I have been County Coordinator of Jones County, Iowa since February 1997 and for the past two years have served as Northwest/Plains CC Representative. During 1999-2000 I was State Coordinator for IAGenWeb. Additionally, I designed and maintain the IAGenWeb site and Richard's Genealogy, my personal site. My experience with the USGenWeb Project has been rewarding, and I believe I can help make this good project even better.

Project members are working at our mission and doing it quite well, but the Board seems stalled. The most important thing that the Board can do is to prove that it is capable of governing itself and the project; to win the confidence of the voters after the lack-luster performance of this year.

First we must get rid of the current 7/24 free-for-all in favor of a more structured meeting, even if it is not a real-time one. At the same time we must develop an effective method of handling multiple issues at the same time and allowing issues that are ready for action to move to the head of the line. I will introduce a style of meeting with a strict agenda and a system of bulletin boards to accomplish this. The NC must use their administrative authority to keep issues moving along. For example, if I couldn't get the Board to agree on a candidate for Secretary I would appoint an interim Secretary to get the job done until they could make up their minds on a permanent one.

I will propose a set of procedures for dealing with grievances that will keep them as private as possible and prevent them from disappearing without resolution after they are discussed on Board-Exec.

Then the Board can address action on issues that might actually be of benefit to the members: a newsletter; revision of the "help" pages on the website to make them more current, more interesting, more useful; ways of sharing the successful experiences of CCs and States in dealing with the situations and problems they have faced in maintaining their sites and organizations; planning for the successful future of our project.

It's time for us to look forward and find our role in the future of Internet genealogy; find the balance between rights and responsibilities for CCs and for those CCs who also serve the project in other capacities; the balance between roles of the State & Special Projects and the National Project.