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From: Linda Russell Lewis <>
Subject: [ARCHIVES-L] [Fwd: Re: [STATE-COORD-L] USGenWeb Archives]
Date: Thu, 01 Apr 1999 15:43:50 -0800


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From: Linda Russell Lewis <>
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Portions left to identify where I'm commenting:

Ellen wrote:

>
> My concern about all this is most certainly not with John and SK, or Brian,
> or Linda specifically. I want to make that very clear. My concern
> involves agreement clauses such as:
>
> 7. USGW Archives agrees that this Agreement binds USGW Archives and
> each of its
> employees, agents, representatives and persons associated with it, as well
> as any affiliates,
> successors or assigns.
>

That is to prevent anyone that might coordinate the Archives in the
future, from selling, abusing, placing advertising, charging fees, etc
etc.

> It also perhaps should have been negioated by the Census Project
> Coordinator, since that is the nature of the data.
>

The census coordinator received a copy of the contract before it was
finalized, but she wanted to delay finalizing the contract until the
National Coordinator disagreement (when Nancy was nc) was settled. She
felt the outcome would have a great influence on the USGenWeb Project,
the splitting of the Archives among states (remember the KS Archives
fiasco in September?), and feared that the USGenWeb Archives would be
split up, along with the census text files and images.

Kay called me and stated she thought the contract should be between SK
and Rootsweb, and I agreed, but after discussion with Brian, and with
the agreement between the Archives and Rootsweb, it was obvious how to
do it.

It's a good thing the contract *is* with the USGenWeb Archives, where
the census images are safely stored for permanent storage. The recent
actions of the census project coordinator, (removing the project from
the umbrella of the Archives, where it was created and built), show that
those images would not have been safe from future actions taken without
approval of project volunteers.

> Considering the way this one was handled, there would be nothing to
> prevent, say.... the Census project coordinator from making an agreement
> with some company who produces cemetery lists, and then keeping the
> cemetery transcriptions within the Census dir, instead of turning the data
> over to the Tombstone Project where it would belong. We would assume that
> would never happen, but that is exactly what has happened in this case.
>

Exactly my point.

> I think this is all a result of having no overall Archives coordinator to
> make proper assignments - just individual project coordinators of equal
> statue "fighting" over data via outdated guidelines that no longer are
> suitable considering the growth of the project, and the implementation of
> the By-Laws.
>

There's only one coordinator trying to change things and take control,
and it's not me! <g>

Look at the track records. I stand on my record and my history with this
project. Sure.. I've made a few people angry, but it's because I stand
up for what I believe in and part of that is providing as much free data
to researchers as possible. I stand behind the volunteers of the
Archives who spend hours and hours formatting, prepping, uploading and
linking to files in the Archives. This "census mess" is not the first
time someone has tried to fragment, steal, copy, control, the Archives.
Everytime it happens, the Archives volunteers stand strong against those
that try to destroy what they have helped build in just less than three
years. There is a gig and a half of text files in the Archives, and it's
helping thousands of researchers everyday.

People think I want to control everything... that is FAR from reality. I
wish I could resign and let someone else take over. But, as long as the
Archives are attacked constantly, not many are willing to put up with
the accusations, the lies, or the hours spent trying to hold things
together.

Linda

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