Policies and Procedures
General Introduction
The WorldGenWeb Policy and Procedures governs the use of our domain, our project name, our project website and our organizational structure. All coordinators and prospective coordinators should read and familiarize themselves with the WorldGenWeb Policy and Procedures especially in the sections that cover the rights of coordinators, arbitration, grievance procedures, etc. Questions regarding any of the WorldGenWeb Policy issues should be addressed in care of the WorldGenWeb advisory board.
Project Policy
1) Domain Name and Project Name
The name, "The IrelandGenWeb Project", is a service mark of the WorldGenWeb Project. The WGW has authorized the right of use to the members of the IrelandGenWeb Project. Project members may use the name, "The IrelandGenWeb Project", "IrelandGenWeb Project", "IrelandGenWeb", and the acronym, "IGW", on all authorized project websites.
2) Project Organization
The IrelandGenWeb Project is administered by a team of members including the Regional Coordinator (RC) for the British IslesGenWeb, the System Administrator for the domain, and the Country Coordinator. There are approximately 32 counties in Ireland and Northern Ireland (26 for the Republic of Ireland and 6 for Northern Ireland). This website deals with the 26 counties in the Republic of Ireland only. The Northern IrelandGenWeb Project provides resource and reference information for the other 6 counties in Northern Ireland.
Many coordinators volunteer to host more than one website (it is recommended, however, that no coordinator host more than two websites at any one time with the exception of those hosting Ireland and Northern Ireland counties).
Responsibilities
3) Country Coordinator Election Procedures
The RC will initiate a new election each year, in February, for the election of a Country Coordinator. Any interested persons should make their intentions known to the project no later than December 15 of the preceding year. The month of January may be used to announce candidates and for the promoting of campaign issues. The Voting period will be set by the RC but should be scheduled on or around the 1st of February. The voting mechanism used for collecting and tabulating votes is up to the discretion of the RC. It may be a manual system (simple email votes caste) or an electronic one (such as votebot.com). The country coordinator will be elected by the project membership, the county coordinators. The winner of the election will be the individual who receives at least 51% of the votes cast, if no candidate receives at least 51% of the vote then a run off election will be held between the two individuals with the highest vote totals. The winner of the run-off will be the individual who receives at least 51% of the vote caste. Should the run-off election result in a 50-50 tie, the RC will caste the deciding vote.
4) County Coordinators
The position of county coordinator is approved by the CC. All interested persons should contact the CC to see if the county of interest is available. If it is available, the CC will determine qualifications for hosting the county (qualifications include but are not limited to: knowledge of the county's history, ability to create and maintain a website, FTP, and desire to serve). The most important quality is a desire to serve as part of this project. If a person is interested and is knowledgeable in the county but is new to the internet or to website design, help is available from other project members. The county coordinator needs to be available to make updates to the website, answer researcher queries (no research is conducted), and generally provide assistance as needed. Time requirements for this position can range from 30 minutes per week to several hours. The amount of time given to each project is solely dependant on the volunteer but a minimum amount of upkeep is required to keep the website on active status within the project.
5) Active Status
It is imperative that all websites remain active once they are networked as part of this project. A website is considered active when regular updates and additions are made to the website. The Project Administrative team understands that not all volunteers have access to materials and are not able to transcribe volumes of information for use online. However, it is expected that every cc attempt to maintain their site to the best of their ability. Date stamps on all pages are encouraged. If used, we ask that date stamps be updated regularly even if the page has not changed much. Regular website checks will be performed by the CC or his/her appointee. Website checks will include all required elements and links, query board usage (or email page updated regularly), as well as general appearance and functionality of the site (link checks, etc.). Obvious errors in coding will be brought to the cc's attention but choice of layout, design, colors, etc., are not part of the check process. Website checks will be conducted twice per year and email notification will be sent to each cc with a copy sent to the RC. Any websites that do not meet the project standards will be noted and the cc will have approximately two weeks to make corrections. If the cc doesn't make corrections within the two week period (exceptions include vacations, illness, etc.) the website will be placed on an "inactive status" and the link will be removed from the county index. If after 30 days the website corrections have not been made and the cc is unresponsive to email requests the website link will be removed from the project and a new host will be recruited to fill the county coordinator position.
6) Resignation of a Coordinator
In the event that a coordinator no longer wishes to volunteer with this project, notice must be given to the CC as soon as possible. The CC will announce to the mail list that such and such coordinator is stepping down and can offer the county up for adoption to the membership first. If no one is interested in adopting the county, a notice will be placed on the county index and a new host will be recruited to fill the vacancy. The outgoing coordinator may choose to remain with the project until a new coordinator is found or may choose to step down immediately. If they choose to step down immediately, the CC will put up a temporary page so that interested persons can adopt the site. The contents of the website may be donated to the new coordinator or it may remain with the outgoing coordinator.
At the time of a country coordinators resignation, a new election will be held according to established election procedure, and an interim coordinator will serve out the remaining term of the previous coordinator. A new election will be held the following February and the interim coordinator may choose to be re-elected for the next year.
7) Removal of a Coordinator
Unless otherwise stated the abiding WGW policy will govern removal of a coordinator. Every coordinator is guaranteed due process under WGW policy and is given 30 days to rectify any problems or issues within the project. See http://www.worldgenweb.org/policy.html for more specifics on this point. The one exception to this rule is the use of foul, degrading, abusive or political (in areas where politics is a current event) language or statements made towards the project in general or any person within the project. Use of such language or comments especially on the internal mailing list is grounds for immediate dismissal.
8) Arbitration, Grievance Procedures
All problems within the project will be resolved according to WGW policy. The country coordinator will try to resolve any initial problems. If a solution is not forthcoming, the RC will offer assistance. Should the need arise for arbitration, the standing WGW policy will prevail.
9) Project Guidelines
The following guidelines are to be in effect for all members of this project until further notice.
- The IrelandGenWeb Logo and return link must be placed on every county website. The WorldGenWeb Project requires every project to display the WGW logo and include a return link to http://www.worldgenweb.org. Additionally, the British IslesGenWeb requires a return link on every county page, http://www.britishislesgenweb.org (the logo is optional for county websites).
The IrelandGenWeb Project has had many logos in use over the past five years. The current one, shown below, is suggested. However any of the following logos may be used by the county websites to show affiliation with this project.
New Logo as of January 2012 for Ireland and United KingdonGenWeb Project:
New Logos as of January 2001:
Past Logos in use by this project:
- Every county must maintain a link(s) to a query page or BBS board serving their county. The CC may choose to maintain their own query page, BBS board or surname index if they desire to do so.
- Every county must include a copyright notice on all website pages. The following copyright notice is an example only of common copyright statements used on the internet (you may choose your own wording).
© 2000. Host Name. All Rights Reserved.
or
Copyright Statement
Copyright 1998, 1999, 2000. Host Name
All website contents remain the property of each webmaster and the IGW maintains no rights to any materials on any project website. All copyrighted material contributed to the website by someone other than the webmaster should contain a copyright notice granting permission to publicly display the material from the author of said material. Any material that is copyrighted and published without permission from the author must be removed immediately.
- Each county coordinator may choose to host their website anywhere on the internet. They may secure their own web space or use RootsWeb,Inc.com which provides free space for our project. Every RootsWeb,Inc.com account holder agrees to abide by the policies described by RootsWeb,Inc.com. The IGW maintains no authority over any account whether hosted by RootsWeb,Inc.com or another service provider.
- Every coordinator must be subscribed to the internal mailing list, . The demeanor on this list will be appropriate for a public forum and any member that uses derogatory statements, inflamed comments, or publicly derides another member will be removed from the project without any due process (see http://www.worldgenweb.org/policy.html) . No abusive language or behavior will be tolerated.
10) Lastly,
All coordinators are required to keep fresh in their minds the mission of this project. Our goal is to help visiting researchers find useful resource and reference information online and assist them in tracing their family history. Our job is to be friendly, responsive, helpful, cordial, and most of all available. This is a volunteer position and as such mandates as written above are only relevant if the membership agrees to abide by them. The Project Administration team has worked hard to try and cover every possible scenario that may occur given the nature of internet genealogical projects. However, we cannot guarantee that your experience as part of our project will be perfect or stress free. We have created a set of working policy that will serve this project well so long as all members agree to participate fully and without any measure of distrust or dishonesty. That said, the Project Administrative team reserves the right to implement any and all of the above procedures as needed to maintain a well-working, thoughtful, internet project.
Last Revised: January 13, 2012
(c) 1997-2012. The IrelandGenWeb Project.
