails during a discussion, you can > subscribe to this list in digest mode which will send one email a day > with the pertinent discussions. > > 7. All counties must offer some type of query system. The easiest > method is to provide a link to the Rootsweb/Ancestry query board for > your county but you can use your own county based query system. A > countyabased system provides a query system that is on your country > site where you post all queries you receive manually. If that is > what you like to do, you are welcome to do it in this manner. > > 8. All county sites must provide a link to the state site. We voted > on an official logo for this project and if you use a MNGenWeb logo, > it MUST be the official logo for this project. If you use a logo you > must either link the logo to the state project page at, > http://rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mngenweb/, or provide a text link > immediately under the logo. Here is the page with our official logo > and the acceptable banner that can be used on other pages that are NOT > the index page: http://rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mngenweb/logo.htm. > This is an area that we have problems with in this project. Some are > using the old logo and some are using the the new BANNER on the index > page for a logo rather than the official logo. It only takes a few > minutes reformat your index page to utilize the official MNGenWeb > logo. You are welcome to ADD a banner somewhere on your index page > for decoration but it cannot take the place of the official logo. > > 9. The official name of our project is MNGenWeb, exactly like that. > Capital M, N, G, lowercase e, n, capital W, lowercase e,b. Any other > title is unacceptable. Minnesota spelled out is not acceptable. > Counties should be called Subject County, MNGenWeb or even Subject > County Genealogy, a MNGenWeb county. MNGenWeb has to be in your title > for identification purposes. Anoka County is one example of proper > branding: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mnanoka/intro.htm > > It should take a person no more than 15-30 minutes to correct any > deficiencies in their index page. To recap the the list of required > items: > > 1. Name and email (or contact link) on index page > 2. Respond to emails from researchers in timely manner. > 3. Current copyright > 4. Solicitation of funds handled properly > 5. USGenWeb logo and link > 6. Subscribed to email list > 7. Query system offered > 8. Link to state site, official logo if using logo > 9. Official name in MNGenWeb > > There are a number of recommended and strongly recommended items on > the National rules page that you may wish to add to your sites. They > are not a requirement at this time but if you choose to use these > elements, please make sure they are correct. For example Pico Search > is no longer in business so if you have them on your page, they need > to be replaced by a working search engine. > > Thank you so much, one and all! > > Karen De Groote > ASC > Tim Stowell > SC > Shirley Cullum > SC > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message > ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message