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Section I: The CAGenWeb Project The CAGenWeb Project (CAGenWeb) is a non-profit volunteer organization that is dedicated to the free use and access of public domain resources and reference information. Mission The mission of The CAGenWeb Project is to provide quality genealogical knowledge and historical data to the community at large, always free of charge, in order to promote the study of ancestral history. Use of Name The names "The CAGenWeb Project", "CAGenWeb Project", and "CAGenWeb" are service marks of this organization and as such are reserved for use ONLY by this project and may not be used by any other website or person or group. No member of The CAGenWeb Project may use any version of our name other than those versions specified within this section. The CAGenWeb Project State Coordinator reserves the right to decide who may use the service marked names and right of use may be refused at any time at the discretion of The CAGenWeb Project State Coordinator. Domain Name The domain name cagenweb.org is registered to the State Coordinator on behalf of The CAGenWeb Project and is administered by same. Ownership of the domain shall pass from State Coordinator to State Coordinator. Section II: Logo Copyright and Ownership Ownership of CAGenWeb Project logos are the property of their creators and are for the use of The CAGenWeb Project and its affiliates, specifically, on any and all of its project web pages so long as the logos are not altered, except to be resized. Ownership of USGenWeb logos are the property of their creators and are for the use of The USGenWeb Project and its affiliates, specifically, on any and all of its project web pages so long as the logos are not altered in any way (logos may not be resized). Section III: Organization The CAGenWeb Project is governed by its State Coordinator and his or her Assistant State Coordinator(s). The main function of a State Coordinator and Assistant State Coordinators is to add stability to the project by providing a sense of organization. This includes but is not limited to: maintaining the project website, upholding policy and standards, maintaining communication via the coordinator mail list, serving as arbitrators should the need arise, and generally being available to the public to answer questions about the project. The CAGenWeb Project is an equal opportunity organization that does not tolerate discrimination in any form on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, marital status, disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity. State Coordinator: The State Coordinator is elected by majority vote of The CAGenWeb Project County Coordinators and serves a three year term. At the end of each term, the State Coordinator may ask for a renewal term of another three years. If no objection is raised, the term shall be renewed. If any County Coordinator expresses a desire for a new election at the end of any State Coordinator's term, or if the State Coordinator fails to ask for a renewal term, an election may be held. There is no limit to the number of terms that the State Coordinator may serve. A State Coordinator must appoint at least one Assistant State Coordinator and is responsible for maintaining an accurate list of all local-level and special projects volunteers, along with their current email addresses and the date that they became part of the project. The State Coordinator is responsible for maintaining the state-level website, as well as any abandoned or vacant local-level or special project websites. The State Coordinator must be subscribed to the national mailing list for state coordinators and to the state mailing list. The State Coordinator must provide his or her current contact information (address, telephone number, email address) to the National Coordinator and to the Assistant State Coordinator(s) and must immediately update his or her contact information if it changes. The State Coordinator is responsible for ensuring that all project websites meet both USGenWeb requirements and CAGenWeb requirements. The State Coordinator may, at his or her discretion and at any time, appoint an Audit Panel to audit local-level and special project websites. While, typically, there is no financial obligation to any volunteer with The USGenWeb Project, The CAGenWeb Project is self-funded as far as domain name and server space. In the event that donations collected from project supporters do not meet the financial requirement for renewing domain name and/or server space, the financial burdon for renewal rests with the State Coordinator. Domain name renewal and server space renewal must be made for a period of not less than one (1) year and also must be made no later than 60 days prior to expiration. The State Coordinator is responsible for keeping an accurate accounting of all project donations and a record of same must be made available to any project volunteer that requests to view it. Assistant State Coordinator: An Assistant State Coordinator is appointed by the State Coordinator. It is the Assistant State Coordinator's responsibility to assist the State Coordinator in the administration of the project. In the event that the State Coordinator is unable or unwilling to perform his or her duties, it is the responsibility of the Assistant State Coordinator to take over all State Coordinator responsibilities, pro tem, until the State Coordinator returns or is replaced by election. The Assistant State Coordinator shall, at all times, have access to all records pertaining to the project, including a list of all passwords. In the event that the State Coordinator is unable or unwilling to perform his or her duties, administration of the project's domain name, server host, mailing list, and finances shall pass to the Assistant State Coordinator. The term of this position lasts only as long as the appointing State Coordinator's term. An Assistant State Coordinator may be removed or replaced at the discretion of the State Coordinator. The Assistant State Coordinator must be subscribed to the state mailing list. County Coordinator: A County Coordinator is appointed by the State Coordinator. There is no term limit for this position. A County Coordinator may be removed or replaced at the discretion of the State Coordinator. County Co-Coordinator: A County Co-Coordinator is appointed by the State Coordinator. There is no term limit for this position. A County Coordinator may be removed or replaced at the discretion of the State Coordinator. Assistant County Coordinator: An Assistant County Coordinator is appointed by the State Coordinator. There is no term limit for this position. An Assistant County Coordinator may be removed or replaced at the discretion of the State Coordinator. Webmaster: A Webmaster is appointed by the State Coordinator. There is no term limit for this position. A County Webmaster may be removed or replaced at the discretion of the State Coordinator. Special Project Coordinator: A Special Project Coordinator is appointed by the State Coordinator. There is no term limit for this position. A Special Project Coordinator may be removed or replaced at the discretion of the State Coordinator. Section IV: Responsibilities of County Vounteers All Coordinators must meet the following basic requirements: *Time to devote to properly maintaining a county website, *A basic knowledge of HTML page coding and design, access to a HTML Editor, or access to a reliable Webmaster, *A basic knowledge of FTP (File Transfer Protocol) and access to a FTP program, *Ability to respond to email messages from site visitors and from members of the administrative team in a timely manner. Monthly check-in is mandatory so we know you are still interested in maintaining your county(s). Failure to respond to the monthly roll call 3 months in a row may result in your county being returned to the 'Adoptable' Status. All County Coordinators, County Co-Coordinators, Assistant County Coordinators, and Webmasters must keep the State Coordinator apprised of his or her current email address at all times and must remain subscribed to the CAGenWeb Project mailing list through Google Groups. The list is a discussion forum. Messages may be received on a message-by-message basis or in digest form. All coordinators and webmasters must respond within ten (10) days to roll call whenever the State Coordinator initiates it. County Coordinators are responsible for maintaining a website for their county's project. The CAGenWeb Project hosts its local projects and special projects together on one server, which is administered by the CAGenWeb Project State Coordinator and Assistant State Coordinator(s), at no charge to local and special project Coordinators. Being a Coordinator or a Webmaster carries no financial obligation whatsoever. The CAGenWeb Project does, however, accept donations from willing supporters for the purpose of maintaining a domain name and web hosting. County Coordinators are responsible for adding actual data to their county's project website at least once each year. Project websites that only link to other external sites are not contributing to our mission and, therefore, are not acceptable. Each county website within The CAGenWeb Project generally is maintained by one individual volunteer. In some cases, duties are shared by more than one individual. The duties for each level project involvement are outlined below: County Coordinator (or County Co-Coordinator): The County Coordinator hosts one or more county within the State of California. The County Coordinator (CC) is responsible for creating and maintaining the county-level project website. The CC may recruit research and lookup volunteers. The county website offers general assistance to the researcher and usually has links to a general query or message boards or mailing list(s) that researchers can use. In addition to the above, the CC tries to establish working relationships with other county websites (archives, research, universities, etc.) and often coordinates transcription projects to benefit researchers in that county. In the case of County Co-Coordinators, each coordinator shares responsibility and control of the county website equally. County Coordinators need not reside within the county that they host, though resident status is preferred. Assistant County Coordinator: An Assistant County Coordinator (ACC) offers general assistance to the researchers (usually lookups) and/or provides others services for a County Coordinator, such as transcription of data. ACCs do not have direct access to county-level project websites, but they do contribute services and/or data to the website via the County Coordinator or County Webmaster. Assistant County Coordinators almost always reside within the county for which they volunteer services. Webmaster: A Webmaster manages a county-level website for a County Coordinator, but generally does not offer assistance to researchers or provide any other services. Webmasters need not reside within the county for which they volunteer web services. Webmasters work with County Coordinators and Assistant County Coordinators to publish county data to the county's website. Special Project Coordinator: A Special Project Coordinator (SPC) is responsible for creating and maintaining a special project website. The SPC may recruit research and lookup volunteers. The SPC tries to establish working relationships with County Coordinators and often coordinates transcription projects to benefit researchers in various counties. Section V: Website Requirements Index Page Links and Logos Every CAGenWeb Project county and special project website is required to display a USGenWeb Logo (see: Logo Page) prominently on its index page. Said logo must include a return link to The USGenWeb Project home page (http://usgenweb.org/). Every CAGenWeb Project county and special project website is required to display a CAGenWeb logo (see: Help Page) prominently on its index page. Said logo must include a return link to The CAGenWeb Project introduction page (https://cagenweb.org/) Specifically, no CAGenWeb Project website may display any logo, seal, flag, coat of arms, or any other insignia or symbol that is associated officially with any county, municipality, town, village, or unincorporated area within the State of California. Every CAGenWeb Project county website must link to the home pages of all neighboring counties on its index page. Including both USGenWeb and CAGenWeb logos and links on every page throughout a county website is advisable, but not required. Index Page Layout and Contents The CAGenWeb Project encourages the free expression in choosing appropriate themes, backgrounds and page graphics for county and special project websites. The use of regional photos and images are encouraged. All county and special project websites must refrain from using political statements and/or images. The use of inflammatory or derogatory statements or images will result in the immediate removal of the responsible project volunteer. When designing a county or special project website, volunteers are encouraged to be mindful of individuals with certain disabilities that might prevent them from seeing certain color combinations or of processing websites adequately that are heavily laden with images. The State Coordinator has the discretion to require certain changes if any website design if the website is determined to be inaccessible to individuals with certain disabilities. Nine Simple Tips is a helpful website that includes nine very simple ways to make websites disability-friendly. The page layout designed by the coordinator/webmaster is the property of the coordinator/webmaster and not The CAGenWeb Project, unless ownership has been granted to The CAGenWeb Project specifically. Any data on a website that has been donated specifically to The CAGenWeb Project belongs to The CAGenWeb Project and such data shall not be removed from the web server by any coordinator or webmaster upon exiting The CAGenWeb Project under any circumstances. Every CAGenWeb county and special project website shall include on its index page a brief introductory paragraph that includes the coordinator's name(s) and email link(s), an acknowledgment of any webmaster, if applicable, and acknowledgment of all past coordinators and webmasters for that county (see: Past Volunteers for your county or project). Also included must be the name and email link to the State Coordinator and each Assistant State Coordinator. Every CAGenWeb county website shall include on its index page a very brief history of its county. Every CAGenWeb Project county website shall maintain an area (such as a bulletin board) for queries and shall link to that area from its index page OR shall link from its index page to the Message Board at Ancestry.com for its specific county. Every CAGenWeb county and special project website shall include on its index page a date stamp that indicates when the index page last was updated. Every CAGenWeb county and special project website shall include on EVERY page throughout the site a footer with copyright and disclosure information (see: Help Page for samples) or a link to said copyright and disclosure information. The actual copyright and disclosure statements must be printed in full in the footer of the index page and a link to that copyright and disclosure information may be used on secondary pages. Links must point directly to the index page AND to a named anchor on the index page at the copyright and disclosure statements. Solicitation of funds for personal gain is forbidden. Solicitation of funds is defined as the direct appeal on any page of any of the websites comprising The CAGenWeb Project for funding to do research, to pay for personal server space, to do look-ups, etc. No website associated within the project may have a page that is dedicated to a specific person, company, or organization and its fee service(s). A county or special project website may, however, include a link to a personal page, company page, or organization page on which research services for reimbursement are offered. Additionally, a county or special project website may list research materials and/or services which may be for sale/hire, either by an individual, a genealogy society, or others. Fee-related listings and links shall not be on the index page of the county or special project website, but may be linked from any page other than the index page. Copyright Policy Compiled or transcribed facts that are in the public domain are considered discovered data and neither the author nor The CAGenWeb Project acquires copyright on those facts or records. The CAGenWeb Project will have to right to offer donated records online permanently without further permission. While abstracted or condensed records (records with an "added value" in some creative or useful way) may cause an abstraction or abridgment to become protected by copyright, although the original facts or records remain in the public domain, the mere transcription of records or putting a list of facts in alphabetical or chronological order is not considered sufficiently "creative" to warrant copyright protection. No part of any government work is subject to copyright. For example, the Federal Census is a work of the U.S. Government and no transcription of it can be subject to copyright. No copyrighted materials shall be used without the permission of the authors to post such information online. Materials from any publication copyrighted within the past 95 years shall not be allowed into any archive without written permission of the author or person/persons who own the copyright. Project volunteers should refrain from copying or posting material that is copyrighted. If you are unsure of an item's copyright, it is best to err on the side of caution and not post this information online. The CAGenWeb Project will not pay royalties to any person or organization and will not mediate any copyright infringement issues. Note: Submissions made to third party Message Board system are governed under the copyright policy by the administrators of said board systems. Until further notice, the copyright law observed by The CAGenWeb Project shall be the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976 . Website Contents The contents of each CAGenWeb Project county website will vary depending on the coordinator's knowledge and understanding of the region. The following elements are encouraged on all project websites: *Resource Site Links (libraries, archives, societies, official county sites, etc.) *Bibliography of county-related books *Maps *Listing of available lookup volunteers *Mailings lists and other county-specific resources * Area history and geography Active Status To fulfill the mission of The CAGenWeb Project, it is imperative that each CAGenWeb Project website be kept current. At a minimum, each county and special project website shall be updated once every 12 months. This update should include a check for any broken links, a change to the copyright date, and a check to ensure that contact information is current. County and special project websites that have not been updated for a period greater than 12 months may be declared abandoned and the coordinator(s) may be removed from the CAGenWeb Project in accordance with Section VI and Section VII of these policies. Section VI: Rights of County Volunteers No Coordinator or Webmaster may be removed without due process. No one associated with The CAGenWeb Project can seize, copy, and/or redistribute web pages from any other project website. Every project website is the sole property of the Coordinator/Webmaster except those pages that belong to The CAGenWeb Project itself (home page, county index, policy page, etc.). No one shall be expelled from the project without due process. No corrective action shall be issued with less than 30 days notice given to a Coordinator unless the situation is deemed serious (site is off-line or unavailable for a prolonged period of time). A Coordinator shall have no less than 30 days notice to make any corrective actions deemed appropriate by the State Coordinator and/or the Assistant State Coordinator(s). Any dispute between Coordinators shall be handled by the State Coordinator. Section VII: Removal of Volunteers Violation of any said policy (including those listed above but not limited to: use of inflammatory, derogatory materials or statements, political statements, pornographic materials or web links, site abandonment, refusal to abide by CAGenWeb Project policy, etc.) may result in the immediate removal of any volunteer from the project. Removal of Coordinators and Webmasters shall be at the sole discretion of the State Coordinator. Grievances against the State Coordinator may be filed with the USGenWeb Project Grievance Committee. State Coordinators are subject to removal by a 2/3 vote of the USGenWeb Project Advisory Board and a 2/3 vote of the local Coordinators within the state. A quorum of 75% of the local Coordinators shall participate in order for the vote to be binding. Assistant State Coordinator appointments become null and void upon removal of the appointing State Coordinator. |