My Vision|Qualifications|About Me|
Hi everyone, my name is Barbara Lavin, most of my friends call me Barb. Welcome to my campaign page for the NE/NC Region County Coordinator Representative to the Advisory Board of the USGenWeb Project.
When you vote for me, I will take the job seriously and represent you to the best of my abilities and fight for the rights of the CC's in my region.
My vision for USGW I believe very strongly the backbone of USGenWeb is the County Coordinator. Without their efforts there would be no USGW. They are to be commended for their time, not ridiculed. I believe every CC has a right to be heard, should be allowed a chance to file a grievance, should know they matter and be treated with the utmost respect. If we continue to think the CC's don't matter or have no rights, we will lose a lot of valuable people who have volunteered countless hours of time, effort, energy, money and family. I believe acknowledging them is the least of many things we should and can do.
I believe we need to have an open board where meetings can and should be available to the members. This can be accomplished by holding the meetings in an open forum such as in mIRC or by some other open forum meeting. The only time a board meeting should be in private is when they are meeting to disqualify one of their own. At which time the CC's should be allowed to renominate and pursue voting for a new candidate.
I believe the CC's should have a chance at recalling ANY candidate. No person is above the by-laws and all people should be held accountable for the same actions. While I understand we all have different needs, and desires; we are all people with the same goal and no one person is better than another.
The NC and the board should lead by example and should hold themselves to a higher, tougher standard and should be aware they are setting not just an impression, but also a tone and an attitude. If the board and the NC do not show respect to the CC's, then why should the CC's show respect to them?
Having never served on the USGW Advisory Board, it is hard to imagine what I can accomplish in 2 years. My hope is to be as honest with the CC's and myself as I can. I know USGW can be a place we can be proud of. I know we can make USGW into a place where people are treated fairly and voices can be heard. I look forward to the privilege of being your elected NE/NC AB member.
My Qualifications I've been involved with USGenWeb since 1998. As a researcher I watched as USGW developed and was happy to see my home state had an opening in a county. The county was my second choice; little did I know it would be the county from which many of my Pennsylvania ancestors would come from. That ‘misfortune’, became a gold mine and I've been proud to host it ever since. Schuylkill County (pronounced School - kill or School - kull) has grown from a site with hardly any information to a place I affectionately refer to as my mountain. I believe I have a great working relationship with my contributors and I am proud of our site.
The county I originally wanted in PAGenWeb was Carbon County. I had family from the county and at the time of "applying for" the county, Carbon County was my home county. Later an opportunity arose where I could host Carbon county and I am proud to be the coordinator.
I believe I am doubly blessed. I am able to host both my first and second choice counties in Pennsylvania. What could be better? Actually, I found out how much. I decided I would also help out in the USGW Archives. In the Archives I am the file manager for Schuylkill, Berks, Carbon, and Lancaster Counties.
I believe being the file manager gives me a unique perspective to the reasoning behind why people would send information to the Archives. I believe all information is valuable, and one should use every avenue at their disposal to ensure, as much information is available to the researcher, and to you as possible.
My experience as a leader inside USGW includes serving as the Special Projects Coordinator for Florida GenWeb. Besides helping as the SPC of Florida, I also am the coordinator for Union County; a relatively new county in the world of counties.
Outside of USGW, I am the NC for Wales GenWeb, where I have the privilege to lead some really great people. I also am on the Advisory Board for Ireland Genealogy Projects, where fellow Northwest Plains SC Nominee Don Kelly is the National Coordinator. Besides serving on the board in IGP, I also run County Kildare and County Mayo Ireland.
About Me Outside of genealogy, my family, Sean, Jessica and my husband, Steve are very important to me. My hope is I will instill the same sense of family into my children, which my great grandmother instilled in me. I am a stay at home mom; a domestic engineer if you will, which means people think I have a great deal of time on my hands, I don't. I manage my time and will do so with this. As is everyone in this community I am a volunteer, I just happen to be a mom too.
I began doing genealogy as part of the First Class Badge (equivalent to the Eagle Scout) and became hooked. I managed in the days before the internet to trace part of my paternal side back to the 1300's. I have a strong English ancestry on one side and fortunately, most of my family has been researched more times then I can count. My other lines are German and Irish, and fortunately have been somewhat easy to trace as well. Like any other genealogist I have been bit by the bug and enjoy uncovering rocks, breaking through brick walls, and finding more family. 'Tisnt this hobby grand?
Besides being a coordinator inside USGW and leading outside USGW , I lead my county into contributing. For example, when I get fired up about ideas I try them out on Schuylkill County. They always rise to the occasion and are always willing to take a challenge.
Many years ago I was the file manager for USGW Census 1; I, like many others, received a letter from Brian Leverich saying if we didn't begin putting the census on-line we would soon see our contributors going to other sites to view records such as the census. This prompted me to coordinate my contributors in to helping to get the entire Schuylkill County census on-line. I am very proud to say we've achieved getting all of 1820, most of 1830 and huge pieces of other years including the 1890 directory on-line.
I also started projects within the county in collecting names of our coal miners, our rail roaders and many more databases. Since genealogy and history go hand in hand we have many places of input for all of the contributors.
Doing genealogy is a hobby, one I've grown to love and wonder what water I drank which made me feel many times as if I am chasing my tail. However, I am glad I began this endeavor. Some wonderful things have come out of it. I've met some great people who I am proud to call friend, and I am about to be the newest member of the Bucks County DAR chapter.
By learning how to design web pages and make graphics I am now managing other pages which are not genealogy pages - such as the Bucks County DAR, my church, Line of Battle and even my own homepage.
Thank you for stopping by, if you agree with my ideas; I hope you'll vote for me to be your voice and representative in the Advisory Board.
Barb Lavin
If you agree with me, then you may also agree with these candidates:
Sandra Newman Sanchez - NW/Plains Rep
Gloria Holbrook - SEMA Rep
