USGENWEB-ALL-L Archives

From: "Becky Falin" <>
Subject: Vacation, etc.
Date: Thu, 21 Nov 1996 16:50:53 -0500

If anyone needs to contact me, I will be unavailable from tomorrow (22nd)
until late the 30th. I'm taking a much needed vacation (pre-planned - I'm
not jumping ship here <g>) and I hope to be able to devote some time to
getting more data entered for my county pages, which is my main interest in
this project.

Every couple weeks we seem to have a major crisis here and it's very
frustrating - for everyone involved. I do think there are a few things we
can do to help these situations in the future.

First, it has been conceded that there is no management of the USGenWeb
group. I don't think that any formal management would work in this media
even if it were attempted and the public perception that there is a
management group hurts the project. We need a prominently displayed
unambiguous statement on the main US page stating "What the USGenWeb
project is". I know we've discussed this before - but we really need to do
it. We also need links to the FAQ page and information on all the mailing
lists available. It's the first place that visitors and volunteers will
check for information.

There seems to be much concern and fear over who controls what. As a
"state coordinator" I know that I have very little control over anything
and I don't want control over individual pages. The bottom line is that
this project is about COUNTY genealogical pages and each one is the
creation, property and responsibility of the individual coordinator - this
is where the greatest amount of work needs to be done in order for this
project to be a success - and this is where the "power" lies, if it lies
anywhere. I think the philosophy of keeping the requirements to a bare
minimum and giving each individual coordinator the freedom to create their
own project is the best. By a great stroke of luck we have a tremendous
group of individuals working on this project - take a look around at the
county pages.

Anyway, here's an attempt at a statement (did I tell you I was hit by a
truck at work on Monday - 25 stitches above my right eye, so if it don't
make sense....<g>)
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The USGenWeb project is a loosely organized group of volunteers working to
create a center for genealogical research for every county in the United
States. USGenWeb is not a commercial enterprise and information found on
this pages is freely available to the public. As you browse the pages, you
will find some consistent elements. All counties will have an area for you
to post queries and links to the state page and Archives. You will also
see considerable variation; each page or database is the creation, property
and responsibility of an individual volunteer. We are very proud of this
project and hope that you are too. If you would like to help, please
contact the state or county coordinator for the area that interests you.
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Becky Falin
West Virginia Genealogy - WVGenWeb
http://members.harborcom.net/~rfalin/wv/
(or http://www.usgenweb.com/wv)
USGenWeb Archives:WV
http://www.rootsweb.com/usgenweb/wv/wvfiles.htm
Email:

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• Vacation, etc. by "Becky Falin" <>