GCD Board Votes - 2006

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January 2006

Restoration of GCD rights and access

MOTION: The Board of Directors of the GCD hereby instructs Jon Lovstad to immediately restore to RH all rights, privileges, and access to the GGD and all its components, including free and unmoderated access to all GCD discussion lists (excepting all Board lists), and to refrain from altering such access and privileges hereafter unless so instructed by this Board.

It appears as though this Motion never went to a vote. The name of the individual in question is abbreviated here but is available in full in the original archives (http://groups.google.com/group/gcd-board/files)

There were no votes in January.

February 2006

There were no votes or motions in February.

March 2006

Findings of the publisher/imprints subcommittee

MOTION: Findings in regards to the publisher/imprints subcommittee. If you've been following the discussions on the tech lists you'll see that the planning is already being geared towards our findings. Basically we have decided that we require a third field to further define publisher relationships. We determined that the structure should consist of the current publisher field (now referred to as the indicia publisher field) and the imprint field with a new field called the publisher house field. This new field would be used to connect related publishers, while allowing us to use the indicia publisher field to record what was in the book itself. For example a Marvel comics house field would then contain Atlas Comics, Marvel Comics and Bard as indicia publishers. We also all seem to feel that we can go no further than this at this time and would like to wait for the new database structure to be implemented before we were to go ahead and split publishers into houses. So I would like to propose that we make the findings of the subcommittee official GCD policy. I would also like to propose that the subcommittee be officially disbanded at this time and reconvened if/when the changes are made to the database. The subcommittee was chaired by Lou Mazzella and Matt Gore.

There were no votes in March.

April 2006

There were no votes or motions in April. A brief mention of calling on a vote for the Motion regarding publishers and imprints was put forward.

May 2006

VOTE: Publisher/Imprints Revision Subcommittee.

A vote on the Motion regarding publishers and imprints was called.

PUBLISHER/IMPRINTPUBLISHER/IMPRINT REVISION SUBCOMMITTEE:

1. FINDINGS OF THE SUBCOMMITTEE

9 votes: Yes, the findings of the subcommittee should be made official GCD policy 0 votes: No, they findings of the subcommittee should not be made official GCD policy 0 votes: Abstention

2. DISBANDING THE SUBCOMMITTEE

9 votes: Yes, the subcommittee can be officially disbanded 0 votes: Yes, the subcommittee can not be officially disbanded 0 votes: Abstention

The results are clear: 100% of all voters agrees on the findings and allows the sub-committee to be officially disbanded.

MOTION: TPB Sub-Committee: The proposal is by Board member Mike Nielsen:

Quote:"After some discussion on the editor list we are asking the board to approve a committee to try to form some decision on how TPB's will be dealt with in the GCD. Among the items we will be looking at: 1) Are Hardcover and Softcover issues the same issue or does the change of format warrant multiple issues and/or series to be created. 2) How to handle TPB's that become part of a series. For instance, items like the Cerebus Trade paperbacks (can be seen at http://www.comics.org/series.lasso?SeriesID=3216 ). Does each TPB warrant it's own series or are they lumped together in one index. 3) Possibly other topics that are revealed in the discussion of these topics.

I would like to see this committee have at least one member of the tech list who has in-depth knowledge of what they are planning for the new DB structure to make sure we are compliant with what they are doing." (vote was held near the end of May, with the results being announced later in June)

June 2006

Board endorsement of donations page and ads

MOTION: That the board endorse the donations page and ads. (written for the lasso website, the actual text was not part of the archived discussions)

Board endorsement of a resolution to seek incorporation

MOTION: That the board endorse a resolution stating that it is our intention to seek incorporation.

VOTE: TPB Subcommittee

All nine GCD Board members voted on the subject.

TPB SUB-COMMITTEE:

9 votes: Yes, we should set up a tpb sub-committee 0 votes: No, we should not set up a tpb sub-commitee 0 votes: Abstention

That is a 100% yes.

Mike Nielsen will follow up on this and may send out a status report.

Data Use Policy

MOTION: Data use policy. You can use GCD Data but you must credit the GCD and the original indexer as the source. This should be displayed prominently on our website under a link labeled something like "license for use" or "data use policy".

Superseded by:

Donations and related disclaimer regarding voting rights, also further incorporation discussions

MOTION: Donations & Disclaimer Since July 2006, Jon Lovstad is offcially accepting donations for the GCD project. Due to some concerns, he has added a disclaimer to the donations page: Quote:"NB! Please note that you are NOT subscribing to the GCD itself. The GCD is free of use online and a donation is not a kind of membership or other affiliation with the core project. A donation subscription is a recurring way of contributing to keep the site up and running. It does not come with any other rights or promises than that it will help keep the site running."Unquote

Please vote on the following subjects with an "X":

1. ACCEPTING DONATIONS:

( ) Yes, it should be possible for Jon Lovstad to accept donations for GCD related purpose

( ) No, it shuld not be possible for Jon Lovstad to accept donations for GCD related purpose

( ) Abstention


2. VOTING RIGHTS:

( ) Yes, we should make it an official policy that donators will not get membership of and/or voting rights it for the GCD.

( ) No, we should not make this an official policy, I have another idea: (please elaborate) _____________________________

( ) Abstention


This vote was called to a halt before it was finished due to some wording problems, but the result of the votes before it was halted was: VOTE: Donations & Disclaimer- Results

Hello Board,

deadline of the last vote was on July 23rd. Six GCD Board members voted on the subjects (Ray, Matthias, Lou, Mike, Will, Per). One of them only voted for the first part (Ray) - I count this a non-vote and not abstention.

1. ACCEPTING DONATIONS:

6 votes: Yes, it should be possible for Jon Lovstad to accept donations for GCD related purpose 0 votes: No, it should not be possible for Jon Lovstad to accept donations for GCD related purpose 0 votes: Abstention

2. VOTING RIGHTS:

5 votes: Yes, we should make it an official policy that donators will not get membership of and/or voting rights it for the GCD.

0 votes: No, we should not make this an official policy, I have another idea: (please elaborate) _____________________________

0 votes: Abstention

MOTION: "The GCD Board of directors is pleased to approve the inclusion of solicitation of donations to Jon Lovstad, re-paying him for his GCD-related expenses. Further, the Board approves the inclusion of small, non-intrusive ads on database search results pages."

MOTION: "Resolved, the Board of Directors of the Grand Comicbook Database intends to pursue creation of the Grand Comicbook Database Foundation, a non-profit, corporate entity to retain ownership of the Grand Comicbook Database. In order to create this entity, official by-laws will have to be written and a location for incorporation chosen."

MOTION: Wording of the disclaimer: "NB! Please note that you are NOT subscribing to the GCD itself. The GCD is free of use online and a donation is not a kind of membership or other affiliation with the core project. A donation subscription is a recurring way of contributing to keep the site up and running. It does not come with any other rights or promises than that it will help keep the site running." I propose that it be amended to read: "NB! Please note that you are NOT subscribing to the GCD itself. The GCD is free for use online and a donation is not a kind of membership or any other affiliation with the core project. At present, donation subscription is a recurring way of contributing to keep the site up and running. It does not entitle the donor to rights or privileges. It is merely an acknowledgment of the expenses incurred by our technical staff."

The above three Motions were called to Vote with a deadline of August 6, 2006.

August 2006

Approval of Jon Lovstad's Donations and Ads

Motion: "The GCD Board of directors is pleased to approve the inclusion of solicitation of donations to Jon Lovstad, re-paying him for his GCD-related expenses. Further, the Board approves the inclusion of small, non-intrusive ads on database search results pages."

9 Yes 0 No 0 Abstention

Voting Rights / Disclaimer on Website

Following is the language of the disclaimer at present:

"NB! Please note that you are NOT subscribing to the GCD itself. The GCD is free of use online and a donation is not a kind of membership or other affiliation with the core project. A donation subscription is a recurring way of contributing to keep the site up and running. It does not come with any other rights or promises than that it will help keep the site running."

Motion: I [Tony Rose] propose that it be amended to read: "NB! Please note that you are NOT subscribing to the GCD itself. The GCD is free for use online and a donation is not a kind of membership or any other affiliation with the core project. At present, donation subscription is a recurring way of contributing to keep the site up and running. It does not entitle the donor to rights or privileges. It is merely an acknowledgment of the expenses incurred by our technical staff."

9 Yes 9 No 9 Abstention note - something wrong here, not sure if the original vote was recorded wrong, need to check archives

Intention to Seek Incorporation

Motion: "I [Tony Rose] further move that the Board endorse a resolution stating that it is our intention to seek incorporation."

The Wording for the resolution is as follows: "Resolved, the Board of Directors of the Grand Comicbook Database intends to pursue creation of the Grand Comicbook Database Foundation, a non-profit, corporate entity to retain ownership of the Grand Comicbook Database. In order to create this entity, official by-laws will have to be written and a location for incorporation chosen."

9 Yes 0 No 0 Abstention

Data-Dump Committee

Motion: A committee should be established which prepares regular data-dumps from the current ONLINE INDEX database. This committee should come up with a suggestion regarding controlling the data flow and licensing. Details to be established by the committee which should be chaired by the data coordinator.

9 Yes 0 No 0 Abstention

100% approval for this one.

September 2006

VOTE: REMOVAL OF FMOF FROM THE DATABASE

Dear Board members,

following up the long discussions on the main list, we want to vote on the removal of non-comics issues of FMOF.

This proposal is by me (Matthias Hofmann). It was seconded by Mike Nielsen.

Please vote on the following subjects with an "X":

REMOVAL OF FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND

FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND is a magazine with little or no comic-content. It does not fall under the 50% comics rule, which is established in the GCD charter. A skeleton index of the whole series has been created in error.

1. Should the series (ID: 1425) be removed without exceptions?

( ) Yes ( ) No ( ) Abstention

2. If NO, should the series entry (ID: 1425) be revised and all issues without comics content be removed?

( ) Yes ( ) No ( ) Abstention

Deadline: September 10, 2006. Many people voted in September, but the results were not announced.

October 2006

RESULTS: REMOVAL OF FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND

FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND is a magazine with little or no comic-content. It does not fall under the 50% comics rule, which is established in the GCD charter. A skeleton index of the whole series has been created in error.

1. Should the series (ID: 1425) be removed without exceptions?

2 Yes 22.22 % 7 No 77.78 % 0 Abstention 0.00 %

2. If NO, should the series entry (ID: 1425) be revised and all issues without comics content be removed?

3 Yes 42.86 % 4 No 57.14 % 0 Abstention 0.00 % The result is a compromise between the two options. The majority wants to keep the series (77.78%), but 43% of them wants the series entry revised and all non-comics issues removed. This 43 % plus the two members, who want the whole series deleted, this is a clear tendency for the compromise option.

Tim Stroup, who triggered this, would like to remove the whole series. He wrote on October 13th in a personal e-mail to me:

"I see Famous Monsters is still up on the GCD web site. What was the result of the Board looking into it? Did they ever reach a conclusion? Are we going to take them down? I can do it if no one else wants to."

Now, I can tell him to take down the issues which are not indexed - unless somebody else wants to do it. We can also ask the editor group for help.

November 2006

(No votes or motions in November 2006)

December 2006

VOTE: MIKE CATRON'S PROPOSAL TO RE-START THE 2006 GCD BOARD ELECTION

Message-ID: <005301c71ae1$13fbeeb0$6402a8c0@Matthias>

Dear Board members,

following up on the e-mail tornado which went through the current election, we want to vote on the re-start of said election.

This proposal is by Mike Catron. It was seconded by me (Matthias Hofmann).

I moved the dates in the proposal by a week, since it is not possible to react that fast (less than 24 hours) between everybody involved and the different continents and countries. Time is of the essence, but we should allow a proper minimum timeframe.

Please vote on the following subjects with an "X":

RE-START OF THE 2006 GCD BOARD ELECTION

I (= Mike Catron) move that the 2006 Board of Directors election be re-started commencing Saturday, Dec. 16 at 12:01 a.m. and concluding Friday, December 22, at 11:59 p.m. (I am using U.S. East Coast time throughout in this message. These times should be translated to GMT.)

I further move that all votes be directed to Gregg Whitmore, who has volunteered to tally the votes, and that the Board direct that Gregg post the vote totals on the Main List no later than 5:00 p.m. Saturday, December 23.

On eligibility: Gregg will accept all votes from all parties and will provide a list of voters who participated (keeping confidential who they voted for) by the same deadline.

Candidates wishing to challenge any voter's eligibility will have 48 hours to do so. It shall be stipulated that anyone who voted in the previous election is eligible to vote in this one and his or her eligibility may not be challenged.

The full Board shall accept Gregg's tally, review and resolve all ballot challenges and any other irregularities, and certify the election results no later than 5:00 p.m. Saturday, December 30, 2006.

All voters who have already voted in this election shall be directed to re-submit their vote to Gregg. Matthias will forward the votes he has received by Saturday, Dec. 16 at 12:00 a.m. to Gregg. Those ballots will not be counted. Gregg will determine if anyone who voted previously in this election does not submit a new ballot within four days from the commencement of new balloting and provide all such persons names to the Board. The Board will designate someone who is not on the ballot to contact the voter(s) to insure that the voter understands that his or her initial ballot will not count and that he/ she still has time to cast a new ballot.

These procedures shall be publicized on the Main List immediately upon adoption.

I further move that we table all election/ballot reviews and discussions that do not have immediate relevance to this election.

END OF PROPOSAL

1. Should the Board proceed as described above?

( ) Yes ( ) No ( ) Abstention = 1. Should the Board proceed as described above?

8 Yes 88.9% 1 No 11.1% 0 Abstention 0.0%

This year's election will be re-started. Gregg Whitmore will count the ballots. Gregg is already informed. He asked for moving the deadline from December 30 to December 31, 2006. He works in shifts and the Saturday is a bad day for him to do a final tally. I think we should use common sense and that there is no need for another vote for this.

New Charter Proposal

This following "Motion" was proposed and sort-of seconded. It may never have gone to vote: Mike Nielsen (did Mike N. write the sort-of motion or the paragraph afterwards?)

BEGIN SORT-OF MOTION

Hello all,

I've been thinking about this lately with the election fiasco, and now the discussion on the tech list. I propose that once we get past the election, we form a committee to look over the charter and update the By-Laws/Charter to reflect the current status of the GCD.

I was going to wait until after the election was done to propose this, but the recent tech discussion prompted me to get this out there now. There is so much in the By-Laws/Charter that no longer really applies to the way things are done. Additions seem to have been made over time but are not gathered in one place for everyone to see.

I'd like to see the committee be made of Board and Non-Board members. It probably needs to be kept small (5 or 6 maybe). Should have representation from various factions, Board Members, Editors, Tech leaders, regular indexers. Select the group from volunteers and let them appoint a chairman and go to work.

This committee would come up with a rough draft of a new charter that the membership could look over and make suggestions. Eventually we would have a document we could present to the membership to vote upon.

This document would also be usefull when it comes time to Incorporate, which is an idea who's time has come, in my opinion. Once this is done it can replace the current charter on the website so the information is available to everyone.

END SORT-OF MOTION

If this was a motion, I second it. If it wasn't, I propose, as a formal motion, that the president name a Charter Revision Committee, consisting of six members, 4 from the board and 2 from the general membership. This committee will be charged with revising the Charter and drafting by-laws. The committee will report to the board on 1 March 2007.