Revision Adopted August 7, 2005 - Amended September 2006 and 7 May 2007

Basic Indiana County Page Requirements
[SC=State Coordinator, ASC=Assistant State Coordinator, CC=County Coordinator, IN=Indiana,
URL=Uniform Resource Locator]
 

1. Maintain your County website and keep it in good working order. All links should work and should be checked periodically. Your County site should be enhanced and updated over time by adding additional data and information. Actual data should be added no less than twice yearly. Seeking appropriate data submissions by users of your county website is encouraged. Examples of data to be added may include, but is not limited to: Vital Records Indexes, such as, births, deaths, marriages or divorces; Court records, such as, wills, probate, land, guardianships, delayed birth records; adoption, bible records, biographies, cemeteries (information about & burial records or tombstone readings), census indexes or transcriptions, church records, directories, funeral home records, diaries, military indexes, county histories, newspaper articles, business records, naturalizations, obituaries, old settlers, & land owners. Visitors should have an easy way to contact you such as an email link or submission form.

2. Maintain active links to INGenWeb (http://www.ingenweb.org/) and USGenWeb (http://www.usgenweb.org) pages and display INGenWeb and USGenWeb Logo on the top half of their main, or entrance, page or be visible when the main page loads without scrolling down.

3. Link on your main page and your reference page to a means of posting and reading Queries for your county. For a listing of possible query systems, please see Suggestions for Providing a Query System.

4. Maintain a reference page to guide visitors to resource materials. This should include addresses to area libraries, courthouses and other local resources and may include names and email addresses to volunteers willing to do research, and a local bibliography. Additional local information is a plus.

5. The link to the State Coordinator should be changed no later than one week after notification of change, to the SC's preferred e-mail link. The County Coordinator's e-mail address will be posted in a prominent position, easily identifiable by visitors (may be a graphic or submission form instead of a link). Visitors interested in participating in the InGenWeb project should be referred to the State Coordinator and/or Orphan County, or http://ingenweb.org/opps.htm - Becoming an INGenWeb Volunteer through hyper-links on each County website.

6. All main index county pages will have a search engine and that the search engines be kept up to date. It will be up to the individual CC to decide which search engine he/she will use. [Added by a vote of the CCs 7 May 2007. (81.48% of voting CCs in favor)]

7.  Aside from these requirements, the design and content of the pages are up to the CC.

7.     Copyright Infringement

SEE: USGenWeb Copyright Policy

Coordinator Standards And Policy

8.     Procedure for new county coordinators

As new county coordinators adopt INGenWeb county pages and place them on the web, the pages will be checked by the Website Evaluation/Assistance Committee, for the required links/logos, and to be sure your links work. They will let you know when your site has been visited. If there are any problems with links or any required links/logos missing, you will be advised so you may make any changes or corrections. Post a message to the SC or ASC when you are ready for your page to be checked. If you need help with your pages, this committee will also assist you with html help, finding the correct logos and finding web space if needed.

Subscription to the INGenWeb mailing list (INGenWeb@googlegroups.com) is required for all INGenWeb County Coordinators, per the USGenWeb Bylaws. Go to http://groups.google.com/group/ingenweb?hl=en&pli=1click on "Join this group" and follow the directions to subscribe. This group is open only to INGenWeb Coordinators.

9. Procedures - Election of State Coordinator

Elections for Indiana's State Coordinator (SC) will be held from August 1 to 7 each year, with nominations being open from July 15 - 30. The term will be for one year beginning on August 15th. The newly elected SC shall select an Assistant State Coordinator (ASC).

A State Coordinator who resigns (or is removed or unable to serve) will be replaced by the ASC immediately until an election is held. The election to commence 30 days following the resignation (removal or other inability to serve), with nominations being made during the 2 weeks following the resignation (removal or other inability to serve).

10. Who is eligible to vote?

One vote is allowed per county, but only one vote per individual. So if you host more than one county, you have one vote. And if there is more than one person maintaining a county, one must be selected by them to be the one eligible to vote.

11. Committees

a. The State Coordinator is empowered to designate committees, and appoint committee members from a pool of volunteer candidates. The State Coordinator will appoint the following standing committees.

  • Grievance committee

  • Website Standards/Assistance Committee

  • Elections Committee

b. Rules and procedures for the committees will be developed by the committees, and submitted to the State Coordinator for input and endorsement, and may be referred to the membership as needed for discussion and ratification. Ratification is by majority of members voting during a specified voting period.

c. No candidate for office shall serve as a member of the election committee. An alternate shall be appointed (by the State Coordinator) for the term of the election where the committee member is a candidate for office.

12. Grievance Procedures

A coordinator who is not meeting minimum requirements (as outlined in "basic requirements" (above) will be contacted by the SC or ASC to ask the CC to remedy the omission or problem. Two weeks from the time of this contact by the SC/ASC shall be allowed for corrections in order to meet minimum requirements.

In the case of non-communication of a CC with the project and/or visitors to the site, the SC or ASC will contact the CC to mediate any problems that may exist, (such as health or family problems) and determine ability to proceed. The SC shall ensure that a monthly roll call is conducted and that all of the County Coordinators have responded. Roll call will take place on the mandatory mail list. The State Coordinator will appoint one County Coordinator to manage the roll call each month on the mandatory County Coordinator mail list. All County Coordinators will be responsible for responding to the monthly roll call.

The SC will bring before the grievance committee any problem with a CC who the SC feels needs to be removed from the project. A CC may appeal to the grievance committee and is encouraged to do so. The committee will make the final decision on whether the CC is removed.

Procedures that may be taken when removing a CC, are appointing a new CC (temporary or permanent) and removing links from the State Pages that point to the removed CC's County Pages. The new CC will create his or her own County Pages as defined above, retaining any posted queries and other data donated by volunteers to the removed CC's site. Permission must be obtained from the removed CC to copy and use any information or data created by the CC contained on the pages residing on the county site. Permission should be obtained to continue using donated material from other volunteers, if possible. Lookup volunteers should be contacted for permission to continue advising of their services. Once permissions are received the new CC should construct new pages (or a new site) unless permission has been obtained to re-use the previous CC's pages. The removed CC should be requested to turn over control of any Mail Lists or Automated Query Systems to the new CC or SC.

13. Amendments to Guidelines and Procedures:

Members of INGenWeb may submit changes to these guidelines by endorsing a change with (5) five sponsoring county representatives (no two from the same county) for a general vote by the membership. To change the guidelines 2/3rds of those voting must vote in favor of the change, OR the Guidelines committee may render a new annual version, as directed by the State Coordinator, (annual reviews if unchanged, may be accepted with out a vote).

Revision language was prepared by committee members Jeff Scism, Darlene Anderson, Dee Pavey, Sharon Craig, Cheryl Trowbridge-Miller and Debby Beheler and adopted August 7, 2005.