Nan:2006-09-28-b8mb-update

From: skirv@big-8.org (Tim Skirvin)
Subject: [B8MB] State of Affairs, 28 Sep 2006
Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups, news.groups
Followup-To: news.groups
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2006 11:43:58 -0700

Recent Actions
--------------

In the last month, the Board has published a total of 17 RESULT postings,
creating two groups and removing 18.  The system seems to be working
fairly well, all told.  The actions that the Board has taken since its
last report:

        - Removed the second two rounds of INET groups (13 groups)
        - Created soc.men.moderated
        - Removed news.groups.reviews
        - Removed comp.org.fidonet
        - Removed misc.news.southasia and misc.news.bosnia
        - Created talk.current-events
        - Removed misc.news.east-europe.rferl

As of this writing, there are 11 proposals under discussion in news.groups.
               

Call For Proposals
------------------

As noted last month, the Board would like to officially encourage users to 
propose new, interesting groups throughout the Big-8 hierarchies.  The
Board and the newly-reformed Group Mentors would be happy to help you refine 
your ideas into an RFD; and if your proposal appears to have a good shot
at creating a well-named, well-used group, we are probably willing to give
your idea a chance.  Be creative!  Extra points go to proposals that promise 
to bring entirely new users to Usenet.


Board Membership
----------------

  http://www.big-8.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=policies:membership

The first term of office expires for Brian Edmonds, Martin Moleski, and
Tim Skirvin as of 01 Oct 2006 (Sunday).  All three members have invoked
their right to re-appointment, and will remain members of the Board until
at least April 1, 2008.

Tim Skirvin was also retained as Chair of the Board.

Also, as noted last month, the Board may seek to add new members in the   
near future.  Interested parties should contact the Board directly, at 
board@big-8.org.


news.answers and FAQ Maintainers Status
---------------------------------------

The *.answers team has recently revived the faq-maintainers mailing list,
and appears to be taking steps to fix the rtfm.mit.edu FAQ archives.
Those interested in helping with this process may want to subscribe to the
mailing list, as described in <slrnehihr5.l1j.n.g.boalch@compsoc.dur.ac.uk>:

> To subscribe to faq-maintainers, email majordomo@durham.ac.uk with the 
> command:
>
>    subscribe faq-maintainers
>
> in the Subject-header of your message.
>
> Once subscribed, to post to the mailing list the address to use is:
> 
>    faq-maintainers@durham.ac.uk


Volunteer Committees
--------------------

Our monthly reminder - the B8MB is attempting to put together several
volunteer organizations to handle individual aspects of the new group
creation system.  These groups are not currently fully populated, but they
have fairly clear (if general) goals.  And most importantly, they have
mailing lists, so it's possible to start getting them organized.

Please, if you are interested in helping out the Big-8, or Usenet as a
whole, please volunteer for one (or more) of these groups!  And if you
would like to help shape the future of the groups, and have the time to
help coordinate them, please contact the listed Coordinator.


  Usenet Volunteer Pollsters
  ==========================

  Coordinator    Tim Skirvin
  Mailing List   http://lists.big-8.org/mailman/listinfo/uvp/
  Description    http://www.big-8.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=workgroups:polltakers


  Usenet Volunteer Moderators
  ===========================

  Coordinator    Jonathan Kamens
  Mailing List   http://lists.big-8.org/mailman/listinfo/uvm/
  Description    http://www.big-8.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=workgroups:moderators


  Group Mentors
  =============

  Coordinator    Tim Skirvin
  Mailing List   http://lists.big-8.org/mailman/listinfo/group-mentors/
  Description    http://www.big-8.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=workgroups:mentors


  Deadwood Groups Task Force
  ==========================

  Coordinator    Dave Sill
  Mailing List   http://lists.big-8.org/mailman/listinfo/deadwood/
  Description    http://www.big-8.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=workgroups:deadgroups


		                    - Tim Skirvin (skirv@big-8.org)
                                      Chair, Big-8 Management Board
-- 
http://www.big-8.org/                           Big-8 Management Board
http://www.killfile.org/~tskirvin/        Skirv's Homepage <FISH>< <*>