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Archiver > USGENWEB-ALL > 2008-09 > 1221663284


From: "Cyndie" <>
Subject: Re: [ABChat] Website maintenance / website host issues
Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2008 10:54:44 -0400
References: <B70C9036F75B4CFFA76F041AC0AE18A3@TinaSVickeryPC><48C99D7C.8060409@saintclair.org><45AA21E190DA4CF28D2952FA57958841@CyndieDell><01d001c91695$7c4c8ea0$7301a8c0@scott><15E1473EF414423B8CD2E587A9613F43@CyndieDell><96A004BE87FA4AC89729EA2DE54A26EA@TinaSVickeryPC><2F9B71414E5547DFAA940497A2E393E0@CyndieDell><E9A54FC4F80745DEAD612A7C4AC8910D@CyndieDell><49F2D6E56951461AA5561AF6B2F81C82@TinaSVickeryPC>
In-Reply-To: <49F2D6E56951461AA5561AF6B2F81C82@TinaSVickeryPC>


With permission from Phyllis and Tina, I'm forwarding the following proposal
that Phyllis started regarding Duties and Qualifications of a Webmaster Task
Group. This proposal includes a section on qualifications which I think are
the same or very close to what Tina posted in her message.

Cyndie
SP Rep.



USGenWeb Project bylaws: Article VI, Sections 3, 4 and 5 give the duties
of
the Advisory Board in regard to a Webmaster and Project websites. Also
stated is one Webmaster duty in conjunction with the AB...i.e. "ensure the
national website is in compliance with the stated bylaws of The USGenWeb
Project."

This proposed Standard Rule in no way conflicts with the Bylaws:
_____________

Standard Rules:

Section XI: Duties and Qualifications of A Webmaster Task Group

The USGenWeb Project Advisory Board shall appoint a Webmaster Task Group
composed of a Webmaster, Assistant Webmaster and two members to serve as
liaisons between the Webmaster and Advisory Board. In addition, the
National Coordinator shall serve as an ex officio member.

Personnel in this Task Group are to be verified at the beginning of each
Project year and names changed if necessary.

Names and email address of each member of the Task Group will be posted on
the national entry page.

Section A: Duties of Webmaster

Section 1: The duties of the Webmaster shall be the maintenance and upkeep
of the national pages; informing the Assistant Webmaster and the National
Coordinator of the codes/passwords to the National Pages website; and work
to insure the national pages are in compliance with the Bylaws of USGenWeb
Project.

Section 2: The Assistant Webmaster will aid the Webmaster when asked and
will assume the duties of Webmaster in the event the Webmaster is unable to
carry out the duties specified herein.

Section 3: Qualifications for Webmaster and Assistant Webmaster shall be
the same. They shall have strong demonstrated knowledge and understanding
of HTML and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets); Knowledge of FTP software; Have
been a member in good standing of the USGenWeb Project for a minimum of six
months; Be able to devote a total of at least 24 hours spread over the
course of each month on site maintenance and upkeep; Be able to respond in
a
timely manner to requested updates from the Advisory Board liasons; Report
problems and Concerns to the Advisory Board Liaisons.

Section 4: Two Advisory Board members will serve as liaisons between the
general membership, Advisory Board and Webmaster, in order to insure an
organized, accurate method of communication among all parties.

Section 5: Qualifications of the Liasons are considered covered by the
fact
they were elected to national office; plus a knowledge of Article VI,
Sections 3, 4 and 5 of The USGenWeb Project Bylaws.

Section 6: With the exception of a personnel issue being under discussion
by the Advisory Board, Webmaster concerns and problems that arise will
take precedence over all agenda items.





-----Original Message-----
From:
[mailto:] On Behalf Of Tina S. Vickery
Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2008 9:06 AM
To:
Subject: Re: [ABChat] Website maintenance / website host issues

Never mind my last note (not enough coffee yet <g>), thanks Cyndie.
Tina
----- Original Message -----
From: "Cyndie" <>
To: <>
Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2008 7:17 AM
Subject: Re: [ABChat] Website maintenance / website host issues


> Just to clarify my last statement, here is the link from last session
> where
> Phyllis volunteered to work on this:
>
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/USGENWEB-ALL/2008-08/121934391
> 6
> The position of assistant webmaster was discussed to be part of a
> Webmaster
> Duties and Qualifications formulation.
>
> And here is where you asked her to go forth with it:
>
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/USGENWEB-ALL/2008-08/121935957
> 5
>
> I believe the intent of this Webmasters Duties and Qualifications
> formulation was to incorporate it into our Standard Procedures and I feel
> we
> should continue to work on that this session.
>
> Thanks,
> Cyndie
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From:
> [mailto:] On Behalf Of Cyndie
> Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2008 2:52 AM
> To:
> Subject: Re: [ABChat] Website maintenance / website host issues
>
> Tina,
>
> What happened to the draft that Phyllis started?
>
> Cyndie
> SP Rep.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From:
> [mailto:] On Behalf Of Tina S. Vickery
> Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2008 1:00 AM
> To:
> Subject: Re: [ABChat] Website maintenance / website host issues
>
> Cyndie, if I understand you correctly, (please correct me if I haven't),
> you
> are suggesting a Standard Procedure for the USGenWeb Project to have both
> a
> web master and an assistant web master? If so, do you have a draft
> procedure to share with the Board for discussion?
>
> The web master call that I posted here a few days ago has received no
> comment. Are there comments from either you or other Board members on the
> content of that call?
>
>
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/USGENWEB-ALL/2008-09/122140607
> 1
>
> Tina
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Cyndie" <>
> To: <>
> Sent: Monday, September 15, 2008 1:01 PM
> Subject: Re: [ABChat] Website maintenance / website host issues
>
>
>> We have had an assistant some years and not had one others, so future
>> AB's may opt not to have one based on past precedent. I think it is a
>> good idea to have an assistant and having a Standard Procedure that
>> specifies it will help encourage future AB's to have one (unless, of
>> course, they change the procedure or there are no volunteers).
>>
>> I think we need to be consistent in putting out calls for volunteers.
>> We reappointed the secretary and discuss list folks by asking if they
>> wanted to continue to serve and since they did, we did not put out a
>> call.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Cyndie
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From:
>> [mailto:] On Behalf Of Scott Burow
>> Sent: Sunday, September 14, 2008 2:13 PM
>> To:
>> Subject: Re: [ABChat] Website maintenance / website host issues
>>
>> Perhaps the wisest thing to do at this juncture would be to place a
>> call to the membership for interested parties who would like to
>> volunteer for the webmaster and assistant webmaster positions.
>>
>> There is precedent for having an assistant webmaster, so no additional
>> special rules or standing rules would need to be adjusted or amended
>> to provide for such a position.
>>
>> In that way, we're fair to all members who may wish to volunteer for
>> the positions, as well as have the greatest pool of interested members
>> to draw from.
>>
>> Then once selecting those to fill the positions, we would benefit from
>> their input relating to a job description (rather than a procedure)
>> for the positions.
>>
>> Scott
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Cyndie" <>
>> To: <>
>> Sent: Sunday, September 14, 2008 6:43 AM
>> Subject: Re: [ABChat] Website maintenance / website host issues
>>
>>
>>> I'm mostly in agreement with Mike.
>>>
>>> I think developing a Standard Procedure related to the Webmaster's
>>> responsibilities and evaluating our goals for the long term regarding
>>> webhosting could be done by a few of the AB members while we move on to
>>> other items. #1 could possibly be taken care of by monitoring the
>>> logs,
>>> tracking any reports of trouble and performing routine maintenance
>>> (such as link checks) as part of a Standard Procedure.
>>>
>>> Cyndie
>>> SP Rep.
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From:
>>> [mailto:] On Behalf Of Mike St.
>>> Clair/ST
>>> Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2008 6:37 PM
>>> To:
>>> Subject: Re: [ABChat] Website maintenance / website host issues
>>>
>>> I think there are really four discrete but closely related issues
>>> that we should talk about, which I have listed below in the order I
>>> think they would best be discussed. Then we should take action on any
>>> of these where the majority of the board feel action is called for. I
>>> acknowledge that this is just one way this subject could be divided;
>>> a division that makes sense to me. I will certainly listen to any
>>> other suggested ways to divide this set of issues.
>>>
>>> I think that subissue #1 can be quickly decided by the entire board
>>> and that subissue #2 should be discussed by the entire board. I
>>> suggest that a small subset of volunteers from within the AB (perhaps
>>> 3) should discuss and investigate subissues #3 and #4 (in that
>>> order), presenting the results to the AB for discussion and
>>> confirmation. As part of the work on both, I suggest that small
>>> surveys be done to gather information on what other similar
>>> organizations are doing. In the case of #4, I suggest that we survey
>>> the states and USGENWEB members about the web hosting providers they
>>> are using and their satisfaction with those providers. This would
>>> provide a starting point for the subset of the many such available
>>> providers that would be examined in deciding whether we would be best
>>> served by moving, or staying with our current provider.
>>>
>>> My breakdown of these issues into four separate subissues follows:
>>>
>>> 1 -- Performance and Capabilities of the current web hosting
>>> provider, IX
>>>
>>> I and some others, including our webmaster, encountered serious
>>> performance problems at times with our current provider from the time
>>> our website moved until sometime in August. As Cyndie mentioned,
>>> there has recently been a noticeable improvement. Since I noticed the
>>> same sorts of problems during the same period with the server used by
>>> ILGenWeb (also from IX) I was concerned this was much broader than
>>> our server. I took the time to do a little research and found many
>>> other complaints from IX account holders, most of them appearing
>>> during the past year. It may be coincident, but IX made a major data
>>> center move in 2007, and I noticed many of the complaints were
>>> concurrent with that move and the following months.
>>>
>>> Based on the significant improvements that started in late August,
>>> however, I think we could probably take this part of the combined
>>> webhosting issues and drop it's priority, unless the former problems
>>> return. As long as that doesn't happen, I suggest we just let item #4
>>> address comparing IX with other potential web host providers, and
>>> helping us decide whether we should stay or whether we would be
>>> better served by moving to another alternative in the long run.
>>>
>>> 2 -- What portion of the web maintenance responsibility belongs to
>>> the NC and what portion belongs to the Advisory Board.
>>>
>>> The only mentions of website maintenance and webmaster appointment
>>> appearing in the bylaws refer to the AB, not the NC. But it appears
>>> that this has traditionally left to the NC, perhaps under their
>>> operational duties role.
>>> I'd like us to discuss, decide and document, how this is really to
>>> operate while remaining in line with what the bylaws call for.
>>> Perhaps deciding this would help in deciding subissue #3. On the
>>> other hand, discussing and deciding subissue #3 might help with this
>>> one. I tend to think #2 should come before #3, but I will listen to
>>> what the rest of you have to say about it.
>>>
>>> 3 -- Webmaster responsibilities: What should they be? Who should
>>> assist (e.g. should there be an assistant webmaster)? Who should
>>> provide oversight, support, and assistance from within the AB?
>>>
>>> I understand that Phyllis Rippee started drafting something, but I
>>> haven't seen that. Has anyone? If that exists, it might be a starting
>>> point for discussion. In any event, I think discussion and
>>> documentation of a formal list of responsibilities in the form of a
>>> position description would help us resolve the obvious differences
>>> that appeared during earlier discussion; differences between various
>>> conceptions held by board and project members of what a webmaster
>>> should be doing. Our target should be a documented list that the
>>> majority of the board can sign off on. Then we should give the
>>> webmaster the capability and responsibility to so perform and ask for
>>> regular reports back on problems, accomplishments, suggested
>>> improvements, etc. I'm suggesting that the same subset of the AB to
>>> address subissue
>>> #4
>>> be tasked to address this one also, with the final decision to be
>>> made by the full board, of course.
>>>
>>> 4 -- Long Term, what should our arrangments be for: web hosting,
>>> domain registration, and DNS.
>>>
>>> After many years at Rootsweb, we made a quick move to another option
>>> for webhosting. I think a more organized evaluation of the options
>>> available would be useful before we decide to confirm that quick
>>> decision for the longer term. The other two items I mention are
>>> perhaps less crucial, but they are related and I think could be readily
> examined at the same time.
>>> This examination should include comparisons of the best options,
>>> ideas of how to pay the bills, etc.
>>>
>>> Mike St. Clair
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Tina S. Vickery wrote:
>>>> This agenda item is carried over as Old business. As Chair, I
>>>> re-open the
>>> discussion of this item.
>>>>
>>>> Tina Vickery
>>>> National Coordinator
>>>> USGenWeb Project
>>>
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